Contemporary Canadian Silversmith Collection
May 9 to July 19, 2009
The Macdonald Stewart Art Centre’s Contemporary Canadian Silversmith Collection is the only one of its kind at a public art gallery in Canada. The works were methodically acquired through special commissions, sponsored purchases, and generous donations from artists and collectors. The collection was initiated in 2000 to acknowledge
the high level of achievement of artists working in the field. The works, primarily in silver, now number over forty.
This exhibition featured the work of 19 artists from across Canada:
Beth Alber, Jackie Anderson, Mary Anne Barkhouse, Anne Barros, Michael Belmore, Aggie Beynon, Beth Biggs, Brigitte Clavette, Lois Etherington Betteridge, Antoine Lamarche, Fiona Macintyre, Michael Massie, Ross Morrow, Harold Muller, Sandra Nobel Goss, Kye-Yeon Son, Ken Vickerson, Susan Watson-Ellis, and Lyn Wiggins.
Guelph artist and mentor Lois Etherington Betteridge is the matriarch of Canadian silversmithing and her work forms the foundation of the collection. She is known for her innovative holloware and ecclesiastical silver and jewelry. For over fifty years, she has guided the craftsmanship and
development in the work of generations of students and apprentices, many of whom are represented in this exhibition.
The newest commission for the silver collection was created by Michael Massie, an artist of Inuit, Métis and Scottish descent who is based in Kippens, Newfoundland. The piece combines two distinct disciplines within Massie’s practice: a figurative limestone carving and a teapot. Massie is quoted as saying that when he carves he feels most in touch with his Inuit ancestry, and when he works in metal he is closer to his qallunaaq (white) ancestry. Massie’s sculpture bridges two of the
Art Centre’s broader art collection: the silver collection and our internationally-recognized Inuit art collection.
Among the inventive works in the Art Centre’s silver collection is Beth Alber’s Both Sides Now (Ode to Joni Mitchell). The piece explores the place of women in our Canadian culture. Alber uses the ‘noble’ metal, silver, to imbue power on objects that are associated with the daily preparation of food and
nourishment. The exhibition also features a hammered copper map of the city of Guelph by Michael Belmore (Ojibwa) and a sterling silver bra titled Under/Exposed 343 by Susan Watson-Ellis.
While most of the artists represented in this collection use sterling silver in their works, others combine both traditional and nontraditional materials including acrylic, aluminum, amethyst, azurite, bone, bronze, cherry wood, diamond, ebony, embroidery, fibre optics, glass, granite, labradorite, LEDs, mahogany, mokume-gane, nickel, pearl, plexiglass, rhinestones, slate, sinew, steel, variscite, vermilian, and walnut. For example, Pool by Mary Anne Barkhouse (Nimpkish band, Kwakiutl First Nation) is composed of copper, beaver-chewed sticks, and cement fondu. In this work, Barkhouse compares the industry of the beaver to the industry of humankind.
These are just a few of the exceptional works in the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre’s Contemporary Canadian Silver Collection. We are proud to support the achievements of these artists through our commitment to building this unique specialization within the collection. We thank the Art Centre Volunteers for raising funds for art purchases and the Canada Council for the Arts for generously providing matching funds through their acquisition assistance program.
Exhibition Opening
Saturday, May 9 from 3 to 5 pm
Walkabout Tour with Lois Etherington Betteridge
Tuesday, June 2 at noon
Images:
Top: Fiona Macintyre, Bowling, 2006, silver, paint, bronze
Middle left: Lois Betteridge, Calyx, 1999, sterling silver
Middle: Michael Massie, let me whip you up a cup of tea, 2007, limestone, sterling silver
Bottom: Lois Betteridge, Tea Pot, 1964, sterling silver.