art shows and exhibitions

Cross Cut exhibition at Scarborough’s Cedar Ridge Creative Centre Gallery

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Rob Niezen’s exhibition of linocuts reflecting on traditional songs from Ontario with a contemporary perspective will be showing at Cedar Ridge Creative Centre Gallery in Scarborough.

Traditional music came to Ontario with European settlers. Lyrics and tunes were adapted to local experiences and the personal preferences of the players, which offer a reflection of society at different moments in history.  The underlying themes are of a timeless nature, as they deal with human existence: love, deception, politics, war, immigration, work, leisure, murder, death, etc. Folk songs make global issues accessible to everyone, as they are created and sung by real people telling real human stories.

Cross Cut invites viewers to reflect on the lives of Canadians from the past and today; superficially things have changed, but the human conditions for people now are not that different from 100 or 200 years ago. Rob Niezen’s linocuts use both the traditional method of carving the material, and contemporary and experimental ways of mark making, including laser engraving and etching.

Cross Cut is a multi media project that also includes a songbook with linocut illustrations and a music album. The Cross Cut songbook covers a selection of song lyrics, their history and basic chord progressions. Historian and musician Dr. Allan Kirby and Rob Niezen are co-producers of the book. Traditional music group Backwoodsmen created contemporary arrangements for the songs, and recorded a double CD with twenty-three songs.

Cedar Ridge Creative Centre
225 Confederation Drive
Scarborough, ON M1G 1B2

A Holiday Art Market at Colborne Street Gallery

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Rob Niezen is present with four oil paintings at Colborne Street Gallery’s A Holiday Art Market which opens Saturday, November 16th with a reception from 2-4 pm.
The gallery is filled with original, handmade art with a focus on work $400 and under. This special event runs until December 23, 2024.
Check out available artworks here. Check it out in real at 36 Colborne Street, Fenelon Falls, ON  K0M 1N0

Cross Cut at Art Gallery of Bancroft

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The Art Gallery of Bancroft hosts the Cross Cut exhibition from September 4 to September 28, 2024, with an opening reception on September 6, starting at 7:30 pm. The Art Gallery of Bancroft is at 10 Flint Avenue, Bancroft.

Cross Cut is a series of linocuts reflecting on traditional songs from Ontario with a contemporary perspective. The exhibition aims to connect our recent history and today’s society, and invites viewers to reflect on what’s happening with them and around them. Has life improved, or is progress only on a materialistic level? Folk songs make global issues accessible to everyone, as they are created and sung by real people telling real human stories. 

Rob Niezen thanks the Ontario Arts Council and the Province of Ontario for their support.

Cross Cut at Museum Lennox & Addington, Napanee

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The exhibition Cross Cut, Folk Songs of Early Ontario, featuring a series of linocuts created by Rob Niezen can be viewed at the Museum of Lennox & Addington from February 3 until May 25, 2024. There will be an opening reception on  February 20, 2024, starting at 7:00 PM (doors open at 6:30 PM). You can find the museum at 97 Thomas Street East, Napanee, Ontario.
Rob Niezen thanks the Ontario Arts Council and the Province of Ontario for their support.

Temiskaming Art Gallery hosts Cross Cut

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After Minden and Lindsay the Cross Cut exhibition is moving up north to the Temiskaming Art Gallery. Special to the area is the visual interpretation of The Cobalt Song:

You may talk about your cities and all the towns that you know,
With trolley cars and pavements hard and theatres where you go.
You can have your little auto and carriages so fine,
But it’s hob-nail boots and a flannel shirt in Cobalt town for mine.

The exhibition opens on Sunday, September 24 and runs until November 3, 2023. Artist talks and presentations on Saturday, October 14 from 1 to 4 PM. You’ll find the gallery at 325 Farr Drive, Haileybury, Ontario

Kawartha Art Gallery in Lindsay hosts Cross Cut exhibition

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Cross Cut is a series of linocuts reflecting on traditional songs from Ontario with a contemporary perspective. Rob Niezen has selected 23 songs and placed the original narrative in a contemporary context by ‘crosscutting’. Crosscutting is a technique borrowed from film editing used to illustrate a narrative action that happens in several places at the same time, or in one place at different times. The exhibition aims to connect our recent history and today’s society, and the issues we face as citizens of Ontario and Canada, and invites viewers to reflect on what’s happening with them and around them. Has life improved, or is progress only on a materialistic level? Folk songs make global issues accessible to everyone, as they are created and sung by real people telling real human stories.
Rob Niezen gratefully acknowledges the support from the Ontario Arts Council.

