The SPAO Centre is home to the SPAO Centre Gallery, the Ottawa region's only independent and critical gallery space dedicated to photographic and video art.

The gallery sees upwards of 4200 visitors annually including students, artists, alumni, Ottawa’s photographic and arts community, and members of the general public at large, including guided tours for specialty groups.

SPAO produces a number of exhibitions every year celebrating the work of regional, national, and international artists working in lens-based media. These exhibitions feature professional artists as well as artists from the three facets of its mentorship structure: the Photographic Arts and Production Diploma Program, Part-Time Studies, and the International Artist Residency. During the growing season, SPAO also presents an installation in its Photo-Synthesis Garden.

For inquiries on programming, partnerships, and events, please contact gallery@spao.ca. For gallery rental inquiries, click here.

EXHIBITION NO. 19
April 19 - May 12, 2024

The SPAO Photographic Arts Centre proudly presents EXHIBITION NO. 19, an exhibition showcasing the outstanding work by students enrolled in the only 2-year photographic arts college diploma program in all of Canada. 

Over the course of their time at SPAO, students are provided the opportunity to experiment with digital, analogue and rare historic photographic processes, as well as engage in nuanced discussions in photographic theory. Industry leading educators and arts professionals help guide these students as they become the next generation of photo-based artists.

SPAO PHOTO WALK

The SPAO PHOTO WALK will be an ongoing and evolving outdoor installation featuring large-scale photographic artworks designed to enhance Ottawa’s Little Italy, draw attention to local businesses and engage with residents and tourists alike. Participants can access information and the map for a self-guided tour via QR codes located next to each artwork, providing opportunities to learn more about the artists, the neighbourhood, and participating businesses. The photographs will be selected from a nationwide open call and by an assessor jury made up of nationally recognized industry leaders.

BACKRA BLUID
January 6 - February 18, 2024

Backra Bluid is a series of photographic self-portraits by Stacey Tyrell. Through this body of work, Tyrell transforms herself into her imagined white relatives, investigating the artist’s mixed heritage and playfully rejecting the tendency to see identity as one dimensional. The resulting images are an uncanny reminder of the legacy of colonialism, and a call for a more nuanced understanding of ‘blackness’ and ‘whiteness.’

BENT
November 11 - December 17, 2023

SPAO is pleased to present ‘Bent,’ an exhibition featuring the photo-based work of Naomi Kronen, Ann Piché, S. Maria Brandt, and Allison Morris.

Drawing from mathematics, feminism, and queer theory, these artists employ both academic and community based approaches in their work, exploring themes of corporeality, spatiality, and all things bizarre and peculiar. Altogether, the works in this exhibition touch on the precarity of living in a body, and the ways in which technology, social stigma and the built environment influence the ways we bend and re-orient ourselves as we move through the world.

RESIDUE
September 22 - November 5, 2023

SPAO is pleased to present ‘RESIDUE,’ an exhibition featuring the photo-based work of Jamie Potvin, Grant Stirton, Justin M. Millar, and David Aldridge.

Exploring themes of time, history, and refuse, these four artists are engaged in a process of object preservation. Potvin rescues discarded darkroom prints, recontextualizing them as art objects; Stirton visits an underwater theme park at the bottom of the St. Lawrence River, paying homage to those who lost their lives to the waterway; Millar shows us the imminent destruction of an object impeded by a bullet in front of our eyes; and Aldridge invites us to view the engineering traces left carved into the Cape Breton landscape. Brought together, this exhibition explores that which gets left behind and discarded in the wake of human impact.

EXHIBITION NO. 18
April 21 - May 14, 2023

We’re proud to present Exhibition No. 18, an exhibition showcasing the outstanding work by students enrolled in the only 2-year photographic arts college diploma program in all of Canada.

Over the course of their time at SPAO, students are provided the opportunity to experiment with digital, analogue, and rare historic photographic processes, as well as engage in nuanced discussions in photographic theory. Industry-leading educators and arts professionals help guide these students as they become the next generation of photo-based artists.

