About Us - Foreman Art Gallery

The FOREMAN ART GALLERY of Bishop’s University is a space for thinking and producing knowledge about contemporary art and its relation to the global and local communities we share. The Gallery strives for excellence as it researches, exhibits, and documents contemporary art by emerging and mid-career professional artists in innovative curated contexts. These exhibitions are presented with the objective of provoking public debate on cultural and social issues for an expanding audience that includes our local University community, a larger art community within Quebec and Canada, as well as broad and diverse general and virtual audiences.

The Foreman Art Gallery’s COMMUNITY ART LAB positions itself on the cutting edge between art, education, and community development with the goal of exploring how these worlds collide and interact with one another. Through its interventions, satellite activities, and public events, the Laboratory stimulates exchanges and discussions in order to disrupt the hierarchy of knowledge and to enrich community life.

Mandate

The Foreman Art Gallery shows the work of professional visual artists in innovative ways, focusing on themed exhibitions. These include: Social Currents (group exhibitions on current issues); New Voices (highlighting emerging artists); Carte Blanche (regional themes); New Publics (exhibitions of targeted audiences) and community-based exhibitions (participatory projects). Since 1998, the Gallery has also produced an annual exhibition showcasing the work of Bishop’s University Fine Arts graduates.

The Foreman Art Gallery’s mandate is to:

Present annually: three major exhibitions by professional emerging and mid-career artists, three Videotank solo exhibitions by mid-career and well established Canadian and international artists, one community-oriented exhibition programmed through the Community Art Lab, and one graduating exhibition.
Foster a climate conducive to excellence, intellectual inquiry and reflection about contemporary Canadian and international art, while providing visitors who are unable to travel to major metropolitan Canadian centres with the opportunity to view the work of artists who challenge their perception of art and life.
Host lectures by visiting artists, art historians, historians, curators, and faculty members as well as guided tours and workshops.
Develop educational initiatives which provide viewers with the interpretative tools that stimulate curiosity while facilitating a greater understanding of the thematic undercurrents of its exhibitions.
Provide services to English and French visitors alike by presenting guided tours and workshops in both languages, as well as producing bilingual publications.
Fulfil the multiple role of contributing to the education of students while meeting the needs of the community in general.
Publish catalogues, booklets, posters, etc. in order to document and develop research initiatives on Canadian and international art.
Since 1998, over 50 bilingual exhibition booklets and 15 exhibition catalogues have been produced. Of these are noteworthy examples: Irene F. Whittome: Conversation Adru (winner of a Graphika prize, 2007); Denyse Thomasos: Epistrophe (winner of a Graphika prize, 2007); and At the Crossroads of Art and Medicine (winner of a Graphika Prize 2009).

History

In September 1998, the Art Gallery of Bishop’s University took the important step of changing its mandate and redefining its role as a university art gallery within the artistic community of the Eastern Townships. With the adoption of its new mission, the gallery would no longer serve as an artist-run-centre. Forging a new identity, since 1998, the gallery’s exhibition program has expanded to encompass and showcase artworks by emerging and mid-career professional artists from across Canada and abroad.

One of the Art Gallery’s main objectives is to provide visitors who are unable to travel to major metropolitan Canadian centres with the opportunity to view the work of artists who challenge their perception of art and life. Secondly, the flexibility of our structure and the technical facilities available to artists are one of our main tools with which we want to pursue the development of production-residencies and of subsequent publications. Finally, each year one of our exhibitions focuses on art which has a direct relevancy to the area in which we are based.

Students are well represented among the visitors to the Bishop’s University Art Gallery, which devotes a large share of its programming to them. The Gallery plays an integral role in students’ education through its exhibitions and conferences by artists and guest curators, and by making its facilities available to students for the study and contemplation of art works. Moreover, our non-university functions are equally important: since 1998, we have played host to a growing public made up of the various populations of the region. Our free-of-charge activities are designed to promote participation in the cultural life of the region, and to make us an active and accessible member of this community through our various public programs.

In October 2004, Bishop’s University chose to name the gallery the Foreman Art Gallery in honour of Florence May Foreman, formerly of Vancouver, B.C., who donated the largest gift in the University’s 160 year history.

Florence Foreman (1914-2003) was born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Growing up in rural Saskatchewan in the hard-luck days of the 20s and 30s brought out in Miss Foreman a passionate caring for the less fortunate. During the depression years of prolonged drought, Florence’s parents — Doug and May Foreman, both native Quebecers — used their previously acquired affluence to help struggling farmers and others. Miss Foreman continued their philanthropic practices throughout her life. Her keen and long-held interest in higher education, with all the generous support this entailed, is an important part of her enduring legacy.

