Proof 15
Susan Blight
Michele Crockett
Keesic Douglas
Michael Love
Bradley Olson
Erik Osberg
Celia Perrin Sidarous

July 10 - August 2, 2008
Reception: Thursday July 10, 6 - 8 PM


IMAGE: Susan Blight, Self-Portrait With My Kobe Bryant T-shirt, chromogenic print, 2008


Gallery 44’s annual Proof exhibition puts a fresh spin on the end of the gallery season giving us the opportunity to see the work of emerging talent from across the country in an open forum, free from the narrative of a curatorial mandate. With Proof we often get the first glimpse of work by artists who will become an integral part of our creative community. Proof 15 puts a notable twist on the formula with artists from Gallery 44’s inaugural artist residency, featuring the work of Keesic Douglas and Susan Blight, both emerging photo-based aboriginal artists. Even though the exhibition retains its free, spontaneous spirit, with the inclusion of Douglas and Blight a subtle energy permeates the show, informed by the performative style and sly wit both artists share. The works in Proof 15 unfold with a buzz and a bang including re-staged family photographs, images of stripmalls and photographs exposed with the shot of a pellet rifle. The emerging artists revealed this year include works by Michael Love, Erik Osberg, Bradley Olson, Michelle Crocket and Celia Perrin Sidarous who explore deeply personal stories through refined vision and exquisite technique.

Biographies

Susan Blight was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and is a member of Couchiching First Nation. She received an MFA from the University of Windsor (2007), a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography (2004) and a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies (1999) from the University of Manitoba. Blight’s most recent photographic and video work focuses on the interplay between autobiographical narrative and fictional nuance. She is currently teaching Image and Time-based Fundamentals at the University of Windsor’s School of Visual Art.

Michele Crockett is a multi-disciplinary artist. She studies photography at the Ontario College of Art and Design where she has won the Polaroid Award and the Photography Faculty and Friends Award. Recently her work was exhibited as part of the Contact Photography Festival in May.

Keesic Douglas is an Ojibway artist from the Mnjikaning First Nation in central Ontario. He specializes in the mediums of photography and video. His work has been exhibited across Canada and the United States. Douglas focuses on issues surrounding his Native heritage in his photo and video work. His video The Vanishing Trace recently won Best Short Documentary at the 2007 imagineNATIVE Film Festival in Toronto.

Michael Love was born in Chilliwack, British Columbia in 1976. He attended both the University College of the Fraser Valley and the Emily Carr Institute to complete his BFA. Love is completing his MFA in photography at Concordia University. He has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally.

Bradley Olson was born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan and returns there each summer to photograph the small-scale commercial “strip” buildings found throughout this and other prairie cities. These often-recycled utilitarian structures continue to be his primary subject matter when photographing in Canada, and are a direct influence on the subject matter he chooses to photograph in the Midwestern United States. Bradley holds a BFA in Ceramics from the University of Regina, a BFA in Photography from NSCAD University, and a MFA in Photography
from The Ohio State University.

Erik Osberg lives in Montreal, Quebec and was raised in Victoria, British Columbia. He is a recent graduate of the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University with a BFA in Film Production and will graduate in early 2009 with a BFA in Photography, also from Concordia University. Osberg is one quarter of the collective La Famille, alongside Katie Jung, Carl Osberg and Elif Saydam. He has participated in exhibitions at Art Mur, the FoFA Gallery, the McCord Museum, Room and Board and VAV Gallery. Proof 15 will be his first exhibition in Toronto.

Celia Perrin Sidarous is a Montreal-based artist, who graduated with a BFA in Photography from Concordia University in 2008. Her work deals with nature and human experience; her images function as the manifestations of a specific personal mythology, poetic fragments of a larger narrative. Her work has been exhibited in Montreal, where she recently presented her first solo exhibition in late 2007, at the artist-run Room and Board Gallery.

EXHIBITION BROCHURE AND ESSAY BY MIA NIELSEN