On Saturday, September 9, the Tom Thomson Art Gallery unveiled three new exhibitions including a major exhibition by artist Roly Fenwick.
Born in Owen Sound in 1932, Roly Fenwick has spent decades immersed in the region’s beauty and energy, transmitting it into lush, psychologically charged paintings. Throughout his career, Fenwick has divided his time between his home and studio in London, Ontario, and a family cabin in Big Bay. Wherever he is, Fenwick carries an intrinsic connection with the trees, swamps, and escarpment that the Bruce Peninsula encompasses, areas that he returns to both physically and inwardly to fuel his artistic practice. This exhibition presents Fenwick’s landscape and figurative paintings simultaneously, blurring the lines of distinction that separate each genre.
Also opening is (Re)Inventing Wilderness, an exhibition by Gary Blundell and Victoria Ward, that examines the enduring impact and evidence of the logging industry within the post-industrial landscape through a multidisciplinary project in dialog with paintings and photographs by Tom Thomson. Blundell and Ward acknowledge that the concept of wilderness is something that many people have come to need and continue to reinvent, but their work exposes how industry and landscape are deeply interwoven.
The exhibition Tom Thomson: Field of Vision – Part Two will be a continuation of the first curation, further exploring the photographs that Tom Thomson captured during the last seven years of his life. The photographs will be in conversation with some of his oil sketches, drawings, and artifacts.
“Roly Fenwick has always been one of my favourite artists because his paintings capture the beauty of Grey-Bruce. We hope everyone will come to visit The TOM this fall to enjoy the spectacular new exhibitions,” offered Owen Sound Mayor Ian Boddy.
“All three exhibitions build on local connections, themes, and subject matter with an intentional focus on examining landscape through a lens that feels as much personal as social. At its core, the curatorial narrative is about humans and our environment; how we interact with it, what it means to us, and how we view it,” noted Aidan Ware, Director and Chief Curator.
