Exhibition Dates: January 13 – February 17, 2023
Opening Reception: Friday January 13, 2023 @ 5 – 8 pm
Virtual artist talk: Saturday January 14, 2023 @ 1pm
ASL interpretation will be provided and live captions will be enabled.
This talk is free to attend and open to the public.
Exhibition Text by Hailey Primrose
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Martha Street Studio is pleased to present Keeping Time, a duo exhibition by Laura Peturson and Andrew Ackerman (ON).
Artist Statement //
In the large-scale print-based murals of Keeping Time, narrative imagery referencing archetypes from children’s literature captures the peculiar experience of time as a state of simultaneous expansion and contraction.
Laura Peturson and Andrew Ackerman’s duo exhibition is inspired by the artists’ experience as parents, collaging figures, natural subject matter such as birds and plant species, along with remnants from child-made forts and structures. These remnants, chosen for their potential to exist in multiple temporal states simultaneously, reference both a time of childhood, and impending adolescence. Originally, these structures provided a space of separation, that allowed for childhood independence and interiority. Their present and future deterioration reference the aging of the children who built them, as well as the constant and cyclical nature of the environment.
During the periods of isolation in the covid 19 pandemic, many of us experienced time in a different way, recalling the adage that the days are long, and the years are short. The artists are interested in the contrast between a conception of time that is measurable and evident in the physical world (erratic boulders, decomposition, etc), with a more fluid, impressionistic conception of time that overlaps memory, observation, and thought.
The exhibition takes an immersive form, with life-sized prints and painted imagery as mural components, and structural imagery emerging from the walls like a pop-up book at human-scale. Rich with layers and detail, Keeping Time invites viewers to experience the work in the way they may have become lost in books or illustrations as a child.
Artist Bios //
Laura Peturson is an artist based in northern Ontario with a practice situated in printmaking, drawing, and painting. Her large-scale print-based installations comprised of woodcut, linocut, and papercut wheatpastes have been presented in solo exhibitions at Alberta Printmakers Gallery (Calgary), Station Gallery (Whitby), and Galerie Atelier Circulaire (Montréal). In addition to exhibiting widely in Canada, and international venues, Peturson has created murals and public art projects in several Ontario cities, including Sudbury, North Bay and Port Burwell. Her work is narrative and figurative, focusing on the lives of girls and women, and drawing upon traditions from the Golden Age of Illustration and engaging with references from literature and visual art from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Laura is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Nipissing University, where she teaches courses in drawing, painting, and printmaking.
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Andrew Ackerman’s practice is based in sculpture and site-specific public installation. His work explores aspects of the human condition, the corporeal body, and placemaking. He employs a variety of material-based approaches in his practice, ranging from modelling and casting to wood and metal fabrication.
Ackerman exhibits both nationally and internationally, including recent exhibitions at the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (Gimpo-Si, Gyeonnggi, South Korea), the International Conference on Residency Education (Halifax, NS), the Alberta Craft Council (Edmonton, AB), and the Santa Paula Museum of Fine Art (Santa Paula, CA). He is currently developing a site-specific interactive project for the Ice Follies Biennial Festival of Contemporary and Community-Engaged Art in North Bay, Ontario.
Andrew is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Nipissing University, where he teaches courses in drawing, sculpture, and interdisciplinary practice.
The artists thank the Ontario Arts Council for their generous support.
Photo documentation by Sarah Fuller.
