Friday Special Blend
Friday September 30th, 2022 with Susan Johnston
Dark Ice (feat. OAG Curator Rebecca Basciano and artist Leslie Reid)

DARK ICE ᓕᐊᔅᓕ ᕇᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᕌᕗᑦ ᑲᐅᑐᖅ | LESLIE REID AND ROBERT KAUTUK Ottawa Art Gallery, April 23, 2022 - March 5, 2023 Would you like a virtual tour? English and French versions are available here: · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqTzXB_1tvE · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ds4P2W297Y About the artists: Robert Kautuk is a photographer based in Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River), NU who uses drones and Digital SLR cameras to document stunning views of his community in the Canadian Arctic. Kautuk’s use of technology provides a special look at rarely seen moments, activities and landscapes that are not accessible or possible to capture using conventional cameras. In addition to his own practice, Kautuk is also a regular contributor to Nunatsiaq News. He works in IT for the Ittaq Heritage and Research Centre and is a noted contributor to northern mapping projects. Through Ittaq he also actively partakes in knowledge sharing initiatives, including Picturing Arctic Modernity: North Baffin Drawings from 1964 (co-organized between the Agnes Etherington and the Canadian Museum of History, 2017), an exhibition and accompanying website with interviews and video clips that underscore the importance of cultural heritage to contemporary Inuit communities. Kautuk has been featured in many publications including Inuit Art Quarterly and their guide on photography called Views from the North (Art Toronto, 2018), as well as in Up Here, and Above&Beyond. Leslie Reid studied at Queen's University, Kingston, and the Chelsea College of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art in England. On her return to Canada she taught Visual Arts at the University of Ottawa, where she is now Professor Emerita. She exhibited in the landmark exhibition Some Canadian Women Artists (National Gallery of Canada, 1975-76), in celebration of the first International Women’s Year, and also represented Canada at the Paris Biennale. Her retrospective exhibition Leslie Reid: A Darkening Vision was curated by Diana Nemiroff (Carleton University Art Gallery, 2011), and her paintings were exhibited in Builders: The Canadian Biennial (National Gallery of Canada, 2012). Her recent work results from travel to the High Arctic, and explores climate change and sovereignty issues and their effects on northern communities. Participation in the Canadian Forces Artists Program resulted in the solo installation Mapping a Cold War (Founders; Gallery, The Military Museums, Calgary, 2016). Video work from her participation with the Canada C3 2017 expedition, travelling through the Northwest Passage, was recently shown in Open Channels (Âjagemô Gallery, Canada Council, 2019).