The Gladstone Hotel’s “If Walls Could Talk”

The Gladstone Hotel continues with its longstanding tradition of hosting unique and creative art shows with the juried exhibition of “If Walls Could talk.” A show which transforms the second floor of the historic hotel through experiential illustration. Submissions were accepted back in May 2013, with the final proposals selected in August. The exhibition has been on since March 6 and runs until Sunday March 30th.

On Tuesday, the Venue team decided to go check out the show and to see what their walls had to say. While there, we met with Britt Welter-Nolan, Managing Director of Artistic Practice, and were able to sit down with her to get a little background on both The Gladstone and the show itself.

Built in 1889, The Gladstone Hotel is one of the oldest operating hotels in the city. The hotel hosts daily exhibitions, has studio rental programs, 37 unique hotel rooms (all designed by Canadian artists), a cocktail reception room and much more. As Welter-Nolan explains, their motive is “to cultivate relations between local artists and to invite people into the Queen West art community.” The Gladstone aims to provide an open space for creativity and aims to be as accessible and welcoming as possible.

When talking about their current exhibit ‘If Walls Could Talk’ Welter-Nolan explained that the goal of the show is to focus on handmade art, and to explore the different ways illustration can be unpacked in a multi-dimensional platform. As we walked through the exhibit, the show truly demonstrated a high level of artistic production, with the attention to detail being evident in each piece.

IMPRESSIONS:

Upon entering the show, the first thing we saw was a flock of paper birds above our heads. What made this piece really stand out, however was the intricate shadow it casted on the wall. This celebration of nature by Rachael Ashe was in stark contrast to the piece directly to its right, where Min Gyo (Daniel) Chung’s work stood, displaying three blow-up Terracotta sex dolls with a painted piece behind it. These two works were what greeted us as we entered the room, and made us eager to see more.

We visited a few of the other rooms included one completely covered in stenciled black and white drawings, combining Renaissance and cartoonish themes with a few Canadian symbols mixed in. Another contained a large wooden car, partially crashed into the wall, complete with wheels spinning and the radio playing.

The third room we visited replicated a hotel room made entirely out of construction paper, including a bed, bedside tables and a desk with a phone. As promised, each room held and elaborated on a unique idea and completely immersed the viewer in a different world. Experience these rooms for yourself and much more at The Gladstone’s “If Walls Could Talk” running until March 30th.

Check it out while you still can!

The Venue Team