COLD COMFORT
January 6 - February 19, 2023

Cold Comfort features works from Ella Morton’s ongoing project The Dissolving Landscape, a series of experimental analogue photographs that examine climate change in the Arctic and Subarctic landscapes of Canada and Nordic Europe. Using techniques such as film soaking, mordançage, bleaching, and hand-colouring, Morton manipulates film, paper, and moving images to ask the question: what are we losing, in terms of our spiritual connection to the land, as the climate rapidly changes? 

Ella Morton (she/her) is a Canadian visual artist and filmmaker living in Tkarón:to/Toronto. Working primarily with lens-based media, Morton uses experimental analogue processes to capture the sublime and fragile qualities of remote landscapes. 

NARRATIVE FALLACY

Narrative Fallacy scatters unprompted memories and intense personal experiences amidst a shiftless, changing horizon. Each of the four photo-based artists dissect the troubling notion of impermanence and present a chaotic collision of past, present, and future.  Between the loss of one artist’s faith, and another artist’s exploration of the necessity of death, lies the shaky uncertainty of the future. And yet, between one artist’s interventions on sensory memory, and one artist’s predictions of the future, lies the reminder that change can lead to becoming. This exhibition alludes to the expressive potential of having the rug pulled from your feet, and the wool from your eyes.

This exhibition is the culmination of a six-month artist residency at The SPAO Centre, where each artist worked on personal passion projects. The artists negotiated between the challenges of ongoing pandemic restrictions, and staying true to their artistic pursuits. The result is a timely and thoughtful experience that pursues authenticity despite external pressures.

DESCENDANCE

The SPAO Centre Gallery proudly presents DESCENDANCE, featuring first-generation and immigrant artists from across Canada. ⁠⁠The summer exhibition is co-curated by Myriam Farah Cobb and Darren Pottie in consultation with a wide range of Canadian curators and artists from across the country. ⁠

Descendance explores themes of identity and a sense of belonging that come from one's personal family history and inherited cultural traditions. Storytelling is prominent within the exhibition whether it is through rediscovering past events, claiming space in the present for diasporic communities, or imagining potential future identities. ⁠

Featuring first-generation Canadian and immigrant artists from across the country, this deeply intimate exhibition invites visitors to reflect on their own lineage and how their past impacts their present and influences the future.

EXHIBITION NO. 17

EXHIBITION NO. 17 is a testament to our students’ ability to use the challenges that face them as opportunities for creative and nuanced portfolios. It is the celebration of a milestone that marks their journey into the future of photographic arts. SPAO is proud to present this new generation of contemporary photographers and photo-based artists who are more ready than ever to engage in what lies ahead.

SPAO’s Photographic Arts and Production Diploma Program is the only 2-year Photographic Arts Diploma Program in Canada. Over this last challenging year, our students have worked tirelessly in order to create innovative installations and portfolios that showcase their individual photographic practices. This diverse group of emerging talent is pushing the boundaries of the photographic medium, working with new technologies, experimental camera techniques, site-specific installations, and digital pigment prints. From technological interruptions on the body, to explorations of shame, to our relationship with the world around us, this exhibition encapsulates the fragmentary nature of contemporary society. 

APEX EXHIBITION 2022

APEX (formerly A+) is SPAO’s annual juried exhibition and awards event, created in 2007 as a way to celebrate the work of its diverse part-time photographic studies community.

APEX is a critical opportunity for emerging and seasoned artists to showcase their work in a respected and accessible gallery setting, enhance their visual arts resumés, receive honours and awards for their work, and have their work seen and considered by important visual arts community leaders. 

On view from March 18th - April 17th, guests can view the work of our APEX finalists at the SPAO Centre Gallery! Experience the exhibition in-person or online.

