2024 Main Gallery Programming
For our final announcement, we are over the moon to present the 2024 lineup of Main Gallery programming!!! This is going to be a year filled with spectacular exhibitions, showcasing local and international artists alike. We are so excited to work alongside these talented folks, and share their work with the community!
Be sure to mark your calendars and keep an eye out for upcoming Main Gallery receptions and events. We are looking forward to welcoming you all back into the space!
Par Nair, the stories we don’t tell
February 2 – March 16, 2024
the stories we don’t tell is a solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Par Nair that examines the lived experiences of diaspora through oil painting, hand embroidery and textile installations. The works consider traditional knowledge, cultural histories and familial archives while shedding light on stories and voices of people historically silenced in colonial spaces. The importance of storytelling and acknowledgement of ancestral practices is an integral part of the show. It is a meditation on the double life, confusion and imminent transformations felt in migrant journeys. The exhibition will highlight canonically underrepresented art practices to make space for the stories we don’t tell while asking, how can diasporic bodies find belonging and healing?
Daze Jefferies & B.G-Osborne, Transient Maternal
March 29 – May 11, 2024
As white settler trans artist-archivists, Daze Jefferies + B.G-Osborne’s collaborative practice
turns to water as a counter-archive of kinship, loss, and care. Transient Maternal offers
embodiments of grief and love that are emergent in intergenerational encounters and efforts to
communicate with maternal ghosts through water. The loss of a mother at a young age, and the
longing for a trans mother figure, guide their reciprocity, closeness, and with/holding. Using
sculpture, collage, illustration, sound, and video, they aim to create an immersive environment
that explores t4t tenderness, rural inheritance, and the places where continuity and impermanence
touch. Beach washup, textiles, charcoal, field recordings, wax, mermaid’s purses, plastics, burnt
wood, and poetry form an evocative assemblage of memories and relationships held by water.
They gratefully acknowledge the support of ArtsNL.
Nadine Baldow, Alive Matter – Topophilia V
May 24 – July 6, 2024
Nadine Baldow’s practice is informed by the current geological era, known as the Anthropocene where traces of human activity become embedded within planet Earth. Are we still part of nature? Or have humans created a new kind of nature? Perhaps estrangement from nature started with a fence: did the first artificial boundary create a gap between man and nature?
Her residency (taking place at Eastern Edge from March 29 – May 11, 2024) is linked to her upcoming solo exhibition “Alive Matter – Topophilia V” at Eastern Edge. The exhibition will consist of one site-specific, space-filling sculpture that stems from this Landscape Investigation. The materials of this sculpture will be a hybrid of “dead materials” and “alive materials” – all materials will be of local origin.
Eastern Edge Annual Members’ Exhibition
July 19 – August 31, 2024
EE’s Annual Members’ Exhibition presents an opportunity for Eastern Edge Members to showcase what they have been working on, alongside other members of the community. With an open theme, the exhibition always promises an exciting breadth of styles and mediums. In 2023, over 60 members participated in the Members’ Exhibition; we can’t wait to see what 2024 brings!
Z’otz* Collective
September 13 – October 26, 2024
Using collaborative drawings, sculptures and an in-situ ephemeral wall drawing created over five days on a gallery wall, Z’otz* Collective explores the idea of the niche.
“The original meaning of the French word ‘nicher’ is ‘to make a nest’. We are intrigued by the niche as a space to incubate, collect, investigate, and share stories. The Roman Catholic nicho, made of a wood or tin box, housed religious objects and served as small shrines to connect believers to their spirituality. Prehispanic civilizations used niches as architectural elements in their temples.
We will make contemporary niches from white painted cardboard boxes of various sizes and shapes, and staple them to the wall. They will house found objects, small sculptures and natural elements we find on site such as bark, pinecones, and branches. The niches will be strategically placed within mural. In some cases, the marks drawn on the wall will continue over the sides of the niches, to integrate them with the central images.
The edges of each niche serve as boundaries to divide one story from another. At the same time, they work together within the larger installation to become a broader story. They form a community that interconnects, but also leave space for the viewer to invent his or her stories within. In this way, the viewer is part of the collaborative process.”
Spirit Song Exhibition
November 8 – December 14, 2024
Eastern Edge is proud to partner with First Light to host programming in our Main Gallery, in celebration of Spirit Song Festival!
Spirit Song is a celebration of Indigenous Arts and Culture that has been running annually in St. John’s since 2013. Spirit Song has now grown into a multi-day event which boasts world class performances, traditional and contemporary knowledge sharing events as well as artist in residence series. The festival is enjoyed by Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences alike. Spirit Song aims to support and promote Indigenous artists, strengthen our sense of community, as well as provide an opportunity for the greater public to experience the incredible work created by Indigenous artists from across Canada.
From exhibitions highlighting incredible work by Indigenous artists, to panel discussions, artist talks, and workshops, Spirit Song Festival programming is always a sincere pleasure to have in our space. Stay tuned to see what will be in the Main Gallery for Spirit Song 2024!