Now that our renovations are complete (more or less), we will be showing a selection of recent works by gallery artists in our newly expanded space through the summer months. Come see our exciting new space and, more importantly, the artwork.

April 18 to May 17, 2008. Opening reception: Friday, April 18 at 7pm. Since antiquity, the flower has been used as a symbol for beauty, loss, and the fleetingness of life. In this body of work, Adams has updated this usage by drawing on modern drafting film or Mylar. This translucent surface has then been backed with Stonehenge artist’s paper, on which mixed media washes and text have been placed. The resultant faintness of these background elements serves to further symbolize the gradual fading of memory.

Last Exhibition: A Group exhibition by some of Nova Scotia's truly exceptional craftspeople. Also - Small Paintings by Christopher Webb. October 26 to November 26.

Jeanne Aisthorpe-Smith was born in England in 1945. After studying graphic design in the 1980's, she moved to the west coast of Canada to further her studies,and graduated from the Victoria College of Art in 1995. Since the late 1990's, Jeanne has focused her attention on landscapes, predominantly from her vicinity in Nova Scotia's beautiful Annapolis valley. Her paintings combine vibrant and often whimsical colour with traditional architecture found in rural settings, resulting in a unique and unexpected feeling of balance and harmony.

Susan Coolen is a fine art photographer based in Montréal, Québec. She was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1955 and graduated with a Bachelor of Design from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1977. She moved to Montreal in 1991 to pursue a BFA in photography at Concordia University, followed by an MFA in photography at Columbia College, Chicago. Her work has been included in solo and group exhibits in Canada, the United States and Europe. These include the two-person exhibit 'Beyond Science' at Metrònom in Barcelona, Spain, 2004-05, 'Shifting Sites' with the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography and the National Gallery of Canada's "On Tour" program 2000/2003, and the international event «Encontros con la image» in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, 2000. As well she has had recent exhibits in Pittsburgh, Toronto, Vancouver, Kitchener, and Montreal.

Originally from Germany, Horst Deppe studied under Walter Kubbernuss. Since moving to Nova Scotia in the 1950's, he has taught and studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. He has an impressive record of international exhibitions and is represented in numerous collections. Horst's watercolours reflect his fascination with the bogs and coastal regions of Nova Scotia, while his woodblocks reference a narrative expressive European tradition.

Terry Havlis Drahos has had a diverse career in the visual arts for nearly 25 years, as an artist, educator, graphic designer, and gallery director. Her own art practice is strongly rooted in a passion for gestural figure drawing. In recent years, her work has adapted the spontaneity of figure drawing into non-representational compositions, rendered in oil and encaustic. In 2005,the gallery hosted a very well-received exhibition of this work, entitled Elemental Ratio, which was based upon the ancient Golden Rectangle, or Golden Ratio, thought to be the most aesthetically pleasing shape. Though this work was non-representational, the use of colour, light, and format are clearly influenced by the scenic landscape where she lives in the Annapolis Valley.

Randy Engelberg studied fine art and filmmaking in Montreal and New York before attending the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1986. Randy has had an innovative career in theatre, art and education. Since 1990, her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries across Canada. Her imaginative work is distinctive not only in its unique usage of materials, but for its broad range of references to design, literature and social commentary and its often striking usage of colour and form. Randy lives and creates art from her pink house and studio in Halifax.

Opening - September 21 at 7 pm. LEYA EVELYN and Danish artist ELIN NEUMANN show their respective approaches to "abstract" painting September 21 to October 13, 2007

Born in Washington, D.C. and educated at both Brown and Yale Universities in the United States, Leya Evelyn moved to Nova Scotia in the early 1980’s after having lived and worked for some time in New York City.Evelyn’s paintings show her passionate concern with pure forms, abstract shapes, and intense colours. The powerfully rich and deep colours that dominate her paintings and the loving, painterly application of those colours demonstrate the artist’s abiding interest in the techniques and effects of abstract painting.Leya is internationally recognized for her work.

