Local art continues to stay at the forefront of the Elm Café’s offerings this fall.
Starting Sep. 5, Kingstonians can engage with Bill Penner’s newest exhibit, Odds/Ends, hosted through the Skeleton Park Arts Festival (SPAF) and the Elm Café, a Kingston coffeehouse known for artist-based events.
The Café has played an important role in making SPAF’s exhibitions accessible to the Kingston community. Odds/Ends is part of a larger series between SPAF and the Elm Café, which features four separate art exhibitions throughout the year from local artists.
Penner’s an established artist in the Kingston community with a long history of collaborating with SPAF. Odds/Ends extends this collaboration, emphasizing the importance of public art in the Skeleton Park neighbourhood and the broader Kingston community.
The exhibit, which “includes works on paper, tyvek, mylar, recycled canvas, cradled panels, and a backlit LED panel,” will feature both traditional and non-traditional forms of presenting art, Penner wrote in a statement to The Journal.
The exhibit also presents a recent shift in Penner’s approach to working with the community. “Following a long period of confining myself and my work to the studio, I’ve realized the need to exhibit work and be visible in the community,” he wrote.
Artistic Director of SPAF Greg Tilson echoed Penner’s sentiment about the importance of connecting with the Kingston community. In an interview with The Journal, Tilson explained that during the Covid-19 pandemic, SPAF shifted their programming to focus on public art installations so that community members could view exhibits in public locations without breaking physical distancing measures.
The “silver lining of the pandemic” merged into a collaboration with the Elm Café, where viewers can now interact with Penner’s exhibit in a “relaxed, informal” environment free of charge, Tilson explained.
Tilson says he’s honoured to continue working with Penner, one of the “most versatile, talented artists in the [Skeleton Park] neighbourhood.” In a statement, Penner also expressed his gratitude to SPAF and the Elm Café for providing him with a space to exhibit his work.
Odds/Ends will be featured at the Elm Café until the end of November.
Tags
Elm Café, exhibition, Kingston, Local Art, Visual art
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