INNOMINATE NATURE

We proudly introduce SPAO’s new exhibition: Innominate Nature. The exhibition features the work by Ontario-based artists Stéphane Alexis, Julia Campisi, Alexander Finlay + Maria-Hélèna Pacelli.

After two years of incubation, who are we now? Have the pressures of recent events cracked the fragile molds of our identity to such an extent that we must now reconcile our newfound self? Can new light shine on previously unexplored places, exposing a new sense of our experience in the world?

Innominate Nature is an exhibition of artists who reject a ‘return to normal’ in favour of a deeply personal emergence into the unknown. It is an avant-garde exhibition that pushes experimental techniques, new conceptual boundaries, and site-specific photo installation. Visitors can expect to confront their own identities and the ways in which they choose to re-emerge into the world after a period of introspection.

STAY SILENT, DRIFT DEEP

STAY SILENT, DRIFT DEEP is a meditation on how one navigates through times of trauma. Each of the four artists sift the dark well of their internal structures, probing for a way to examine and resolve their individual dilemmas. Is there peace in solitude? Can my mental health be mapped? Where are the spaces for discovery? How deep does this grace go?

The exhibition asks viewers to untether their expectations and fall into the turbulence of contemporary lived experience.

featuring the photo-based work of
Ava Margeuritte
Margo McDiarmid
Shaelynn Tredenick
Steven West

INTIMATE TEXTURES OF THE DIGITAL WORLD

The artists in the exhibition negotiate between digital and physical spaces, continually asking viewers to orient themselves between physicality and abstraction. The artworks capture a tactile and sensory subject matter, despite the mediation of the lens in two-dimensions. Viewers are encouraged to explore intimate conversations of metamorphosis, belonging, and manual labour while also discovering their place between reality and virtuality.

Intimate Textures of the Digital World asks the viewer to envelop themselves in virtual possibilities, and consider our intertwined daily experiences.

Featured Artists:
AM Dumouchel
Jaad Kuujus (Meghann O’Brien)
Gilles Tarabiscuité

EXHIBITION NO. 16

SPAO’s Photographic Arts and Production Diploma Program is the only 2-year Photographic Arts Diploma Program in Canada. Over this last challenging year, our students have worked tirelessly in order to create innovative installations and portfolios that showcase their individual photographic practices. This diverse group of emerging talent is pushing the boundaries of the photographic medium, working with new technologies, alternative processes, ceramics, and digital pigment prints. From explorations of grief, identity, addiction, and the futuristic imaginings of our digital world, this exhibition encapsulates some of the most urgent but heartfelt topics of our time. 

EXHIBITION NO. 16 is a testament to the flexibility and resilience of our students to focus on their work and push through the challenges that face them. It is the celebration of a milestone that marks their journey into the future of photographic arts. SPAO is proud to present this new generation of contemporary photographers and photo-based artists who are more ready than ever to engage in what lies ahead.

A+ EXHIBITION 2021

SPAO’s A+ Exhibition is an annual celebration of Ottawa’s photographic excellence in SPAO's part-time community! Featuring local professionals and hobbyist photographers alike, from all different fields, embracing their creative selves in learning and exploring the full photographic range of analogue and digital practices. The A+ exhibition is a fantastic survey of an active photographic community, full of unique viewpoints, diverse content, and technical expertise. 

Out of over 100 submissions received this year, we award 9 prize packages. Our independent jury selects a winner and honourable mention from our 3 submission categories: Digital Print, Alternative Processes, and Photo Book, . The coveted Best In Show prize can be from any of the 3 categories. There’s a raffle prize for anyone who has submitted, and a People’s Choice award chosen by the audience!

The A+ 2021 Jury consists of photographer and curator Joi Arcand, Artistic Director at DAÏMÔN Simon Labelle and Director at G101 Laura Margita.

