The Orillia Museum of Art & History (OMAH) has curated and facilitated the installation of five exhibitions for their winter season. These exhibitions are still available to view for two more weeks. Visitors have the opportunity to learn about new perspectives in art and learn about aspects of Orillia’s past.
“The information is great. The exhibits are excellent. The way everything is displayed is interesting. It makes me feel inspired.” – Joan Berndt (OMAH Volunteer)
The current exhibitions are as follows:
Amanta Scott: Eyeing Medusa.
Eyeing Medusa celebrates visionary contemporary women of all ages, orientations, cultures and walks of life making a difference in our world today. Comprised of encaustic artworks, each painting’s title and story parallels a legendary heroine with a contemporary woman. By fusing the past with the present, Amanta invites viewers to look at these artworks as a means to illuminate and address urgent contemporary social issues.
Eyeing OMAH’s Collection
In response to Eyeing Medusa, Eyeing OMAH’s Collection features portraits of women from OMAH’s permanent collection curated by Tanya Cunnington.
Gary Blundell and Victoria Ward: Burner Herzog
Burner Herzog is part of an ongoing body of work in which the artists hope to innovate the landscape genre and push the idea that wilderness as a thing of the mind; that one’s relationship to the landscape is as much myth as it is temporal. This is in contrast to the widely held belief that wilderness is a place to visit that casts a spell on us and takes us away from our daily life. The title of this exhibition is an homage to the filmmaker Werner Herzog who has inspired the artists over the years to make work about this beautiful, complex planet and their place on it.
Great Tait: The True Story of Orillia’s First Millionaire
This exhibition examines the life of lumber magnate Andrew Tait, and the many contributions made by the family that impacted the growing city of Orillia. The show also features an installation by John P. Gaudaur Savage called The Mackinaw Jacket: A Canadian Folk Costume. Manufactured in Orillia by the Carss Mackinaw Clothing Company Limited, these jackets became the quintessential uniform of a lumber worker, but with Indigenous and European influences, the history of the jacket began long before Orillia was ever incorporated.
Continuing until June 3 in the Lounge Gallery, Beyond the Fence: Christine Mack and David Hill.
There will be a fresh slate of exhibitions for the spring season. A special reception, with an opportunity to meet some of the exhibiting artists will be held on Saturday, April 29.
The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11am to 4pm and open late on Thursdays until 7pm.