In 2008, after a year of research as part of her doctoral research, the Curator of the Foreman Art Gallery, Vicky Chainey Gagnon, launched the Community Art Lab, a cultural mediation project with the goal of forging new avenues of development for the Gallery.

ARTISTS SINCE 1998

1998
Picasso, Rembrandt, Matisse, Chagall, Toulouse-Lautrec, Valloton, Canaletto, Bonnard, Otto Dix, Jim Dine, Caroline Hayeur, F.S. Coburn, Robert Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Kay Kinsman, Norman Laliberté, Louis Muhlstock, L.T. Newton, Toni Onley, Jessie Oonark, Salvatore Rosa, Robert Savoie, David Sorensen, Monique Voyer, Orson S. Wheeler, James M. Whistler

1999
Serge Jongué, John Ballantyne, William Henry Bartlett, Catherine Young Bates, Ophra Benazon, George Bompas, Joseph Bouchette, Frederick Simpson Coburn, Allan Aaron Edson, John Arthur Fraser, Caroline George, Minnie Gill, Marcel Gingras, William Stuart Hunter, Samuel Kilbourne, Kay Kinsman, Cornelius Krieghoff, John Lyman, Nina M. Owens, Denis Palmer, Wilbur Aaron Reaser, Goodridge Roberts, Henry Sandham, Monique Voyer, Laura Letinsky, Scott MacLeod, Jean-Pierre Perreault, Mario Pouliot

2000
Micheal Jarvis, Fabienne Lasserre, Jean Gaudet, Louisette Gauthier-Mitchell, Arnaud Gosselin, Normand Rajotte, Francine Boivin, Daniel Roy, Pierre Bruneau, Marc Parent, Nancy Bleck and Aaron Nelson-Moody
2001
Naomi London, Jacky G. Lafargue, Louis Couturier, Annie Thibault, Robert Holland Murray

2002
Sarah Stevenson, Melissa Day, Arthur Villeneuve, Arthur Bouchard, Léo Fournier, Félicien Lévesque, Yvon Côté, Edmond Châtigny, Oscar Héon, Honoré Hunt, Jérôme Fortin, Tina Modotti, Ed Pien, Gilles Morisette

2003
Bernd & Hilla Becher, Christian Boltanski, Angela Grauerholz, Arnaud Maggs, Jan Wade, David Hall, Gaétan Beaudin, Dean Mullavey, Doucet-Saito duo

2004
Carmen Bouchard, Sara Angelucci, Barbara Astman, Dean Baldwin, Chris Curreri, Nancy Friedland, Clint Griffin, Vid Ingelevics, Germaine Koh, Adrienne Lai, Nina Levitt, Denyse Thomasos, Irene F. Whittome, Gilbert Boyer, Ruth Cuthand & Elizabeth MacKenzie, Paul de Guzman, Nelson Henricks, Kelly Mark, Nadia Myre, Sylvia Ptak, Rober Racine, Joanne Hui, Shie Kasai, Margaret Lawther

2005
Cedar Nordbye, Richard Kerr, Daniel Barrow, Shawna Dempsey, Jeannie Thib, Ana Rewakowicz,

2006
Manon De Pauw, Hui Lin Liu, Annie MacDonell, Michele Waquant, the Loop Collective, Day Milman & Paige Gratland, William Pope.L, Amber Albrecht, Katie Dutton, Holly King, Lyne Lapointe, Logan MacDonald, Michele Peress, Brigitte Roy, Cynthia Touchette, Michel Veltkamp, Cybèle Young, Jennifer Angus, Lucie Chan

2007
Christina Battle, Larissa Fan, Gregory King, Kristiina Lahde, Renée Lear, Guy Ben-Ner, Amos Latteier, Alison Norlen, Alex Da Corte, Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby, Nick Lenker, Annie MacDonell, Allyson Mitchell, Andrea Vander Kooij, Yechel Gagnon, Deanna Bowen, Christopher Cozier, Michael Fernandes, Maud Sulter

2008
Clive Holden, Sylvie Bouchard, Bioteknica, Farrell & Parkin, Nathalie Grimard, François Morelli, Geneviève Pernin, Tanya St-Pierre, Lisa Steele & Kim Tomczak, Annie Thibault, Bill Viola

2009
Valérie Blass, Duane Linklater, Tanya Willard, Jason Lujan, Andrew Hunter, Adam David Brown, Martha Fleming/Lyne Lapointe, Inger Lise Hansen, Véronique La Perrière M., Penelope Stewart, Margaret Ulbik

