Gallery shows off Varley’s ‘blockbuster works’

YorkRegion.com
April 17, 2014
By Amanda Persico

This year at Markham’s Varley Art Gallery, you can expect to see a lot more of the late Fred Varley.

A new component of the gallery is paying homage to its namesake in the newly constructed collections gallery, where patrons can experience Varley works year-round through the Varley: Destination Markham exhibition.

As Markham’s gallery is relatively new, many of Mr. Varley’s early works with the Group of Seven in 1920s were already off the market, gallery curator Anik Glaude said.

For the past couple years, the gallery has been in talks with other art galleries, including the Art Gallery of Ontario and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection to bring early Varley works to Markham.

“The AGO took their Varley (painting) down for us,” Ms Glaude said. “With these pieces, we can showcase a chronological survey of his life and his work.”

There are a couple Varley paintings on loan for a year to the gallery and about two dozen Varley art pieces in the Varley: Destination Markham exhibit, including the gallery’s most recent 2013 acquisition.

“We want to bring those blockbuster works to Markham to offer a full understanding of his work,” Ms Glaude said.

While the Varley: Destination Markham is a year-round exhibition, works within the exhibit will change throughout the year to highlight the varying scope of Mr. Varley’s life and works.

The Markham gallery will also be a stop on the national tour for the Story of Canadian Art: As told by the Hart House Art Collection exhibition, which features early works from the Group of Seven.

Along with the ongoing Varley exhibition, patrons will also be treated to the new Right Here, Right Now exhibition where the focus is on contemporary local artists, such as Janet Read.

“This is all about how local artists fit into an exhibition,” Ms Glaude said. “Having local artists starts a conversation between the historical and the contemporary and how art has evolved.”

Ms Read’s works are part of the gallery’s Colour, In Theory exhibition that showcases the colour scarlet and is arranged by shades of red. The exhibition also takes patrons through a historical look at how the colour red was applied in art.

“That is a curator’s job, to look at art works in a different way,” she said. “Colour has an emotional impact. Red has different emotions attached to it.”

The gallery will also host works by Canadian sculptor Kim Adams later in the fall. Mr. Adams’ work takes a retrospective view of how transportation fits into our everyday life by using bike and car parts to illustrate a life on the road.