MEDITATIONS: THE STILL LIVES OF LESLIE POOLE
Saturday, January 9 - Wednesday, March 31, 2021
After 11 months of isolation and computer screens, have we lost the ability to “see” the real world around us?
The ACT Art Gallery welcomes a unique retrospective exhibition that may have the answer, featuring the still life works of one of Canada's most extensively recognized and collected artists, Leslie Poole.
Meditations: The Still Lives of Leslie Poole opened Saturday, January 9 and has been curated by Guest Curator, Dr. Angela Clarke, the Museum Director and Curator at the Italian Cultural Centre of Vancouver’s Il Museo. The show runs to March 31,2021.
Poole’s work asks the viewer to step away from technology and our fear-of-missing-out social media and embrace the things we usually ignore in everyday life. He believes that in that engagement, in that recognition of the natural world, we’ll find the wisdom and mystery that technology and isolation lacks.
The still lives in the exhibition present things we have seen so often - fruit in a bowl, flowers in a vase, a dish with a rug – even the coffee pot on our kitchen counter. Yet, with new ways to look at these subjects through the use of artistic devises – negative space, shapes, unconventional representations – we are asked to take a second look and reevaluate our expectations.
“Mr. Poole has worked in many styles on the painted canvas - abstract, realism, postmodern - returning to the still life as a means to reflect on the mystery of life,” explains Dr. Clarke. “The ability to embrace the mundane is now more true than ever, as we find ways to appreciate the moment on our way through this pandemic."
Meditations is perhaps just that – a chance to reflect less on our months of seclusion and a reminder to use art to emerge back into the tangible and tactile world.
About Dr. Angela Clarke
Dr. Clarke is the Museum Director and Curator at the Italian Cultural Centre of Vancouver’s Il Museo. She has previously served as an Assistant Curator at UBC’s Koerner Ceramics Gallery. She holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia specializing in Italian women, religion and decorative art. Dr. Clarke lectures on textiles and decorative art at academic conferences and community events.
About Leslie Poole
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Vancouver-based artist Leslie Poole is internationally exhibited, and has had over 115 solo exhibitions in Canada and the US; one-person shows in Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco; and his work has been shown in solo exhibitions in numerous Canadian museums.
Mr. Poole’s work has been purchased for major public, corporate, and private collections from Victoria, British Columbia, to St. John's, Newfoundland. He holds a MFA from Yale University.
A public event with the artist and guest curator will be announced later in the exhibition, when The ACT is able to host larger gatherings.
The ACT Arts Centre gratefully acknowledges the partnership with the Italian Cultural Centre of Vancouver on this exhibit.
View Parts I and II of a two-part conversation about this exhibition between artist Leslie Poole and Guest Curator Angela Clarke
SECATEURS, 1996, 40 X 26 INCHES, ACRYLIC & GRAPHITE ON RAG BOARD
META STILL LIFE, 2002, 40 X 60 INCHES, ACRYLIC & GRAPHITE ON CANVAS
REQUIUM, 1984, 34 X 39 INCHES, ACRYLIC ON MASONITE
BOWL WITH TEXTILE, 2013, 40 X 26 INCHES, ACRYLIC & GRAPHITE ON CANVAS
FANTIN-LATOUR PEONIES, 2014, 30 X 22 INCHES, MIXED MEDIA ON RAG PAPER
ACT ART GALLERY | TICKETS AND ATTENDANCE
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