SPAO Open House featuring Ontogeny by Whitney Lewis-Smith
5:00 PM on Friday Nov. 2nd, 2018
School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO), 77 Pamilla St.
5:00 PM on Friday Nov. 2nd, 2018
School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO), 77 Pamilla St.
Opening reception of the 2018 Lineage Exhibition, Ontogeny, featuring the work of the Canadian photo-based artist Whitney Lewis-Smith. We are opening our doors to the public to celebrate the expansion and ongoing evolution of Ottawa’s only arts facility dedicated to photo-based art and video work.
SPAO’s Annual Open House is our largest event of the year. Visitors to the SPAO Centre can tour the facility and learn more about our space, a purpose-designed arts facility and Ottawa’s innovative photo hub. Meet faculty and students, see the work of current diploma students, tour the gallery, studio, and darkroom facilities, and get a sneak peek at the 2nd floor expansion that will house the Media Lab and Library. Speeches and special announcements will take place at 7 pm.
The SPAO Centre Gallery’s annual Lineage Exhibition showcases work by members of the immediate and extended SPAO family and celebrates artistic achievement while highlighting its connection to our community. The 2018 exhibition presents work by Whitney Lewis-Smith, an alumna of the SPAO diploma program who has gone on to become an instructor at the School. She works primarily with 8x10 glass plate negatives and builds elaborate sets as a means to explore humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Her new work uses heliogravure printing to translate photographic images into copper plate etchings. The striking result turns animals and ecosystems into icons. During a recent residency in Mexico City, she has just completed what may be the largest heliogravure photographic etchings to date worldwide. One of these etchings will be on display in the exhibition, along with glass plate negatives and prints, to give a full sense of the processes involved in Lewis-Smith’s artistic production.
Ontogeny continues until December 21. It is free and open to the public Tuesdays through Saturdays between 12 and 5 pm, or by appointment. Panel discussion on November 16 at 7 pm. The SPAO Centre Gallery is barrier-free and fully accessible.
Whitney Lewis-Smith completed her photographic education at the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa, where she is now a full-time instructor in Studio and Darkroom Techniques. Her work is in many prominent private and public collections, including the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the City of Ottawa Art Collection, and the private collection of Sophie and Justin Trudeau. She is represented by Galerie St-Laurent+Hill in Ottawa, Canada, and Subject Gallery NYC in New York.
The SPAO Centre is home to the Ottawa region's only independent and critical gallery space dedicated to photographic and video art. Gallery programming includes the exhibition of photographic and video art work by emerging and established artists, working locally, nationally and internationally.
SPAO’s Annual Open House is our largest event of the year. Visitors to the SPAO Centre can tour the facility and learn more about our space, a purpose-designed arts facility and Ottawa’s innovative photo hub. Meet faculty and students, see the work of current diploma students, tour the gallery, studio, and darkroom facilities, and get a sneak peek at the 2nd floor expansion that will house the Media Lab and Library. Speeches and special announcements will take place at 7 pm.
The SPAO Centre Gallery’s annual Lineage Exhibition showcases work by members of the immediate and extended SPAO family and celebrates artistic achievement while highlighting its connection to our community. The 2018 exhibition presents work by Whitney Lewis-Smith, an alumna of the SPAO diploma program who has gone on to become an instructor at the School. She works primarily with 8x10 glass plate negatives and builds elaborate sets as a means to explore humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Her new work uses heliogravure printing to translate photographic images into copper plate etchings. The striking result turns animals and ecosystems into icons. During a recent residency in Mexico City, she has just completed what may be the largest heliogravure photographic etchings to date worldwide. One of these etchings will be on display in the exhibition, along with glass plate negatives and prints, to give a full sense of the processes involved in Lewis-Smith’s artistic production.
Ontogeny continues until December 21. It is free and open to the public Tuesdays through Saturdays between 12 and 5 pm, or by appointment. Panel discussion on November 16 at 7 pm. The SPAO Centre Gallery is barrier-free and fully accessible.
Whitney Lewis-Smith completed her photographic education at the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa, where she is now a full-time instructor in Studio and Darkroom Techniques. Her work is in many prominent private and public collections, including the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the City of Ottawa Art Collection, and the private collection of Sophie and Justin Trudeau. She is represented by Galerie St-Laurent+Hill in Ottawa, Canada, and Subject Gallery NYC in New York.
The SPAO Centre is home to the Ottawa region's only independent and critical gallery space dedicated to photographic and video art. Gallery programming includes the exhibition of photographic and video art work by emerging and established artists, working locally, nationally and internationally.