<div dir="ltr"><div><p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><b style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:46.6667px"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:18.2933px">Exhibition Details</span></b><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:14pt;line-height:18.2933px"><br><i>The Mystery Spot</i><br><b>February 28 – April 4</b><br><b>Opening Reception: Saturday, February 28, 1:00–3:00 pm</b><br>at Lake Country Art Gallery</span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:14pt"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:14pt"><br></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:14pt">Lake Country, BC —
Lake Country Art Gallery is pleased to present </span><b style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:14pt"><i>The Mystery Spot</i></b><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:14pt">,
a site-responsive exhibition by Chicago-based artist Alexis de Chaunac. Drawing
from the Okanagan Valley’s orchards, agriculture, and seasonal labour, the
exhibition transforms the apple—one of the region’s defining symbols—into a
recurring form through which memory, ritual, and perception are explored.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Positioned as both
material and metaphor, the apple appears throughout the gallery in drawings,
prints, film, and installation. Works on paper in ink and oil pastel depict
abstracted apples that are cut, doubled, and hollowed, oscillating between
figuration and geometry. Through repetition and variation, the fruit becomes a
rhythmic device that opens interior and exterior space, allowing the familiar
to be seen anew.</font></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Two projected
videos extend this inquiry. One reworks the opening scene of Earth by Aleksandr
Dovzhenko, isolating and looping the image of an old man lying on a bed of
apples as his community gathers around him. This moment is physically
re-enacted in the gallery as a communal apple bed illuminated by two car
headlights. A second projection, live-streamed from this apple bed, introduces
another body at rest, linking land, memory, and ritual in real time.</font></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%"><font face="arial, sans-serif">The exhibition
unfolds as a sensory journey: industrial lights cut through a darkened space,
road sounds drift in and out, and cinematic imagery echoes across walls and
floor. Visitors are invited to enter the scene themselves—lying on the apple
bed beneath the glare of headlights—becoming both observer and apparition
within a landscape shaped by cultivation, industry, and myth. As perception
subtly shifts, the “mystery spot” emerges not as a destination, but as a state
of attention.</font></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%">About the Artist</span></b><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%"><br>
Alexis de Chaunac is a Chicago-based artist whose practice explores
spirituality, material histories, and the poetic potential of everyday
surfaces. He received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
and his BA from Sarah Lawrence College. He is a recipient of the Dedalus
Foundation Fellowship and a Fundación Jumex grant. De Chaunac has exhibited
internationally, with projects at Galleria Ramo (Como, Italy), Sargent’s
Daughters (New York), and the Carrillo Gil Art Museum (Mexico City). His work
has been reviewed in <i>Whitewall Magazine</i>, <i>Whitehot Magazine</i>, and <i>Artsy
Editorial</i>. He is currently a faculty member at SAIC and was a BOLT resident
at the Chicago Artists Coalition.</span></font></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%"><font face="arial, sans-serif"> </font></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%">Collaborators and
Acknowledgements</span></b><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%"><br>
Mural made in collaboration with <b>Nancy Wilde</b><br>
Apple bed and bin installations made in collaboration with <b>Byron Johnston</b><br>
Car light installation made in collaboration with <b>Paul Lewendon</b><br>
Special thanks to <b>Sumeet Gill and Farming Karma, Kelowna</b> for supplying
the Ambrosia apples<br>
Special thanks to <b>Bob McCoubrey</b> for construction of the bed structure,
apple bin, and orchard ladders</span></font></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%"><font face="arial, sans-serif"> </font></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%">Introducing the
New Curator at Lake Country Art Gallery</span></b><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%"><br>
With <i>The Mystery Spot</i>, Josh Willdigg presents his first fully curated
exhibition in the Okanagan, bringing his focus on storytelling,
cross-disciplinary collaboration, and the transformative potential of creative
exchange to the gallery’s exhibition program. A curator, writer, and filmmaker
from North West England, Willdigg believes in curating as storytelling and is
passionate about blending and bridging worlds with artists inside and outside
traditional contemporary art boundaries. A Leverhulme Scholar for
screenwriting, his largest curatorial project to date was the multi-part <i>Football
City, Art United.</i> with Factory International, bringing together artists and
footballers to produce original collaborations. His work is guided by the
belief that creativity transforms rather than disappears, and that innovation
begins when familiar things are combined in unfamiliar ways.</span></font></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%"><font face="arial, sans-serif"> </font></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:14pt">Attached images</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%">·<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal">
</span></span><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%">Invitation to opening</span></font></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%">·<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal">
</span></span><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%">Alexis de Chaunac works in studio</span></font></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0.5in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%">·<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal">
</span></span><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%">Alexis de Chaunac with Josh Willdigg</span></font></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoBodyText" style="margin:2.9pt 19.85pt 0.0001pt 0in;line-height:98%;font-size:35pt"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:98%"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br>
For media inquiries, additional images, or interview requests, please contact:<br>
Curator <a href="mailto:joshwilldigg@lakecountryartgallery.ca" style="color:rgb(70,120,134)">joshwilldigg@lakecountryartgallery.ca</a>
1-672-969-9602</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt"><font face="arial, sans-serif"> </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt"><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:115%"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Short Description</font></span></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.25in;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin-right:0in;font-size:12pt"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black">Lake Country
Art Gallery presents <i>The Mystery Spot</i>, a site-responsive exhibition
by Chicago-based artist Alexis de Chaunac, rooted in the Okanagan Valley’s
orchard landscape and agricultural history. Using the apple as both symbol and
material form, the exhibition explores memory, ritual, and perception through
drawing, projection, and installation.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.25in;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin-right:0in;font-size:12pt"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black">Works on
paper depict abstracted apples that hover between figuration and geometry,
while two projected videos extend this inquiry. One reworks a scene from
Aleksandr Dovzhenko’s <i>Earth</i>, isolating the image of an old man
resting on a bed of apples. This moment is re-enacted in the gallery as a
communal apple bed illuminated by car headlights. A second projection
live-streams from the installation, linking land, memory, and the body in real
time.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.25in;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin-right:0in;font-size:12pt"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black">Together, the
exhibition unfolds as a sensory environment where the everyday shifts into the
poetic, and the “mystery spot” emerges through subtle changes in perception.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></font></p>
<p style="margin-left:0.25in;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin-right:0in;font-size:12pt"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><i style=""><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black">The Mystery
Spot</span></i><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black"> marks Josh Willdigg’s first
fully curated exhibition at Lake Country Art Gallery, where his practice
centres on storytelling, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and the
transformative potential of creative exchange. </span></font></p></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><br></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><font size="4">Petrina </font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><font size="4">250-899-2805</font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><br></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><a href="http://www.lakecountryartgallery.ca/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">www.lakecountryartgallery.ca</a></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><br></div><div><div><span style="color:rgb(136,136,136)">Petrina McNeill - </span><font color="#741b47"><i>Executive Director</i></font></div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b>Lake Country Art Gallery</b></font></div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><a href="https://goo.gl/maps/9ZBXw" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);font-size:13px;text-align:justify" target="_blank"><font color="#000000">10356A Bottom Wood Lake Rd, Lake Country</font></a><br></font></div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)">Open 6 days per week Tuesday to Sunday 9am - 3pm</div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#741b47"><b><span style="font-size:13px;text-align:justify">250-766-1299</span></b></font></div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(63,63,63);font-size:13px;text-align:justify"><br></span></font></div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><span style="color:rgb(32,31,30);font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;font-size:13.3333px"><i>We respectfully acknowledge that the Lake Country Art Gallery and Art House are located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Syilx/Okanagan people</i></span></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div>