Open Horizons – August 1 to 20, 2017

Open Horizons, an Exhibition

Location: Cultural Foundation of Tinos, Tinos, Greece
Length: August 1 to 20, 2017
Opening: August 1, 2017, 20:00
Participating artists: Ron Moppett, Allyson Glenn, and Colleen Heslin
Curator: Dr. Caterina Pizanias

Opening hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. –
Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m.

The aim of Open Horizons is to introduce the Greek public to the works of three established Canadian artists—Ron Moppett, Allyson Glenn, and Colleen Heslin. The exhibition is a celebration of the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation (1867–2017) and of the Canadian Embassy’s presence in Greece for the last 75 years.
All three artists are at the forefront of Canada’s artistic community. They push forward the taken-for-granted boundaries and hierarchies of art, a fact that is evident in the reception of their much-awarded practices. In visually innovative ways they speak of and depict the physical vastness of the Canadian landscape. They favour covering the canvas, at times extending the works onto the floor, creating powerful installation works that tell stories of a world in a state of flux; works that can withstand and stand up to the challenges of the Aegean Sea—endless blue horizon, relentless light, and above all, myriad stories, which are buried in its depths and washed up on its shores.

Ron Moppett has an uncanny ability to assemble bold colours and a variety of materials and objects (some of high and pop culture, some he has collected over the years) into paintings and installations that both invite and challenge viewers. His thematic cues are culled from his personal history and travels, art history, and current events. Over the years, Ron has demonstrated his penchant for exploring differences through his use of space—differences between interior and exterior, shelter and refuge; differences that are at the forefront of Greek culture.
Allyson Glenn is equally bold in her choice of colours, strong brushwork, and thick and quick application of paint and sensitivity, with a sharp eye for environmental mishaps. She makes figurative painting timely once more, and a joy to behold. She builds on the long tradition of landscape art that features the prairies with a contemporary twist; and although she depicts landscapes in ruins, when looking at her works, viewers experience moments of extraordinary beauty that prompt insights into current ecological crises.

Colleen Heslin has turned painting traditions on their heads. Her abstract works appear as if painted but are made of canvas used as a backdrop that she has dyed, rinsed, stained, sewed, and stretched to mesmerizing results. These new pieces play tricks on our ways of seeing and thinking about painting’s history. Within the borders of her canvases, she combines spaces, colours, and forms to release an infinite number of narratives on labour and aesthetics.

Cultural Foundation of Tinos
Director of the Cultural Foundation of Tinos: Markos Vidalis
www.itip.gr
info@itip.gr