[BCMA] [MEDIA RELEASE] As Above, So Below opens at the Kelowna Art Gallery

Wed Sep 6 09:39:51 PDT 2023

Hi all, following up as we received no pick up from any media, possibly due to the ongoing wildfires and recent rock slide. Appreciate if this might be considered. It is still timely and newsworthy IMHO. Best regards, Josh

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For Immediate Release

As Above, So Below opens at the Kelowna Art Gallery

As Above, So Below: Mary Smith McCulloch

August 26, 2023 to January 7, 2024

August 30, 2023 - Kelowna, BC: Artist Mary Smith McCulloch is intricately woven into the fabric of Kelowna's visual arts community. In the 1970s, she founded the Printmaking program at UBC Okanagan, has been passionately dedicated to her artistic practice for decades, and has touched countless lives through her instruction and exhibitions ever since.

Audiences can now view a selection of McCulloch's beautiful and deftly created prints in As Above, So Below at the Kelowna Art Gallery. It opened this past weekend.

Born in the coastal village of Ardrishaig, Scotland, Mary Smith McCulloch uses Intaglio printmaking as a communicative medium that probes the depth of human attachment to memory and place while illustrating the impact of people, past and present, on the land.

Visitors can see this in her Liminal Spaces series, which features imagery inspired by Paganism, Christianity, and ancient mythical traditions. The artist used found objects from her property, including rope, cedar, cones, and fossils, in tandem with her unique etching technique to create prints rich in texture and finely incised lines that explore the uncharted territory between reality and imagination.

McCulloch expands on her Orchard drawing series, started in the 1980s, revisiting it with a series of etchings like Glenmore Pear Trees II, which features her recurring depiction of iconic trees, this time aligned in perfect rows, emphasizing the imprint of humankind and the altered landscape.

In the series Earth, Wind, Water, Air, McCulloch continues to investigate how humans mark the land. Her meditations use chine-collé to create dreamy portraits of her archetypal Okanagan tree floating between heaven and earth, neither truly tethered nor freely suspended.

"As Above, So Below captures the delicate intersection of fact and fiction, memory and reality, past and present," says Curator Christine May. "It takes viewers out of the present, transports them back through layers of time and history, and invites us all to be witness to the future."

As Above, So Below can be seen until January 7, 2024. It is proudly supported by the Nicolay Family Art Fund.

Mary Smith McCulloch will be presenting as part of a Printmaking Panel Discussion held at the Kelowna Art Gallery on Tuesday, September 12, 2023, from 6 to 7 pm. She will be joined by fellow printmakers Briar Craig and Laura Widmer. It will be moderated by Curator Christine May. This event is free and open to the public to attend.

An Opening Reception, which was postponed due to the recent wildfires threat, will be  held on Friday, September 29, 2023, from 6 to 8 pm. Artist Mary Smith McCulloch will be in attendance. This event is free and open to the public to attend.

The Kelowna Art Gallery is located at 1315 Water Street, in downtown Kelowna, B.C.

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Image Credits

Mary Smith McCulloch at her Okanagan printmaking studio, July 2023. Photo: Joshua Desnoyers

Mary Smith McCulloch, Glenmore Pear Trees II, 2016, Etching A/P. Courtesy of the artist.

Mary Smith McCulloch, Earth, 2020, Etching 1/7. Courtesy of the artist.

Mary Smith McCulloch, Liminal Spaces, 2020, Etching 1/7. Courtesy of the artist.

Mary Smith McCulloch in As Above, So Below, August 2023. Photo: Joshua Desnoyers

Resources

Exhibition Webpage: https://kelownaartgallery.com/as-above-so-below/

To arrange for an interview, filming within the exhibition, or for additional high-res images, please contact:

Joshua Desnoyers

Marketing and Events Coordinator

Kelowna Art Gallery

1315 Water Street, Kelowna, BC V1Y 9R3

250-762-2226 ext. 305

josh at kelownaartgallery.com<mailto:josh at kelownaartgallery.com>

www.kelownaartgallery.com<http://www.kelownaartgallery.com>
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