Tragedy Plus Time opens at the Dunlop Art Gallery tonight. It’s a big undertaking, featuring work by 19 local, national and international artists. It’s so big, in fact, that some of the work will be on display at the Dunlop’s branch gallery at Sherwood Village Library.
The curatorial side of the show is a group effort involving three members of the Dunlop’s staff: Blair Fornwald, Jennifer Matotek and Wendy Peart. The title is lifted from the quote “comedy is tragedy plus time” that’s been attributed variously to Mark Twain, Steve Allen, Carol Burnett, Lenny Bruce and Woody Allen.
In the context of this show, it refers to the idea of artists exploring the tragicomic impulse in art — which in turn relates to the human capacity to use humour to cope with tragedy.
We’ll likely have a review of Tragedy Plus Time in an upcoming issue of Prairie Dog. If you want to check the show out for yourself, there’s an opening reception and artist talk by Divya Mehra tonight at 6 p.m. at Central Library, and a second artist talk by Jason Cawood at Sherwood Village Library Saturday at 1 p.m. (that’s a sample of Mehra’s work [The Postulation of Reality] above, while a sample of Cawood’s work [Little Butch Girl] is pictured after the jump).
As I noted in a July 2 blog post, there’s a reception at the MacKenzie Gallery tonight for an exhibition called Beat Nation. A free shuttle service is running between the Dunlop and MacKenzie between 7:15 and 9:15 p.m. so it offers a great chance to check out both shows and visit a bit with fellow art enthusiasts.
If you can’t make it out tonight, Tragedy Plus Time runs at the Dunlop and Sherwood Village Gallery until Aug. 25. There’s also a trio of performances planned for July 30, Aug. 20-21 and Aug. 27. I’ll have more on those down the road.