This year's prizes include an EPSON Scanner, an Instax Mini 11, Amazon Firesticks, External Harddrives, SPAO Merch, Photobooks and gift cards from local Patrick Gordon Framing and Wallack's Art Supplies! Every single submission to A+ will also be entered into a draw just for submitting!

SPAO proudly presents: Undergrowth, featuring the photo-based work of Sara Angelucci, curated by Shannon Anderson. The question of how an artist can respond to this critical time of ecological emergency is the focus of Angelucci’s recent projects. In her current work entitled Nocturnal Botanical Ontario, she undertakes an intimate study of land in her immediate proximity and experience. Angelucci aims to express complicated interconnections within vulnerable habitats, an inquiry based on interactions with plants, insects, trees, and social history. In previous series such as Arboretum and Black Flowers, she considers the implications of historical Western impulses to capture and classify nature. At a time when climate change appears inevitable and we face the impact on the earth left by generations of greed, the works in this exhibition adopt strategies of empathy and conscious connection to reposition our relationship with nature.

SPAO est fier de présenter Brousailles, une nouvelle exposition qui souligne l'oeuvre photographique de Sara Angelucci, conçu par conservatrice Shannon Anderson. Récemment, les projets d'Angelucci visent à questionner la façon dont l'artiste puisse  réagir face à cette période crucial de crise écologique dont nous vivons. Dans son ouvrage actuel intitulé Nocturnal Botanical Ontario, elle entreprend une étude intime du terrain qu'elle retrouve dans sa proximité immédiate et qui est attaché à son expérience personelle. Angelucci vise à exprimer des interconnexions complexes au sein d'habitats vulnérables, une enquête basée sur l'interaction entre plantes, insectes, arbres et histoire sociale. Dans des séries précédentes telles que Arboretum et Black Flowers, elle considère les implications des impulsions historiques occidentales de vouloir capturer et classer la nature. À l'heure où le changement climatique paraît inévitable et nous sommes confrontés avec l'impact de générations d'avarice sur la terre, les oeuvres de cette exposition adoptent des stratégies d'empathie et de connexion conscientes pour repositionner notre rapport à la nature.

SPAO is proud to present Rem/a/inder, an exhibition featuring the photo-based work of Jennifer Stewart and Hannah Evans. The exhibition explores the ephemera of lost relationships, the tactile reminders that bind us to emotions, and the remainders of memory. If leaving a relationship is akin to bleeding out or shedding a skin, Rem/a/inder will exhibit that blood and skin through photographs, objects, and sound. 

Exploring themes dealing with both loss and recovery, the works on display engage with concepts including gender, sexuality, and mental health. Objects remind us of another time, and photographs remain in the absence of human contact. Meanwhile the COVID-19 pandemic has catalysed numerous relationships, and it is more important now, than ever before, to check in with our mental health and reassess our relationships. What binds you to what you have lost? How can you move forward?

Exhibition Runs: November 6th - December 18th at the SPAO Centre Gallery.
Artist Talk: Thursday December 3rd 

I DON’T KNOW HOW TO CONNECT WITH YOU

Searching outward toward the land, or inward towards personal intuition, Alyssa Enriquez and Elizabeth Raymer Griffin explore their experience during their time in SPAO's Artist Residency. The exhibition defies the COVID-19 pandemic that seriously interrupted the artists’ explorations and their connection to the SPAO facility and community. Somehow we are in abundance of communication technology, yet we still search for something more. I Don’t Know How To Connect To You is a passionate plea to find your practice, find your community, find yourself, and tell us how we can connect. 

This exhibition is the culmination of the 2019 - 2020 SPAO Artist Residency and features work created by the artists during their tenure at the SPAO Centre.

EXHIBITION NO. 15

The SPAO Centre Gallery proudly presents EXHIBITION NO. 15, featuring the 2020 graduating class from SPAO’s two-year College Diploma Program.