2010
ATSA, RTMark, Zanny Begg, Etcétéra, Petra Gerschner, John Jordan, Numia Vila + Marcelo Expósito, Gregory Sholette, Dmitry Vilensky, Oliver Ressler, Andrew Silver King, Chantal Séguin, Andrée Anne Vien, Ron Benner, Christina Battle

2011
Francis Alÿs, AREA Chicago, The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI), The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), e-Xplo, Ilana Halperin, kanarinka (Catherine D’lgnazio), Julia Meltzer and David Thorne, Lize Mogel, Multiplicity, Trevor Paglen, Raqs Media Collective, Ellen Rothenberg, Spurse, Deborah Stratman, Daniel Tucker, Alex Villar, Andreas Rutkauskas, Christian Philipp Müller, Ursula Biemann, Charles Stankievech

2012
Red Channels, Anton Vidokle & Julieta Aranda, Muntadas, Cooke-Sasseville, WochenKlausur, Spurse, Althea Thauberger, Raphaelle de Groot, BGL, T & T, Daniel Corbeil, Bill Burns, Matilda Aslizadeh, Tanya St-Pierre, Pascal Grandmaison, Soft Turns, Krisjanis Kaktins-Gorsline, Marina Abramović

2013
Sonny Assu, Jordan Bennett, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Nigit’stil Norbert, Barry Pottle, Bear Witness, Duke & Battersby, Dodolab, Eléonore Saintagnan, George Balteel Fisher, A.Y Jackson, William Notman & Henry Sandman, Peter J. Simon, David Sorensen, Myriam Yates, Lida Abdul

2014
Nelson Henricks, Thomas Kneubuhler, Jim Holyoak, The Otolith Group, Joanne Hui, Sayeh Sarfaraz, Jo-Anne Balcaen, Sarah Febbraro, Kerri Flannigan, Emmanuelle Léonard, Kyla Mallett, Helen Reed, Guillaume Simoneau, Althea Thauberger, Sadie Benning

2015
Luanne Martineau, Lynda Benglis, Sophie Bélair Clément, Olivia Boudreau, Jacynthe Carrier, Michel de Broin, Pascal Grandmaison, Frédéric Lavoie, Aude Moreau, Gary Hill, Mere Phantoms (Jaimie Robson and Maya Ersan), Oded Hirsch

2016
Giorgia Volpe, Jonathan Plante, Roderick Hietbrink, Mark Clintberg

2017
Caroline Boileau, Lucie Chan, Aleesa Cohene, Pierre Durette, Shié Kasai, Leisure, Marc Ngui, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Caroline Monnet, Matilda Aslizadeh

2018
Jean-Pierre Aubé, Nicolas Baier, Bettina Forget, Julie Tremble, Laurent Grasso, Rachel Sussman, Semiconductor, Pierre-Yves Girard, Daniel Corbeil, Robin Crofut-Brittingham, Amélie Proulx, Annie Thibault, Tagny Duff, Mary-Ann Barkhouse

2019
Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens, Toril Johannessen, Katie Holland Lewis, Jeannine Mosely, Phillip David Stearns, Colleen Wolstenholme, Rosa Menkman, Anna, Émile & Mathieu Marcoux, Sophie Castonguay – Dennis and Erik Oppenheim, Jacynthe Carrier and Margot C. Bouchard – Laetitia de Coninck – Neige Claret and Sylvaine Chassay, Adam Kinner, Philippe-Aubert Gauthier & Tanya St-Pierre, Filipa César & Louis Hendersony

2020
Sonny Assu, Danis Goulet, The Iyapo Repository, Larissa Sansour & Søren Lind, Skawennati, Anton Vidokle, José Luis Torres, Camila Vásquez, Ellie Ga, Annie Briard

2021
José Luis Torres, Z’otz* Collective (Nahúm Flores, Erik Jerezano, Ilyana Martínez), Leisure (Meredith Carruthers & Susannah Wesley), Aseel Alyaqoub, Sameer Farooq & Mirjam Linschooten, Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen, Emii Alrai, Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Haan in collaboration with Tolin Alexander and with the Saamaka and Okanisi Maroon communities of Suriname

2022
Kelly Jaclynn Andres, Tania Love, Maude Deslauriers, Gaëlle Elma, Caroline Monnet & Ludovic Boney, Renée Green, Juan Ortiz-Apuy, Geneviève Chevalier, Bryony Dunne, Jean-Maxime Dufresne & Virginie Laganière

