SALON 2021

November 20th 2021- January 7th 2022

SALON 2021 was an open format exhibition aimed to provide a cross-section of a diverse range of makers across the region.  With a vast array of 2D and 3D work, the exhibition celebrated what it means to be an artist in all forms, whether formally-trained painters, a mechanic who's welded sculpture, or a poet translating written work into a visual form. Hung floor-to-ceiling, salon-style we encouraged experimental and off-beat work to be displayed. SALON decentralized the gallery process to motivate all makers in presenting their work. Over 125 artists submitted and over 300 works were displayed. Our hope was to give a voice and connect the community of creators. The exhibition was curated by Fallon Rae and Mike Howat.

By hanging the exhibition salon-style and floor to ceiling, artists working in different styles, from different backgrounds, career stages, and media were hung together.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SALON:

Salon-style hanging was popularized in French and English academies in the 19th centuries. It was a hierarchical way of displaying work in large competition-like, juried exhibitions. Works the academies viewed as the “best” were displayed at eye level in the main galleries. Other work was displayed very high, or close to the floor and in a tiered ranking of galleries. The shows were criticized for being too uniform, uninteresting. A single style (later dubbed “academic art”) was favored fairly exclusively, while more avant-garde or experimental work was refused. This gave birth to the salons-de-refuse, exhibitions of refused work and the beginning of movements that pushed art in new directions like Impressionism and Fauvism. Salon leans towards the latter—we kept the exhibition unjurored to provide a true cross-section of making, hoping that a unjurored show would be more interesting, diverse, and engaging and pull from that history.