Gage Gallery’s The Other Side, a solo exhibition by MJ Hughes, offers solace to those finding themselves ungrounded in a post-pandemic world, and wondering where and what comes next.
MJ Hughes’ new series of oil paintings focuses on bridges, tunnels, views across bays and ferries approaching and departing, speaking to our actual and imagined, physical and transcendent journeys from one place to another.
The exhibition opens November 2 in Gage Gallery’s new location in Victoria’s Bastion Square. It runs until November 21.
These works, sparked by the artist’s curiosity in what lies on “the other side,” look across, through and beyond—towards something else that is evoked in the landscape.
“I am drawn to imagery that suggests passage from one place to another—that considers where I am standing, the far shore and what lies in between,” Hughes says.
“I process these images viscerally through colour and gesture,” she says of her working method. “I find that this engagement of senses through paint helps to quell my fears of the unknown and reveal suggestions of places to find hope and connection.”
The public is invited to meet the artist at an opening reception on Saturday, November 6 from 3 to 5 pm. Entertainment will be by musician Richard Blair.
Gage Gallery is a collective of 22 artists who support each other in creativity and through collaboration. New exhibitions rotate every three weeks.
MJ Hughes has worked for 30 years as a curator in public galleries across Canada and is currently director of UVic’s Legacy Art Galleries. In recent years, she has turned to exploring her own painting practice in her studio, situated high up on a cliff above Montague Harbour, Galiano Island. She splits her time between Galiano and Victoria, and is often found on ferries moving between here and the other side.
Richard Blair first experienced the Gulf Islands in 1978 playing bass in a jazz quintet that performed throughout the islands, traveling on the historic yacht Meander.
See more of MJ’s work at:
floatingislandsstudio.com. For more information about Gage Gallery Artists Collective visit: gagegallery.ca