Come meet the artist . . and Needle felting demo at Carr House, Victoria, British Columbia, CANADA

See you at Carr House!

 

Celebutantes, Carr House Museum, Victoria, British Columbia, CANADA

Opening 1 June 2025

2:00 - 5:00

Carr House

207 Government Street, Victoria, BC, CANADA

 

Threaded, Martin Batchelor Gallery, Victoria, BC, CANADA

Threaded

Opening Saturday June 24th, 2017

7:00-9:00 PM

Martin Batchelor Gallery

712 Cormorant Street

Victoria, BC

In Cahoots (Synergy), Slide Room Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia, CANADA

"Adam"

Needle felted wool and ink drawing, gesso

A collaborative work with artist John Harris

The Jar Show, Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada

Thanks to artist Jeff Hartbower for curating another interesting show this one to challenge each artist to work with inner space of jars.

"Mama Moai" - needle felted wool

About Face, Martin Batchelor Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia, CANADA

There is a community of artists in Victoria who aren’t seen in commercial galleries, are not employed by the University of Victoria and yet have been creative workers of considerable skill in our city for many years.

Martin Batchelor’s eponymous gallery is a place to which many of them gravitate, for, unlike other galleries, his space can simply be rented by the exhibitors. Yet each year, Batchelor likes to do a bit of community outreach, to invite artists through an open call to exhibit in a themed show. This year the theme is “Selfies,” and the triple-hung show offers self-portraits by almost 100 artists.

The show has been curated by Martin Batchelor and Efren Qiroz with artist Irma Soltonavich. Though not an artist himself, Qiroz is the man behind the remarkable website Exhibit_V.com. With no commercial or institutional support, Qiroz has made it his personal project to record the art life of Victoria and, to date, has posted more than 1,800 videos on YouTube.

When he announced the Selfies show on Facebook, with a $10 entry fee and no jury, the results were instantaneous. And everything was hung. The opening last week was packed, testament to the solid interest the show has tapped into.

There is often resistance among artists to thematic shows, but since the theme was the artist herself or himself, everybody wanted to participate.

“At first, they swore that they never had made a portrait of themselves,” Qiroz said with a laugh, “and had never made a selfie.” Though many people disparage selfies, everyone seems to be doing it.

Many media and a wide variety of approaches are on show.

Arlene Nesbitt, a photographer, caught herself in a reflective moment amid the miscellanea that is her usual subject matter. Marion Evamy, the principal of Red Art Gallery in Oak Bay, sent in a beautiful painted panel that began as a photo on her cellphone, was Photoshopped into a schizoid vision and was then painted with her typical vivacious colours. Appropriately, her signature is spelled ME.

Odette Laroche brought three tiny oils. My favourite shows her as Cleopatra, with a diadem and a smirky grin I just can’t forget.

Another wonderful painter, the talented Dawn Pearcy, brought a superb little painting of herself (with barnacles on her shoulders, pine cones in her hair and a touch of gold leaf for flash). She also brought two others, of her in disguise! At $200 these gems are hard to resist.

Richard Motchman, whose work I have followed for at least 25 years, is an accomplished painter of faces, and for this show he made a forceful self-portrait, which, in his usual style, is set like an altarpiece behind two hinged doors. The outer and the inner man are not the same, of course.

So many artists. Angela Montanti is one I met when she was artist in residence at Monterey Elementary School in Oak Bay. Good artist, no gallery.

Another who seems in the same boat is Nicholas Vandergugten, a singularly talented linocut artist. His stunning images of the Johnson Street Bridge, seen at Bean Around the World Café years ago, are the defining image of that structure. Rumour has it he is preparing another show soon.

In my tour of the room, I noted my tendency to favour the representational portraits over the many and varied expressive abstractions that stood in for a face. Jesi Barron is a senior citizen but her “selfie” is a vigorous oil in the traditional representational style, and perfectly portrays this well-loved artist. It occurred to me that a strong selection could be made from this show if we ever decide to create a local version of the National Portrait Gallery.

The finest of all is surely Dale Roberts’ felted portrait of himself as Mailarta, the mail art queen. You might expect that his very personal imagery and unusual medium would make it hard for him to find an audience, but Roberts has been working at a high level as an artist, apparently undeterred by thoughts of what some audience might require.

He communicates joyously through the mail with thousands of people worldwide. While his medium of felting — fibres coloured and matted together, and embellished with a bit of needlework in this case — may be a hard sell in the cutthroat gallery world, Roberts works with love and finesse.

Roberts’ self-portrait (in a mail carrier’s hat) stands out in a strong field. If there was any justice in such things (which there isn’t, by the way) this piece would be purchased by the City of Victoria as an important component of its gallery of notable citizens.

“Selfies” — self-portraits at the Martin Batchelor Gallery, 712 Cormorant St., 250-385-7919, open Monday to Saturday, until Aug. 27.

© Copyright Times Colonist - See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/life/islander/robert-amos-in-defence-of-the-self-portrait-1.2038141#sthash.w9gOAGT8.dpuf

---------------------------

"Dame Mailarta"

Needle felted wool

16" x 18"

Transformations - Grenfell Art Gallery, Corner Brook, Newfoundland, CANADA

Transformations: Dale Roberts/Dame Mailarta
Curated by Ingrid Mary Percy

January 13 to February 15

The curator states: Roberts uses knitting, crocheting, painting, sculpture, weaving, collage, performance, assemblage and social engagement to explore ideas of play, home, culture, tradition, religion, identity and sexuality. 

