Two New Hampshire photographers, Art Ferrier and Keith Spiro, who have been taking photos during their travels to Canada for many years, will be exhibiting their work at Chimera Gallery in Nashua. Artist reception Saturday April 22nd at six pm with special guests and sponsorship from the Canadian Consulate General’s office and the Quebec Delegation to Boston.
br>
OCANADArt
A Celebration of Canada in Photographs
April 15 - May 27, 2006 at Chimera Gallery, Nashua NH
Saturdays 1pm - 5pm or by appointment.
If you haven't been to Canada lately, or if you haven't thought about your neighbor to the north, come see it through a new lens.
Two New Hampshire photographers have for years been capturing the flavor of a place that’s very nearby but feels very far away. It’s easy to feel close to Canada not just because it’s due north of New Hampshire and shares a border. New Hampshire has long had a strong French-Canadian influence, which has shaped the state in various ways
The works of Art Ferrier and Keith Spiro will be on view at Chimera Gallery, a contemporary photography gallery, in Nashua. In their show titled “O CANADArt,” Ferrier and Spiro will demonstrate why they keep on going back to visit and photograph Canada. They are both constantly rediscovering the places, people and cultures in Canada that have long inspired them.
The artists’ reception is sponsored by the government of Quebec and the Canadian Consulate in Boston. The photographers, as well as a representative of the Consulate General’s office, will be on hand as they pay homage to their friends to the north at the opening reception on Saturday April 22, 2006 at 6 p.m. Also featured at the reception will be French-Canadian music and food.
Canada always beckons Ferrier, of Nashua. He has traveled there often, camera in hand, adoringly recording the colorful scenes he loves. ”I have driven across the country twice, and have spent countless weekends and longer vacations in Montreal and Quebec, two of my favorite places,” Ferrier says. “This exhibition contains the greatest range of images that I have ever combined in one show, with urban abstracts mixed with broad landscapes as big as Canada itself.”
Spiro, of Manchester, is also well-traveled in Canada – he has been to every province. He will be not only exhibiting color images from his many weekend jaunts across the border to the urban, and very European Montreal, but also some rare and special black and white images from the Yukon Territories of the 1970s. Spiro says he loves bringing everyday objects and scenes into artistic focus. “My Montreal depicts gated driveways with graffiti and the contrasting sides of old Victorian buildings,” he says. Colors and shapes play a large part in his work, and when in Montreal, he says, his sensibilities are impacted differently. “There is an intense flair to the colors and textures in Montreal, stronger tones of maroon and mustard,” for example, that he has not seen anywhere else, “and that’s very Canadian to me,” Spiro says.
“Keith brings out the spirit of his subjects” says Marcus Scott, owner of Chimera Gallery. “His work reminds me so much of the great artist Andy Warhol. Keith sees art in everything and brings it out so well.”
O CANADArt will be on view through May 27, 2006. Gallery is open Saturdays from noon until 5 pm and at other times by appointment by calling (603) 888-2661.
Directions to Gallery: From Main Street in Downtown Nashua, turn onto Water Street,then make a right onto Factory Street, immediately making a right turn into the Clocktower apartment complex. Travel parallel to the apartments and then beyond the last building recessed on the right is 99 Factory Street Extension, denoted by a large “99” on the building’s outer wall. Chimera Gallery is on the third floor of this building, also known as the Picker Building.
