Harry Stanbridge & Linda Stanbridge: Paint and Fire

September 9 - 21
Opening Reception: September 9, 1-3 PM

Madrona Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works by renowned artists Harry Stanbridge and Linda Stanbridge.

As artists who have worked side by side for decades, Harry Stanbridge and Linda Stanbridge bring their work together for their first public exhibition in over a decade. Using different media and techniques, the two artists build on shared ideas of space and form to transcend the act of simply viewing these works into a spiritually and intellectually charged experience.

Linda Stanbridge is an internationally recognized sculptor, known for her geometric, tactile ‘visual diagrams’. Using a combination of paint, raku fired clay, burnished steel, brushed and powder coated aluminum, Linda portrays an illusion of a three dimensional object, on a two dimensional plain. Standbridge has held solo exhibitions across Canada, the US, and Europe over the past 30 years. Her work is included in the permanent collections of numerous public institutions including, 'Two Rivers Gallery, Prince George B.C.', 'The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, B.C.', 'The University of Victoria', 'The Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa', and 'The Claridge Collection in Montreal Quebec' amongst others.

Harry Stanbridge studied painting with Don Jarvis and Takao Tanabe at the Vancouver School of Art (now the Emily Carr College of Art + Design) from 1963 to 1968. After moving to Victoria, he taught art at Spectrum High School from 1978 to 2003 while maintaining a regular studio practice and exhibiting regularly throughout British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. Inspired by the West Coast style of Hard Edge painting, Stanbridge’s layered surfaces recall sublime emotions and have been described as “meditative devices or windows, through which the participating viewer can attain understanding” (Nicholas Tuele, former curator at AGGV)

Artists’ Statements:

Harry Stanbridge
The paintings in the show are a continuation of the Attic Series where optical events, ambiguous in nature, push and pull for ascendency in the viewer’s eye, and though abstract, resonate with suggested content in accordance with the viewer’s predilection for making meaning.

Linda Stanbridge
I see myself as a sculptor, who is also grounded firmly in painting, and the plastic arts. My art has been born out of a sympathy for Russian Constructivism and American colour field painting. Ideas such as mystery, intuition, the unknowable, play a role in the inspiration and production of my artwork. Through the use of basic materials and ancient process I cause the viewer to question the act of seeing in order to communicate essential ideas beyond both mind and language.