SAW Gallery, one of Ottawa's oldest artist-run centres, has opened a new group exhibition featuring six emerging Ottawa-area artists, and it's already one of the more talked-about shows in the city's spring calendar.
About the Exhibition
The show, titled Surface / Beneath, brings together artists working in painting, video, and mixed-media installation, all exploring the tension between what's visible and what's hidden, in landscapes, in bodies, in archives. It's a loose conceptual thread, but one that gives the curators (themselves Ottawa-based) room to make unexpected connections between very different kinds of work.
Standout pieces include a large-scale triptych by Gatineau-born painter Élise Beaumont, whose layered oils feel like aerial photographs of terrain that may or may not exist. There's also a video installation from an artist whose practice focuses on the Ottawa River and the history of industrial use along its shores, genuinely arresting work that's hard to shake once you've sat with it for a few minutes.
SAW Gallery's Role in Ottawa's Arts Scene
SAW has been running since 1973, making it one of the longest-running artist-run centres in Canada. It operates on a model that prioritizes emerging and mid-career artists over established names, which means the work you see here is often fresher and more risk-taking than what you'll find in commercial galleries.
Admission is always free, which makes it one of the easiest cultural stops in Ottawa.
Details
SAW Gallery is located at 67 Nicholas Street in the Arts Court complex, open Tuesday through Saturday. The exhibition runs through the end of May. An artist talk is scheduled for the second Saturday of the show, check saw-centre.com for the exact date.
If you're looking for a cultural afternoon that won't cost you anything and might genuinely surprise you, SAW Gallery delivers.
Source: Ottawa Life Magazine / RSS