GUEST SPEAKERS LIST

1999
Diana Nemiroff, David Liss, Scott MacLeod, Mariana O’Gallagher, Jean-Pierre Perreault

2000
Michael Jarvis, Fabienne Lasserre, Danija Jojich and Francine Salinitri, Jean Gaudet, Louisette Gauthier-Mitchell, Arnaud Gosselin, Normand Rajotte, Francine Boivin, Daniel Roy, Pierre Bruneau, Louise Bédard, Sylvain Émard, Marc Parent, Nancy Bleck & Aaron Nelson-Moody

2001
Janet M. Brooke, Jane Needles, Bernard Bilodeau, Naomi London, Annie Thibault, Allyson Adley, Robert Holland Murray

2002
Sarah Stevenson, Mélissa Day, Ed Pien, Gilles Morissette, Louise Bédard, Lucie Bureau

2003
Arnaud Maggs, Angela Grauerholz, Dean Mullavey, Paul Bourassa, Jan Wade, David Hall

2004
Sophie Hackett & Jennifer Long, Denyse Thomasos, Laurier Lacroix, Irene F. Whittome, Gaëtane Verna, Nadia Myre, Kelly Mark, Shie Kasai and Joanne Hui, Margaret Lawther

2005
Cedar Nordbye, Daniel Barrow, Richard Kerr, Shawna Dempsey, Sol Nagler, Jeanne Thib, Ana Rewakowicz

2006
Vicky Chainey Gagnon, Annie MacDonell, William Pope.L, Paige Gratland and Day Milman, Alicia Henry, Suzanne Pressé, Meredith Carruthers, Jennifer Angus, Lucie Chan

2007
Renée Lear, Gregory King, Amos Latteier, Meredith Carruthers and Susannah Wesley, Nick Lenker, Alex Da Corte, Astria Suparak, Yechel Gagnon, Andrea Fatona, Michael Fernandes

2008
Clive Holden, Sylvie Bouchard, Rose Farrell & George Parkin, Philippe Bazin, Geneviève Pernin, Marie-France Beaudoin, Geneviève Cadieux, Christianne Vollaire, Jean Émile Verdier, Jason Knight from Bioteknica

2009
Andrea Vander Kooij, Valérie Blass, Geneviève Chevalier, Ryan Rice, Jason Luhan, Andrew Hunter, Margaret Ulvic

2010
Oliver Ressler, Petra Gershner, Michael Backmund, ATSA, Cheryl Gosselin, Richard Brouillette, Ron Benner, Christina Battle, Eric Desmarais, Shawn Malley, Pierre-Emmanuel Moyse, Normand Tamaro, Mario Fortin

2011
Michael Ridley, Andreas Rutkauskas, Joanne Hui, André Nault, Tamara Vukov, Geneviève Chevalier, Charles Stankievech, Sébastien Pesot, Althea Thauberger, Allison Gonsalves

2012
Cooke-Sasseville, Artivistic, Raphaëlle de Groot, Spurse, Rebecca Duclos, Gentiane Bélanger, Soft Turns, Dodolab

2013
Heather Igloriorte, Alanis Obomsawin, Sonny Assu, Moe Clark, Jesse Wente, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Guy Sioui Durand, Bear Witness, Emma Arnold

2014
Thomas Kneubuhler, Zoë Chan, Emmannuelle Léonard

2015
Geneviève Moisan, Louise Déry, Mere Phantoms

2016
Carl Johnson, Mark Clintberg

2017
Zoë Chan, Matilda Aslizadeh

2018
Jean-Pierre Aubé, Bettina Forget, Robert Lamontagne, Jason Rowe, Rachel Sussman, Julie Tremble, Anne-Marie Belley

2019

2020

2021

2022
Lori Beavis

Governance

Governing Authority: Bishop’s University Corporation

Through its Director/Curator, the Foreman Art Gallery reports directly to the Vice Principal, Academic and an Advisory Committee whose members are:

Dr. Gentiane Bélanger, Director/Curator, Foreman Art Gallery [ex officio]
Dr. Andrew Webster, Vice Principal, Academic [ex officio]
Catherine Lavallée-Welch, Librarian in Chief, The University Librarian [ex officio]
Amy Abe, Diversity and Inclusion Consultant
Dr. James Benson, Professor, Fine Arts Department
Dr. Darren Millington, Professor, Fine Arts Department
Jean Klucinskas, Contract Professor, Art History and Theory
Myriam Yates, Artist, Member of the Community