Interested in what you can expect to see in our Main Gallery this summer? Keep on reading!
Peter Adams is an award-winning painter born in Glasgow, Scotland. Raised in Toronto, he now lives and works in Collingwood, Ontario. He has a Film degree from Queen’s University, but now focuses all of his creative energy on his visual art practice. Adams has received numerous grants from the Ontario Arts Council and has been a finalist in both the Salt Spring National Art Prize and the Kingston Prize, Canada’s national portrait competition.
During his travels to the Amazon rainforest and the Arctic Circle, Adams explored the human relationship with landscape through small paintings in what he calls “specimens" and “souvenir” boxes. As a recipient of Georgian Bay Land Trust’s King Family Bursary in 2022, he has found inspiration in the GBLT's Rose Island Nature Reserve. The artist was particularly intrigued by the fact that this island boasts an ecosystem very unlike the familiar landscapes of the surrounding area. He has since created a series of paintings in small iPad boxes, seeking artistic specimens that shed light on the unique flora, fauna and geology there.
"I think that these new works create an interesting dialogue about how we value the land and how we relate to unaltered landscapes,” says Adams. “The unique ecosystem at the centre of the island that makes up the Rose Island Reserve is surrounded by cottages and seems a great symbol of how our society balances conservation with the need for recreation and resource extraction. Such ruminations seem important now more than ever. It is my hope that my Specimen Series would provide audiences with a compelling reason for discourse on the importance of conservation and on the need for immersion in nature in this era of social isolation and technological dependency."
For the month of May, Peter Adams’ Rose Island Project will be previewed at Trestle Island Brewery in Parry Sound, a short distance from the Rose Island Reserve. A larger version of the exhibit will be featured from June 21st to August 17th, 2024, at Quest Art School + Gallery in Midland, Ontario. A public reception will take place at Quest on the evening of Friday, June 21st, 2024. All are welcome!
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