art show

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

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.

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.

 

Rob Niezen Artist