Three new exhibitions are on their way to the McMillan Arts Centre in Parksville, beginning Feb. 4.
Seeking Space by Laurel Karjala will be displayed in the MAC's Concert Gallery, according to a news release.
Working with colour, shape and line, Karjala paints to show the essence of the Canadian landscape.
"Seeking for her is to discover by searching and questioning," the release said. "Place happens when a location is transformed through our experiences and emotions."
Karjala's current series of paintings flows from a lifetime of landscape painting. In 2022 she won a substantial Canada Council for the Arts grant and in 2024 she attended a painter’s Artist in Residence program at The Land Studio, near Saskatoon.
She is a visual artist and educator, as well as a community arts volunteer, supporting the MAC and the Oceanside Community Arts Council.
Karjala is also on the MAC School for Creative Arts Faculty, and will host several classes and workshops, including an artist talk on Feb. 21 at 1 p.m.; a visual voice workshop on Feb. 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and Grant Writing for Artists on Feb. 23 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
In the Oceanside Gallery, visitors will find Resist, an exhibition by the Fibre Arts Network.
"Each artwork in this exhibit is a personal interpretation of the word RESIST incorporating one or more resist techniques," FAN said in its exhibition statement.
Resist is an art technique that uses several layers to expose or define a design in negative space. Resistant substances are applied as a coating to protect a surface during some process, such such to prevent dye adhering.
Resist can be created using wax, crayons, inks, paints, pastel/ oil sticks, tape, masks, paper cutouts, stencils, stickers, glue, medium, flour paste, crackle paste, or fabric that is bound, scrunched or clamped.
FAN is a co-operative of western Canadian artists committed to promoting fibre as an art form and each other as artists. Membership includes emerging fibre artists, teachers, authors and judges. Many members have been recognized both nationally and internationally for their work.
Since 1998, when FAN was inaugurated, it has created 32 exhibitions at 105 Canadian venues and nine international venues.
Resist is an exhibition of artworks by members that explores resist techniques while preserving the unique individualistic style of each artist.
Also soon to arrive at the MAC is Ancestral Impressions by Joyce Huson, which will be located in the Nemeth Gallery.
Huson was born in Ocean Falls in 1942 and raised in Alert Bay and Sointula. Her upbringing is reflected in her life’s work of 50-plus+ years: B.C.’s coast, totems, trees, coastal and interior landscapes, boats. A slideshow of three generations of historic B.C. photos is also on display for first time.
The exhibits will be at the MAC from Feb. 4 to March 2. There will be an opening reception on Feb. 8 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
