Creating a conversation between two series of prints from the School of Art Gallery’s Permanent Collection, Sensibility reflects on classic art historical themes, the idea of an artist’s multiple, as well as the dialogues and lessons that occur between artists over time and across mediums. Juxtaposing six still-life serigraphs created by Vancouver based artist Torrie Groening (1965 – present), alongside a series of ‘top-hat’ lithographs created by Winnipeg artist Kelly Clark (1935-1995), the viewer encounters an age-old dichotomy between material and non-material culture, between the interior and exterior landscapes that inform the human experience. While Groening’s playful still-life arrangements encourage the viewer to considered embodiment through the lens of “the five human senses,” Clark’s reoccurring top-hats provoke feelings of mystery, the uncanny, and perhaps unknowable sides of humanity, that seem to elude definition. With a background in printmaking from Emily Carr Collage of Art and Design, Groening’s artistic practise makes use of both old and new technologies. Creating installations, photographs and prints that represent “multi- linear and often auto-fictive narratives,” 1 Groening’s images respond to and reformulate the art historical tradition of still-life painting. In Studio Tests of the Senses - Taste, a wooden table 1 Groening, Torrie. “About.” Torrie Groening. Accessed September 26, 2018. http://www.torriegroening.com/ about/. presents an unusual collection of fragrant objects. At the center of the image, a large lab flask filled with pink fizzy liquid emits a white-grey cloud of smoke. To its left, a small silver fish held up on fork, propped inside a shot glass, almost appears to swim above a salt shaker and chocolates below. To the right, a clear cylinder water glass containing a cherry backgrounds a small blue medical pill, barely noticeable in the foreground. Nearby, a campaign cork sits below a levitating green olive, that in turn sits below two plastic wrapped peppermints hanging from a light blue ribbon. Finally, at the tables right edge, a test tube filled with red hot chili peppers emits flame like particles into the air. A bizarre arrangement of objects indeed, the scene is a critical stance on the excess of material goods, and the almost always absurd or uncanny nature of ‘luxury’ goods. Ranging from the personal to the fantastical, this still-life print emphasizing the human urge to observe, analyze, control and consume the exterior world. In stark contrast to Groening’s images, Clark’s series of top-hat lithographs, so-called because of the recurring motif, remove the viewer from bodily experience and sensory understanding. Transporting the viewer to the territory of the mind where unlimited possibilities exist. A Canadian artist raised in the St. Vital neighborhood of Winnipeg, Clark attended the University of Manitoba’s School of Art from 1954 to 1958. 2 Supporting himself as a folk 2 Goldsborough, Gordon. “Memorable Manitobans: Kelly Clark (1935-1995).” Manitoba Historical Society. Accessed Sept. 25, 2018. www.mhs.mb.ca/people/clark_k.shtml singer, graphics editor and art director of the Canadian Dimension magazine, Clark worked across many mediums as well. 3 While never achieving broad acclaim as a visual artist, his name remains familiar in Winnipeg’s art scene. In his print New Year’s Eve – Old Market Square, visual reality is altered and enacted in the same moment. In the picture’s midground, a dark grey top-hat appears large and looming, levitating under a night sky that is speckled with pink string-lights. Four dark silhouetted trees stand barren below the top-hat, lining a snow-covered field. At bottom of the picture plane, a fir tree peaks up from the image’s border. Spot-lighted by a mysterious white square whose centre features some black dashes which form a circle, Calrk has organized familiar objects and visual motifs into seemingly impossible relationship with one another. Immersing the viewer into a state of uncertainty, and pushing open the chasm between reality and the imaginary even further than Groening’s still-life images, the viewer descends into a dream like arena where one can no longer grasp onto fact or reality. 3 Adamson, Arthur. “The Art of Kelly Clark: Polarities and the Communicative Vision.” Arts Manitoba – Issue 8, Vol- ume 2, Number 4, September 1983. Sensibility Torrie Groening & Kelly Clark School of Art Gallery, Special Collections Gallery OCT. 18 – NOV. 2, 2018 Exhibition Organized by Jamie Wright Exhibition Text by Genevieve Farrell Kelly Clark Canadian, 1935-1995 New Year’s Eve - Old Market Square, 1979 Silkscreen Torrie Groening Canadian, b. 1965 Studio Tests of the Senses - Nature, 1998 Serigraph, ink on paper