Transformations: Dale Roberts/Dame Mailarta which is curated by Ingrid Mary Percy brings together the two main streams of Dale Roberts artistic practice: his textile based sculptural work and his performance/mail art embodied by his alter ego, Dame Mailarta.  

Dale Roberts was born in the town of Point Leamington, Notre Dame Bay Newfoundland in 1962. He attended the School of Fine Arts at Grenfell Campus Memorial University in Corner Brook, NL where he was part of the first graduating class in the Visual Arts program in 1992. He completed an MFA at Purchase College, State University of New York in Purchase, NY in 1995. From 1996 - 9 he was an assistant to various artists in New York including Jackie Winsor. From 1999 to the present Dale has lived and worked in Victoria, British Columbia. Since 1997, he has participated in over 70 solo and group exhibitions in Canada and the USA.

 Installation View

Girly Buoy, Either/Oar, Luke II and Lukey's Boat

  Installation View

Girly Buoy, Either/Oar, Luke II, Lukey's Boat and Distorts

Installation View

Nereid's Gold and Distorts

 Nereid's Gold

 Installation View

Nereid's Gold and Waterford Entry

 Waterford Entry

 Installation View

I'se da Buoy and Distorts

 Distorts - Installation View

Distorts - Installation View

Outports and Distorts

 Installation View

I'se da Buoy and Lukey's Boat

Assemblage - Suitcase Works 

Sebastian's Journal and Personal Ad

Synets

Needle felted portrait sculpture - Installation View

Media Room - Video Projection

 

Mailarta's Performance Costume

This show is dedicated to my brother Tony G. Roberts, 1958-2014

Assemblage, Martin Batchelor Gallery, Victoria, BC, CANADA

Opening night at the"Assemblage" show

Opening Saturday November 30th 7:00 - 9:00 PM

Martin Batchelor Gallery

With Artists in attendance:

Rachel Hallner

Dorothy Field

Dale Roberts

Martin Batchelor

Hope to see you there!

Love and Monsters, Rebekah Hall, Bear River, Nova Scotia, CANADA

"Pansies and Palm Readings"

Found objects, wood, string, encaustic

February 2013:

Rebekah Hall

1886 Clementsvale Rd.

Open call to artists anywhere and everywhere to submit work for upcoming gallery show LOVE and MONSTERS. Opening Friday February 15, 7 pm.

This gallery show is curated by Ken Flett and Jon Welch. Please contact kenflett@gmail.com for more info. “Like” Love and Monsters on facebook for artist promos and sneak peaks!

Framing the Garden, Reflections of Victoria, edited by Linda Rogers

Linda Rogers has put together an anthology of Victoria painters and poets in this newly released book called Framing the Garden, it is one of her many poet laureate projects. 

Just released by Ekstasis Editions.

Victoria, the Garden City famous for its felicitous climate and heritage charm, is also renowned for its flourishing artistic community. Drawn to the beauty of Vancouver Island and the vibrant culture of a livable city, poets and artists have chosen this location as home. In Framing the Garden: Reflections of Victoria, Poet Laureate Linda Rogers presents a tapestry of contemporary Victoria, composed of images, poetry and prose by its many acclaimed authors and artists. Including work by poets such as PK Page and Patricia Young and artists Robert Amos, Miles Lowry and Phyllis Serota, Framing the Garden reveals a lively cultural centre, where past and present, words and images, nature and civilization, like sea and shore, are in a constant dance.

I am thrilled that the City of Victoria has chosen this book as my poet laureate legacy project. Artists should work together as models of co-operation for the world around us. As in the time of Keats, truth and beauty live together. I wanted my legacy project to reflect that desideratum. In Victoria we have artists, poets, painters and dancers collaborating all the time. Companies like Suddenly Dance and Ballet Victoria include spoken word in their performances. Many of our poets work with musicians. Ekphrasis, poets responding to visual art, is common practice.

Even though we couldn’t fit dancers and fiddle players in this book, we hope the poems and paintings sing and dance for you.

We couldn’t fit in all the fine poets and painters who work in our garden, but we do hope this book represents their fabulous variety.

~ Linda Rogers

Body Language, Martin Batchelor Gallery, Victoria, BC

October 7 – Oct 21
BODY LANGUAGE

Venue: Martin Batchelor Gallery
Address: 712 Cormorant Street (250) 385-7919
Gallery Hours: Open Monday to Saturday, 10am-5pm
Admission: FREE
*Come to the opening reception Oct 7, 7pm-9pm!

You are invited to the opening reception Friday, Oct 7 @ 7pm-9pm! Proceeds from the sale of these artworks support new programs in this year’s ROMP! Festival.
Featuring:

• Georgia Angelopoulos
• Fran Baskerville
• Allan Edgar
• David Ferguson
• Roy Green
• Heather Keenan
• Miles Lowry
• Abe Murley
• Debi O’Herir (Ireland)
• Dale Roberts
• Waine Ryzak
• Phylis Serota
• Irma Soltonovich
• Roberta Pyx Sutherland
• Joanne Thomson & Greg Glover

Special thanks to Martin Batchelor for his support of this program.