The best way to start our first issue of Ingram Art News! in 2011 is with an earnest thank you for a great year in art.  Thanks to the talented artists, visual art critics, dealers and enthusiastic gallery goers; 2010 was an exceptional year for Canadian Art.  Wanting very much to build upon the strength of last year, 2011 at Ingram Gallery holds many events, exhibitions and exciting projects in store.  We open our new year of exhibitions with none other than Jean-Paul Riopelle (Canadian, 1923-2002).  First opened in Paris, France and making stops across Canada, Riopelle: Mémoires d'ateliers opens in Toronto Saturday, January 15th.

In 1969 Jean-Paul Riopelle created a bestiary of sculptures in which le hibou, the wise owl, features prominently.

Originally created in clay and plaster, the sculptures were preserved and eventually cast in Paris, France.  

Inspired by two series of photographs, the first taken at the Meudon foundry (1969-70) and the second in Riopelle's Saint-Cyr-en-Arthies art studio (1977-78), this internationally exhibited exhibition is paired with a new bilingual catalogue with text by Yseult Riopelle, the artist's daughter.

In addition to the stunning collection of bronze sculptures, Ingram Gallery is pleased to be offering the charcoals from 1976 which brought Riopelle back to drawing:

In the mid-1970s, after the polychrome seduction of his experience with pastel, Riopelle yielded to the temptation of charcoal's black-and-white austerity, a discipline that allowed him to establish a distance from the 'real world', to make more analytical reading of it, lingering over the structures of space. The 1976 charcoals are a looser group, and somewhat wild (in the best sense of the world). They also offer the freshness of quick sketches, studies of landscape details, variations on polysemic motifs.

Riopelle, Mémoires d'ateliers

Yseult Riopelle and Gilles Daigneault  © 2010

2010 was a most exciting year for Sean Yelland, his highway series and other new works finding new collections at a rapid pace!  We open our contemporary solo exhibitions this year in April with Sean Yelland's cleverly titled This is how I feel all the time.  The exhibition will be Yelland's 7th solo with the gallery.  Equally notable, Sara Sniderhan opens her first solo exhibition -- My Name Is the following month on May 5th.  As a handy bookmark for save-the-dates and more, please be sure to visit our complete exhibition schedule throughout the year ahead.  Also on deck in 2011: Barry Hodgson, Rachel Berman and Brian Burke!

Look for important historical Canadian works at the gallery this coming February and March.  Exploring neighbourhoods, favourite haunts and local studio addresses, we will be exhibiting important works by Albert Franck, Caven Atkins, Jack Beder and Barker Fairley.  Both the Annex and Yorkville were onetime artist havens, and the Annex continues today to be considered one of the greatest concentrations of art professionals living in Canada.  As we shed winter and the days get longer -- what better than a stroll through Yorkville to view and learn about the history of our neighbourhood.

It means a great deal to all of us at the gallery that you and others will be able to enjoy the never before seen Riopelle masterpieces that comprise our upcoming Mémoires d'ateliers exhibition.  Long archived, this is the first opportunity for Canadians to view and acquire these unique and previously unavailable works.  We are running the exhibition for a full month, so as to ensure everyone gets a chance to visit.  We look forward to seeing you at the gallery soon!