While the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has impacted arts and culture on a global scale, the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa has defied the odds to deliver EXHIBITION No. 15. Many diploma programs in Canada were forced to move their graduating exhibitions online or cancel them altogether, SPAO is proud to be able to honour our students’ dedication and hard work with a thoughtful in-person exhibition to mark their rite of passage. Exhibition No. 15 celebrates the work of our diploma students and highlights the work of the 2020 graduating class.

EXHIBITION NO. 15 is a testament to the strength, flexibility, and resilience of our students to focus on their work and launch their careers during this trying time. It is the celebration of a milestone that marks their journey into an uncertain future. SPAO is proud to present this new generation of contemporary photographers and photo-based artists who are more ready than ever to tackle what lies ahead. 

Help support these new artists by joining us at the gallery this September, and be sure to spread the word. Keeping in mind health and safety best practices, SPAO will also have digital and virtual offerings distributed through our social media channels. 

A+ EXHIBITION 2020

This year, we will be awarding 9 prize packages, including 7 selected by our Jury as well as a raffle prize and the People's Choice Award. Prizes include a brand new iPad, Google Home assistants, Beats headphones, and gift certificates to our favourite businesses; every winner will also receive a gift certificate for SPAO part-time classes and new merchandise items from our store! 

The People's Choice Award is an opportunity for guests to select their favourite piece; a raffle prize will also be awarded to one lucky A+ guest just for submitting! The winner must be present to claim their prize, or another name will be drawn.

MEDITATIONS ON BLACK LAKE

As a member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation (Maniwaki) Nadia Myre is interested in having conversations about identity, resilience and politics of belonging. Often working in an interdisciplinary nature, mixing sculpture and lens-based artwork, Myre pushes the boundaries of how craft and Indigenous histories are understood and positioned within wider Canadian context.

Nadia Myre is one of Canada’s most celebrated photographic artists of the 21st century. A graduate from Camosun College, Emily Carr, and Concordia University, Myre is a recipient of numerous awards, notably Banff Centre for Arts Walter Phillips Gallery Indigenous Commission Award (2016), Sobey Art Award (2014) and a Fellowship from the Eiteljorg Museum (2003). Her work has received accolades and features from the New York Times, The Washington Post, Le Devoir, Canadian Art, and Parachute, among many others. Her works are permanently on display at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, National Gallery of Canada, Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, Canadian Museum of History.

OPEN HOUSE 2019 + O HUMAN CHILD

Join us Friday November 1, 2019, from 5:00PM to 11:00 PM, at the SPAO Centre (77 Pamilla St.) for SPAO’s Annual Open House and the opening reception of the 2019 Lineage Exhibition, O Human Child, featuring the work of the Canadian photo-based artist Vera Saltzman.

For this year’s Open House, SPAO will be highlighting the unions that can exist between photo and text with the official debut of SPAO's newly completed photo book library and second floor expansion. To celebrate, SPAO will be hosting a Book Market where visitors can view and purchase publications created by members of SPAO’s extended community. Visitors will also be able to see work by current diploma students, and learn about the SPAO Centre’s programming. Speeches and special announcements will take place at 7 pm.

The SPAO Centre Gallery will present Vera Saltzman’s O Human Child, for the 2019 Lineage Exhibition. Aligning with this year’s Open House theme, O Human Child draws inspiration from W.O. Mitchell’s iconic Saskatchewan-based novel Who Has Seen the Wind. O Human Child underscores how the tensions and complexities of childhood today both contrast and mirror those of Mitchell’s time. “Saltzman focuses her attention on issues of identity and the development of a ‘sense of place,’ the passage of time and the fragility of life.” The SPAO Centre Gallery’s annual Lineage Exhibition showcases work by members of the immediate and extended SPAO family and celebrates artistic achievement while highlighting a connection to our community.