Opening reception on Saturday July 15, 2023, from 2:00 to 4:00pm at Kawartha Art Gallery, with the artist talk at 2:30 pm.
The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.
190 Kent Street West, Second Floor, Lindsay ON K9V 2Y6

Cross Cut exhibition at Agnes Jamieson Gallery in Minden

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The second Cross Cut exhibition at Agnes Jamieson Gallery runs from May 4 to July 1, 2023.

Started, in 2019 and continued into 2022, Cross Cut is a series of twenty four linocuts that are a contemporary response to traditional songs (circa 1800-1940) collected by CBC’s Edith Fowke in rural Ontario during the 1950s and ’60s. The underlying themes of these songs are of a timeless nature, as they deal with human existence: love, deception, politics, war, immigration, work, leisure, murder, death, etc. The linocuts use both the traditional method of carving the material, and more recent and experimental ways of mark making, including laser engraving and etching. The work invites viewers to reflect on society in the past and today; superficially things have changed, but the human conditions now are not that different from 150 years ago.

Check it out at 176 Bobcaygeon Rd, Minden, ON.

 

45th Annual Wayzgoose Book Arts Fair

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Celebrate the art of the hand-made books, printmaking, bookbinding, paper making and marbling and other artisans  during the 45th Annual Wayzgoose Book Arts Fair at the Grimsby Public Art Gallery. Rob Niezen will be participating in person for the first tiem with his Cross Cut and Heads&Tales prints. Over forty exhibitors display their work, provide live demonstrations in traditional book arts practices, and share their expertise on Saturday, April 29, 2013 from  9 am to 5 pm.

Grimsby Public Art Gallery
18 Carnegie Lane
Grimsby

Artspace hosts 7th Annual Book and Zine Fest

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Artspace hosts a celebration of regional press, zine, and comic arts. Check out the work of comics artists and graphic novelists, letterpress printers, printmakers, and other makers of books and paper arts. I’ll be there with a selection of my linocuts from the Cross Cut series, Heads & Tales series, as well as the Cross Cut songbook and CD, and the children’s book Ameliya Disappears.

Artspace
Friday, March 3, 6-9pm during First Friday PTBO
Saturday, March 4, 10 am-4 pm
3-378 Aylmer Street North
Peterborough, ON

Cross Cut: traditional Ontario folk songs revisited at Lang Pioneer Village Museum

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Lang Pioneer Village Museum hosts the launch of a song book, double CD and exhibition under the title ‘Cross Cut’ on Friday, May 13, 2022 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. in the Peterborough County Agricultural Heritage Building at 146 Lang Road, Keene. During the opening reception artist Rob Niezen will introduce the Cross Cut project and exhibition, Dr. Allan Kirby will give some background on traditional music in rural Ontario, and Backwoodsmen will perform some songs.

The exhibition runs from May 24 until June 4, 2022. The museum also offers exhibition pre-viewing with artist Rob Niezen present on Saturday April 30 from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. As part of the exhibit, Lang Pioneer Village Museum will be hosting “Artist on Site” days with Rob Niezen from 12 noon to 3:30 pm on April 30, May 28 and June 4. Rob will be at Lang Pioneer Village Museum to discuss the Cross Cut exhibit and display his linocuts.

CBC’s Edith Fowke collected folk songs in rural Ontario during the 1950s—many in Peterborough County. Traditional music came to Ontario with European settlers. Lyrics and tunes were adapted to local experiences and the personal preferences of the players, and these offer a reflection of society at different moments in history. The underlying themes are of a timeless nature, as they deal with human existence: love, deception, politics, war, immigration, work, leisure, murder, death, etc. Musician and music historian Dr. Allan Kirby, visual artist Rob Niezen and traditional music group Backwoodsmen selected and revisited just shy of two dozen folk songs from rural Ontario. They created contemporary arrangements and adapted lyrics, resulting in a double CD and an illustrated songbook. The song book presents the songs with lyrics and chord progressions, an introduction by historian and musician Dr. Allan Kirby, and Rob Niezen’s linocuts.

Rob Niezen created a series of linocuts reflecting on the narrative of the songs with a contemporary perspective by applying the concept of ‘crosscutting’. Crosscutting is a technique borrowed from film editing used to illustrate a narrative action that happens in several places at the same time, or in one place at different times. In creating his artwork Rob Niezen uses both the traditional method of lino carving, and contemporary and experimental ways of mark making, including laser engraving, etching and collage; going against the grain, or ‘cross cutting, as it were.

Rob Niezen gratefully acknowledges the Ontario Art Council for its support of the exhibition.

Rob Niezen Artist