Glamourie – Sam Talbot-Kelly
Residency dates:
December 7, 2015 – January 7, 2016
Exhibition dates:
January 9 – February 6, 2016
Gallery hours: Wednesday – Saturday 1-5pm
Opening night: Friday January 8, 2016 from 7-9pm *Performance at 7.30pm!
Artist Talk: Saturday January 9, 2016 at 4pm
The Oxygen Art Centre will mark the turning of the year and the coming of the light with the introspective creativity of multimedia artist Sam Talbot-Kelly. The artist is in residence for the month of December working on explorations into the ancient ways of Glamourie or “the art of illusion”; which ultimately serves to play with human perception whereby mediating forces between the concrete and abstract are unbound by the ‘outer eye’ and reason.
As part of her project and residency, Talbot-Kelly is working closely with four artists in the community, Lynn Dragone, Thomas Loh, Teyana Neufeld and Ho Soon Yeen. Talbot-Kelly refers to this crew as her “creatives” and is working with them in giving expression to ‘authoritative and powerful’ energies through installation, sound, movement and costume. The creative expressions of their labours will be revealed in a performance on a constructed vessel of humanity, during the opening of the exhibition on Friday January 8th. The exhibition will run thru the month of January and close on February 6th, 2016.
Sam Talbot-Kelly was born in England and now resides in Vermont. She is a multimedia artist who works in a variety of forms including, paint, performance, site specific installations, printmaking and design in order to achieve her ideas. She has an MFA in painting from the University of Texas and is currently teaching Art and Art History at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont.
Join us for this exciting opening performance and exhibition of Glamourie. The exhibition will open at the Oxygen Art Centre on Friday, January 8th at from 7 to 9pm with the performance at 7:30pm. The exhibition will run from January 9th to February 6th, 2016. The Artist will give a talk on her work on Saturday January 9th at 4pm. Gallery hours throughout the exhibition are Wednesday to Saturday from 1-5pm.
Long form Press Release:
The Oxygen Art Centre will mark the turning of the year and the coming of winter’s darkness with the introspective creativity of multimedia artist Sam Talbot-Kelly. The artist will be in residence for the month of December working on explorations into the ancient ways of Glamourie or “the art of deception”. As part of her residency, Talbot-Kelly will work closely with several community artists whom she calls her “creatives” in developing personal expressions to illuminate through voice, movement and costume what she calls “a sword of truth that lies within”. The creative products of their labours will be revealed in a performance at the opening of Glamourie, and installed as part of an exhibition that will run through the month of January.
Sam Talbot-Kelly was born in England and now resides in Vermont. She is a multimedia artist who works in a variety of forms including, paint, performance, site specific installations, printmaking and design in order to achieve her ideas. She has an MFA in painting from the University of Texas and is currently teaching in design at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont.
As an artist, Talbot-Kelly is interested in what lies below the surface in the dark chambers of the subconscious. Her work seeks to bring these shadowy energies to the surface in a multitude of expressive forms. For example, the Blood Queen created in 2013 is an installation in which the artist honours her Mother’s passing by employing the vascular system as a metaphor for a much bigger cosmic presence. This stunning installation included the artist’s drawings of the human heart and complex circulatory system silkscreened on to luscious fabric. Tactile, sensuous and vibrant this material was used to envelope a standing figure, the artist’s mother creating what the artist refers to as “ a mediating layer between emotion and perception” and with its rich reds evoking the life blood, the queen’s blood, of her mother who in dying joined with a universal life energy.
In 1980 feminist critic and art writer Lucy Lippard said of feminist art “that it is neither a style nor a movement rather a value system and revolution strategy – a way of life that has continued to prevail in the work of artists ever since. “ Early feminist artists worked closely with natural symbols, the female body and archetypal ideas to expose a forgotten consciousness and feminine authority. Talbot-Kelly’s art joins this continuum with her use of the human form and anatomical drawings as metaphor, personified archetypal energies and interest in inner authority. Yet, importantly Talbot-Kelly’s work also departs from this feminist period with work that is more inclusive of gender divisiveness and broader in its metaphorical scope. Glamourie is an example of this departure with its quest to uncover the organizing centre or Self beyond gender and perhaps beyond description that lurks beneath the ‘glam’ of characters that form our exterior appearance.
Sam Talbot-Kelly will be in residency from December 7th to January 7th culminating in an exhibition at the Oxygen Art Centre from January 9th to February 6th, 2016. The opening for the exhibition which will include a performance will be on Friday, January 8th from 7-9pm. The Artist will give a talk on Saturday January 9th at 4pm. Gallery hours are Wednesday to Saturday from 1-5pm.
