New St. Marys art exhibit brings northern feel to southern Ontario

A new exhibit at a St. Marys, Ont., art gallery is bringing the feels of Northern Ontario to the south.

St. Marys Station Gallery’s latest exhibit, “Northern Journey,” features artworks by artist Lionel Venne.

Venne, born in 1936, is from Elk Lake, a small town in Northern Ontario.

He began painting at age 17 and is untrained, “which is what makes his work absolutely sensational, because he’s not inhibited by any academic art school training,” said gallery curator Cameron Porteous.

The exhibit features around 20 pieces of Venne’s artworks, which include paintings, sculptures and a few tapestries, including one called “Northern Journey” made specifically for this exhibit.

“(Venne’s) work has a strong Northern Ontario feel about it,” Porteous said. “He responds to the landscapes and the environment (but) he doesn’t want to do it naturalistically, so his work is mostly abstract.”

“He’s doing work that nobody in this area does. It’s completely unique to the type of work that we see down here in this part of Ontario,” the curator continued.

The exhibit runs from July 14 to Aug. 26.

— with files from 980 CFPL’s Marshall Healey 

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