Director's Message

It is a great pleasure to write my first message to you as the new Director/Curator of Rodman Hall Art Centre at Brock University. As we begin a new year, I am very optimistic about great things ahead. In 2012, the Niagara Region celebrates its designation as a Cultural Capital of Canada. This year is also the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 and a range of commemorative activities will mark it across Ontario and Canada. Rodman Hall Art Centre is a proud community partner and will participate in both celebrations by offering people innovative ways to connect with contemporary art.

As you will read in this issue of our newsletter, the coming season will include exciting exhibitions that make reference to the history of art while slyly questioning our contemporary culture. Internationally celebrated Canadian sculptor, Brendan Tang creates fantastic “mash-ups” that collide references to traditional Asian ceramics with fantastic robotic prosthetics, critiquing the present-day glut of global consumerism. Kent Monkman is an artist of Cree ancestry that works in painting, installation, film and performance media. In his solo show called The Four Continents: Miss America, Monkman puts a queer twist into grand paintings of the majestic landscape, inserting images that subversively raise questions about the persistence of colonialism in our politics. In our Project Space, hometown DJ, noise and sound artist, Marinko Jareb will be contributing a project that asserts the relevance of vinyl recordings in an increasingly digital world.

As I begin my tenure as Director/Curator, I am full of optimism about a great future for this venerable institution. I also think that a reckoning with the past is the best way to frame a vision of tomorrow. Over the coming months, I look forward to meeting all of you and hearing about your history with Rodman Hall. Together, let’s muse about what the years ahead can hold.

See you at the Gallery,

Stuart Reid
Director/Curator