PAST EXHIBITS

As Immense as the Sky

A single subject, dressed in ornate costumes or wielding intricate, handmade props, stands alone in a vast, empty landscape. It feels dreamlike, otherworldly, magical. From the shores of Newfoundland to the Saskatchewan prairies and between, Canadian artist Meryl McMaster seeks out these desolate places and poses her lone model for her photography series As Immense as the Sky, which is being shown this fall at Nelson Museum, Archives, & Gallery.

Turning Pages

Turning Pages documents the history of the Nelson Library and its 100 years of service in the name of community and literacy. In the 100 years since the founding of the Nelson Public Library much has changed—and will continue to change in an increasingly digital era while, as a society, we need more than ever to find ways to connect and engage with one another. Documenting that change in a comprehensive exhibition allows us to celebrate how far we’ve come as well as offer a thoughtful lens to the future. Additionally, research and development for the exhibition will support the production of a companion history book that will be made available free of charge to museum and library archives in BC. The addition of commissioned illustrations created by a local professional who works worldwide, and that may be used in both exhibition and book, adds a unique thematic touch.

Tom Thomson Centennial Swim

On July 8th 2017, Paul Walde swam the length of Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park on the 100th Anniversary of Canadian Painter Tom Thomson’s death. The swim, a site-specific and temporally specific event, was used as an opportunity for exploring and understanding this landscape and history through performative experience. The duration of the piece was determined by the length of the lake (3kms) and the artist’s ability to navigate it. The swim was accompanied by a series of interconnected events: a brass band with a mandolin soloist performing a new long form music composition by Walde, three synchronized swimming routines a various points along the route, and a flotilla of canoes carrying the band. The work primarily exists in two forms, that of the event itself and an audio/video work based on the footage of the event. The Nelson Museum will be the first gallery to premiere the video and score as an installation.

2020 Members’ Show and Sale

The ‘Members’ Show and Sale’ exhibition events are excellent opportunities to get a visual measure of our membership and reciprocate the support that our members give us as an organization.

Kootenay News: Read all about it

Kootenay News presents the story of Nelson’s print media, from a weekly hand-cranked paper to a bustling daily with a circulation larger than the city it served, to today’s online publications. It looks at pre-eminent figures in Nelson’s newspaper history, including John Houston, Bert Currie, Francis Payne, Art Gibbon, Doris Bradshaw, and Nelson Becker, along with notable journalists who got their start here or passed through town en route to prominence elsewhere. Featuring original pages from each decade, along with photographs and ephemera, it will look at the changing role of newspapers in the community and changes in the industry itself — both technologically and journalistically.

Gu Xiong: The Unknown Remains

Gu Xiong’s practice centers on the creation of a hybrid identity arising from the integration of different cultural origins and migrations. The Unknown Remains explores patterns of global human migration and capitalism through a local Kootenay lens.

Medium of Exchange

Memory is vital to our understanding of our lives, yet flawed, misremembered and coloured with individual experience. Forgotten and confused details are what create the absence of content in Brenda Draney’s artistic style. Art is an offering and Brenda Draney uses the canvas as a Medium of Exchange between the viewer and what is on view; fragments of memories which commemorate people and places and incidents which resonate with powerful aplomb for all the indistinct edges. 

Beyond Recognition: Aboriginal Abstraction

Beyond Recognition: Aboriginal Abstractions adds another chapter to the story of Indigenous art in the Pacific Northwest and across the country. The art showcased was created by 11 artists past and present; from across the country and spanning decades. Bob Boyer, Benjamin Chee Chee, Robert Houle, Alex Janvier, Katia KaK’wa Kurtness, Ann McLean, Kimowan Metchewais, Susan Point, Rick Rivet, Helen Wassegijig and Linus Woods are renowned, celebrated artists using the canvas to open dialogue and contribute to the evolving idea of Aboriginal Art in North America.

The Tablets

With an international reputation for large scale sculpture spanning more than four decades, The Tablets represents the Saskatoon-based sculptors’ first full-fledged gallery installation. The Tablets presents a collection of metal assemblages of richly textured bronze and brass panels constructed from an array of salvaged materials, an homage to memory and monumentality, language and culture.  

Kiltie Band: 100 Year Anniversary