Forget the Art, Let's Party!

Exhibition runs: December 7th to 29th, 2024
viewable Friday through Sunday, 12-6 PM
At Hermes Gallery, 5682 North St, Halifax

Opening Reception: Dec 7th, 2 - 6 PM, with a talk by Eryn Foster starting at 3 PM. The artist talk will be livestreamed over zoom and ASL interpretation will be provided.

Click to register for the artist talk live stream

The reception and exhibition is mask-mandatory. 
Masks will be provided. 

Online Exhibition launching on December 7th

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In 2006, members of Eyelevel were invited to contribute works no larger than 4 x 4 x 4 inches under the following prompt:

“In 2024, Eyelevel Gallery will be celebrating its 50th anniversary, and digging up buried treasure! The Members’ exhibition currently on display will, at the end of the month, be placed in a time capsule and buried at a secret location, not to be seen again for 18 long years.

Eyelevel Gallery has a reputation for seeking out and promoting contemporary art and artists. Its members live in Halifax and across the country, consisting of both well established names and new emerging voices. These are the artists that have been invited to contribute to this collective show. Submissions will be accepted up until the final day. On July 29th, following appropriate celebrations, the time capsule will be closed and hidden away until 2024.”

The works in this members’ exhibition are playful and irreverent, beckoning some of the long-standing questions in artist-run culture such as who gets to make determinations on the value of what we consider to be “good” or “bad” art? “High” or “low” quality? Do we derive value in the things we make, from their longevity, or  the memories they invoke and how they bring people together? How do we mark the passage of time in our city as artists, and what, if any, responsibility do we have as witnesses or instigators of its changes?

18 years later, the Time Capsule has been collected and its contents exhumed. This show reconnects old friends and new community in a quirky and touching display of nostalgia, artistic coming-of-age, and mid-2000s Halifax. Eyelevel is proud to celebrate our 50th Anniversary with members across disciplines, cities, and breadths of life.
 

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Artists (in no particular order)

Brian Lamey, Katharine Hanczaryk, Francesca Tallone, Gregory Denton, Kate O'Connor, Jane Mason-Browne, Mitchell Wiebe, Christina Gunn, Sofia Ferrari, Brenna Paige Phillips, Christine Holzer-Hunt, Lucas Dambergs, Bruce Barber, John Murchie, Terry Piercey, Sojourner Parsons, Marissa Gough, Mireille Bourgeois, Larissa Muzzy, Sophie Pilipczuk, Michael Young, Erin Jamieson, Tonia Di Risio, Sue Mills, Ginger Scott, Patrick Rapati, Robert Zigone, Andrew McLaren, Gerard Choy, Cocco Russell Falk, Joseph Russell Falk, Michael Fernandes, Mathew Reichertz, Alisha Boyd, Jason Johnson, Adriana Kuiper, Rose Adams, Tim Watson, Mary Wong, Johanna van Waarden, Janus McBride, Terry Havlis Drahos, Nicola Mulder, Jeremy Vaughan, Konrad Wendt, Steven Fisher, James MacSwain, Sym Corrigan and Mathew Reichertz, Christa Romley

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About Hermes Gallery

Founded by Emily Jones in 2013, Hermes formally became an artist co-operative in March 2015. Hermes Gallery is run by an associated membership of 18 local artists who contribute through membership fees and volunteer labour towards its upkeep. It rotates monthly exhibitions showcasing artwork and curatorial initiatives by its membership. 

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About Dalhousie Killam Library Archives

Eyelevel’s archives are held at the Dalhousie University Killam Memorial Library. The University Archives holds extensive primary source material to support research and teaching at Dalhousie and beyond. These records are donated by organizations, private individuals, and families and include the archives of writers, artists, architects, politicians, activists, and private citizens as well as collectives, non-profit societies, professional associations, labour unions, and other organizations. The University Archives and Special Collections Reading Room is located on the 5th floor of the Killam Memorial Library, 6225 University Avenue. For more information on access, please visit https://libraries.dal.ca/find/university-archives/visitorInformation.html

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About Eryn Foster

Eryn Foster is an interdisciplinary artist based in K’jipuktuk/Halifax. She also works (sometimes)  as a filmmaker, educator, curator, community arts facilitator and arts consultant. Formerly the Director of Eyelevel Gallery (2005-2009) she has previously also worked as the Program Director for the Yukon School of Visual Arts in Dawson City. Foster received her BFA from Concordia University in Montreal and her MFA from the University of Guelph and also studied documentary film at Capilano University. For the past 18 years she has worked as regular part-time faculty at NSCAD University where she teaches in the Department of Fine Arts.

Over the past two decades Foster has presented her work at numerous artist-run centres, public galleries and museums as well as ongoing exhibitions at Hermes Gallery, in Halifax, where she is a member of the collective. She has received several awards and grants for her work including ones from the Canada Council for the Arts and Arts Nova Scotia. Most recently she completed her first documentary film, a feature she directed and produced in collaboration with her friend Sue Johnson. Titled Celestial Queer: The Life, Work and Wonder of James MacSwain, the film won the Award for Best Atlantic Feature Documentary at the Atlantic International Film Festival in 2023. She is currently working on her second documentary, an experimental biopic about Dartmouth-based artist John Devlin. When not working on her creative endeavours, Foster is involved with community arts advocacy and collaborating on community arts projects with  organizations such as Visual Arts Nova Scotia.