Renée's first art instructor was her father, well-known painter Tom Forrestall. She holds a BFA and BA in Art Education from NSCAD, where she now is an instructor in anatomy and historical and critical studies. Her diverse and accomplished background encompasses traditional painting techniques, including a variety of methods used in mediaeval icon painting. Her work has been widely exhibited and collected in Canada and internationally. Renée's current body of work emerges from her long interest in video imagery. The paintings, which depict the frozen video images of the likes of Jane Eyre and Joan of Arc, simultaneously blend her classical abilities and interests with subjects made contemporary by their mainstream, technological source.

Bob Hainstock has worked in Atlantic and Western Canada as an artist for more than thirty years. He is a fulltime printmaker, painter, and arts instructor. He teaches at Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and in many private workshops. His work is represented in galleries throughout Canada and the U.S. He is primarily concerned with landscape fictions and the potentials of texture and colour. He explores the contrasts and frictions between rural and urban cultures, and between natural and man-made environments. His studio techniques include a full range of painting, mixed media, collagraphs, woodblock, etchings, monoprints and experimental processes involving rust oxidation and hand-made papers from Fundy seaweed

Paul Hannon was born in the Finger Lakes area of New York State. He has a Bachelor of Arts from the State University of New York at Oswego, where he majored in fine arts. Paul’s training focused on drawing, painting, and printmaking, with special emphasis on the areas of etching, screen printing, and lithography. Paul went to New York City where he studied painting with Elaine DeKooning and Jack Beal. Paul also studied watercolour media with Diana Kurtz at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Paul exhibited in California during the 1970s and taught graphics at Venture Gallery in San Diego. He has done edition printing for several artists. After immigrating to Canada in 1989, Paul renewed his interest in drawing and painting. He has since become well-known in the Maritimes and beyond for his original oil paintings, watercolours, and drawings. He is represented in numerous private and public collections and has been published in many periodicals and books.

Eve Hartling was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia in 1966. In 1991, she began the fine arts program at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design where she studied under Gerald Ferguson and Garry Kennedy. After NSCAD, Eve’s last year of study was spent at Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. In the early 1990’s, Eve was a professional musician in the band Jale. The band had major releases and toured extensively in the United States, Europe, and Canada. While in the band, Eve worked on the graphic design of their album artwork and on art direction for music videos. She was nominated for a Juno award in 1997 for her album cover designs. After exhibiting in group shows in Halifax over a number of years, she had a very successful solo show in 2005. Her most recent paintings offer “a fragmented viewpoint of the subject matter (mainly plants and trees)……the view offered is broken or cut off – similar to ( the view) from a window.”

Cameron Graves Hayden studied art and art education at Princeton, McGill, and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Her paintings reflect a classical training in the representation of the body and a physical and aesthetic response to her relationship with the world around her. She is an award-winnning painter who has exhibited extensively in Canada.

During a career that now spans 30 years, Halifax expressionist painter Susan Hubley has earned a fine reputation for her exuberant usage of colour, fluid sense of form, and distinctive compositions. As a young artist, Susan studied with many well-known Nova Scotian painters, including John Cook, Anthony Law, and Jane Shaw. Her floral and landscape subjects also reflect the influences of French masters Henri Matisse and Raoul Dufy, as well as great Canadian legend Tom Thomson. Her work has been widely collected in Canada, the United States, and abroad.

Chris Joyce has used a variety of art-making approaches since his graduation from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1989. He is known for his work as a printmaker, a furniture designer and maker, a graphic designer, a painter, and a mixed media artist. The diversity of his interests do not preclude excellence, as his work in each of these areas is found in collections world-wide. Over time, Chris’ interest has moved from the process-orientated forms of lithography, concrete and metal, into painting. He brings to painting his deep interest in the qualities of material. His current images explore both aerial landscapes, and explorations that emerge from his graphic design background. His ingenuity in the visual arts has been instrumental in the development of a successful high-end interior furnishings business.