The Kelowna Art Gallery is pleased to present Big North. Sponsored by Scotiatrust, Big North is a national touring exhibition of thirteen large-scale paintings by Canadian artist John Hartman. The exhibition is curated by Brian Meehan, Director of the London Regional Art and Historical Museums, and is scheduled to travel for the next two years.

Artist-in-Residence - February 10-12, 2000 Using the front area of the gallery as his studio, Hartman will be producing a new work of an Okanagan landscape. We invite you to visit the gallery and discuss the artist's approach and the progress of his new work.

Free Public Tour of the Exhibition on Thursday, February 10, at 7:00pm Generously sponsored by the Canada Council and Okanagan University College.

Curator Brian Meehan notes, Hartman's paintings seek to capture a spirit of place. With an intense palette and through the sheer physical size of his canvases he gives a dramatic and compelling voice to the communities that are his subject matter.

The thirteen paintings presented in Big North reveal a world that appears at once alien and familiar. Hartman uses bold colours applied in thick coils of impasto to create boiling skies and landscape animated with the rituals and experiences of humanity. With Big North, Hartman transcends the silent vistas of the Group of Seven and the late celestial paintings of David Milne to forge a new terrain for landscape painting in Canadian art in which the mythical and the mundane coexist on one plane.

The exhibition is accompanied by a hard-bound book, fully illustrated in colour. The book is designed by Bruce Mau and Key Porter Books. Matthew Hart contributes an essay on Hartman and the voice of the artist is woven throughout the book to provide us with a compelling look into his process and experience.

John Hartman currently lives and works in Penetanguishene, Ontario. He is represented by Mira Godard Gallery in Toronto.

In the Fingerboard Islands, 1998  oil on linen, 66 x 168 inches, triptych. Courtesy Mira Godard Gallery

[click image to visit residence page]

John Hartman in residence at the Kelowna Art Gallery.

Click on image to learn more about it.