Over the years, Oakville Galleries has been building a permanent collection that is gaining a national and international reputation. For this annual permanent collection exhibition, we extended an invitation to the residents of Oakville to collaborate on the selection process.
Get a little closer... is all about building relationships with art and getting to know more about the permanent collection. The project consists of three phases:
1 (instant attraction): From over 1,100 works, we made a careful selection of 75 representative images from the collection. A poster was widely distributed throughout Oakville with printed reproductions of these works along with an invitation to choose up to 15 works from this initial 75. An on-line version is available at the Get a little closer... website. Working from a series of small reproductions, participants call on gut reactions, personal taste and random choice. The method of selection is up to the individual, with responses based on images that intrigue, confuse, provoke – anything that makes a viewer want to know more.
2 (make a connection): Oakville residents sent us their selections. The responses were tallied, and the exhibition consists of the works that received the most interest.
3 (get a little closer...): During the exhibition run, these top selections were on view, and visitors could finally discover the work behind the reproductions.
Participating artists
Harold Town, Naoko Matsubara, Walter Redinger, Judith Schwarz, Ian Carr-Harris, John Scott, Rodney Graham, Joanne Tod, Robin Collyer, Zacharias Kunuk, Louise Noguchi, April Hickox, Kim Moodie, John Brown, Attila Richard Lukacs, Stan Denniston, Peter MacCallum, Magdalen Celestino, Sandra Rechico, Geoffrey James, Edward Burtynsky, Jeremy Borsos
