The Caetani Centre is excited to present a new art exhibition that celebrates the creativity and talent of youth and the Centre’s growing community of artists. The Creating Space – Artists of Caetani exhibition will showcase work from both emerging young artists and established artists who are part of the Centre’s studio community.
The exhibition is named after the Centre’s youth artist program, Creating Space, and features artwork created during a series of workshops and open studio sessions held at the Caetani Centre over the winter months. This includes pieces from the youth participants and workshop facilitators, Sal Snarf, Sienna Belanger-Lee, jaz papadopoulos, and Odessa Clough.
Artist-in-Residence
Cuyler Page
Cuyler grew up in Ithaca, New York with Cornell University as his childhood playground. After studies in Architecture at Cornell, Cuyler became one of the first Apprentices of the famed futurist architect Paolo Soleri in the Arizona desert. There, he lived in the manner of a medieval apprentice with the Master and his family at the workplace named Cosanti. The concept of Archology was birthed during Cuyler’s years with Soleri, continuing today in the place named Arcosanti, north of Phoenix, Arizona. Cosant is Soleri’s contraction of two Italian words, Cosa (“of the earth”) and Anti (“an alternative to”) joined to mean “an alternative to materialism”.
In 1962, Cuyler travelled to Vancouver, British Columbia with an exhibit of Soleri’s work, and fell in love with Vancouver and the Canadian social and political environment. He returned to study music at the University of British Columbia, discovering there the beauties of performing Renaissance and Baroque music. In 1969, he became Founding Secretary for the Vancouver Society of Early Music. Specializing in historically informed performance of Early Music, he focuses on Renaissance and Baroque wind instruments, playing chamber music on fine replicas of historic instruments. An active member of the Okanagan classical and Early Music scene since 1972, he has performed professionally on bassoon and contrabassoon in orchestras such as the Okanagan Symphony, the Symphony of the Kootenays, Prince George Symphony, Kamloops Symphony and the Kamloops Brandenburg Orchestra. However, chamber music is his real love, and today he plays bassoon in Wind Jammers Woodwind Quintet, and Early Baroque instruments in the Oko Baroquo ensemble.
Studio Artist
Gabrielle Strong
Gabrielle Strong (she/her) is a full-time studio artist and part-time art instructor at the Vernon Community Art Centre. A graduate of Emily Carr University, her practice is split between painting, ceramics and public art. Prior to attending ECUAD, she spent five years travelling to over 70 countries on all seven continents by sea, leaving her with a deep connection to the ocean. Those years at sea left their mark and coupled with twenty years living on the West Coast, she is forever drawn to themes of water, weather and sky, which reoccur throughout her art practice.
Originally from Vancouver, Gabrielle came to Vernon as the first Caetani ceramic artist-in-residence in 2015, which ultimately led her to make the Okanagan her home permanently. Following her residency, she coordinated the Caetani AiR program, further solidifying her connection to the Centre. In 2017 as part of Canada 150, Gabrielle was awarded a major public art commission by the Government of Canada, City of Vernon and Downtown Vernon Association to commemorate Canada’s 150th anniversary, whereby she enlisted the community to help create an over 100-foot long winding river mosaic in downtown Vernon. More recently, Gabrielle has exhibited her paintings solo at Gallery Vertigo and at the Peachland Art Gallery. Her paintings are represented by Ashdale Gallery and PXP Contemporary.
“Rags to Riches” Series (2015)
During my CeramAiR artist residency hosted by the Caetani Centre and Vernon Community Arts Centre, I explored my painting practice and specifically the canvas through the medium of clay. These sculptural works reference the canvas while offering an examination into the materiality and temporality of the painted surface. As I continue to work with fabric and clay as an extension of my paintbrush, the fluidity of water comes into play as liquid porcelain replaces paint as my medium. This installation is both about loss and process. Each hand-dipped rag references brushstrokes of the artist’s hand, while capturing individual moments frozen time, never to be repeated the same twice.