ARTIST RESIDENCY EXHIBITION 2019

On 27 September 2019, from 6 to 9 pm, join us at the SPAO Centre Gallery (77 Pamilla St.) for the opening reception of the 2019 SPAO Artist Residency Exhibition, featuring the photo-based work of John Healey, Lucia Mugica, Rajeev Nath, and Eugenie Rasche. The SPAO Residency is designed for artists who have completed formal training and are ready for an intensive focus on an aspect of their career or a specific project. It is a self-directed residency that affords artists the time and environment needed to research, experiment, and produce a new body of photo-based work.

This exhibition is the culmination of the 2018-19 Artist Residencies and features work created by the artists during their tenure at the SPAO Centre. John Healey’s photographs illustrate the continued polluting of the St. Lawrence Seaway by showing us that which exists right under our own feet. Rajeev Nath has photographed the processes of artists and artisans, taking their portraits and interviewing them for insights into their worlds. Lucia Mugica has focused on the life and work of seventeenth century Italian Baroque painter, Artemisia Gentileschi, portraying the story of her rape, trial and the subsequent humiliation as a result of the hostile male culture of her time. Eugenie Rasche’s series of original drawings on paper is made with cyanotype chemistry, making reference to traditional analog photography techniques. Presented together, the works by these four artists represent the range of experimentation and exploration offered by the residency.

The exhibition continues until October 26. It is free and open to the public. The SPAO Centre Gallery is barrier-free and fully accessible.

COSMIC SURGERY

The SPAO Centre Gallery is honoured to present Cosmic Surgery by German-born Alma Haser. This is the first exhibition in Ottawa to feature the acclaimed London-based artist. Expanding the dimensions of traditional portrait photography, Haser uses inventive paper-folding techniques, collage and mixed media to create layers of intrigue around her photographic subjects. With Cosmic Surgery she creates portraits of futuristic beings that blur the distinctions between two-dimensional and three-dimensional imagery.

Alma Haser was born in 1989 into an artistic family in the Black Forest, Germany, and is now based in London and on the southeast coast of England. Known for her complex and meticulously constructed portraiture, she has won many awards for her work, including Magenta Foundation's Bright Spark Award in 2013 for her Cosmic Surgery series. Her work has been presented worldwide, with recent exhibitions including From Selfie to Self-Expression at the Saatchi Gallery in London in 2017.

The SPAO Centre gratefully acknowledges the German Embassy in Ottawa’s partnership in the presentation of a panel discussion and a closing reception with the artist in attendance on Friday 20, September 2019.

On September 20, 2019, from 6-8 PM, join us at the SPAO Centre (77 Pamilla st.) for a panel discussion on the transformation of arts and culture in Germany and beyond. The panel will be followed by the closing reception of Cosmic Surgery, with the artist in attendance. Enjoy complimentary German beer, wine, and pretzels courtesy of the German Embassy in Ottawa, gather with the SPAO community, and gain a deeper appreciation of the work on display as part of the exhibition.

The SPAO Centre gratefully acknowledges the German Embassy in Ottawa’s partnership in the presentation of a panel discussion and a closing reception with the artist in attendance on Friday 20, September 2019.

SUMMER CAMP

On May 10, 2019, from 6 pm to 9 pm, join us at the SPAO Centre for the opening reception of the 2019 CANADIANA exhibition, Summer Camp. Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada, the exhibition features lens-based artworks produced over the last five decades by LGBTQ+ artists from across the country. The exhibition is co-curated by SPAO Gallery Manager Michael Davidge and Creative Director Jonathan Hobin in consultation with a wide range of Canadian curators and artists.

Hobin states, “The incredible input we got from across Canada guided us as we put together this amazing showcase of established artists like Kent Monkman and Evergon as well as emerging artists like Dayna Danger and B.G-Osborne.” Highlighting camp as both a sensibility and a site in the Canadian landscape, the exhibition also features works by Steven Beckly, David Buchan, Colin Campbell, Shawna Dempsey + Lorri Millan, Michelle Mohabeer, and Paul Wong. A text by art writer and curator Daniella Sanader accompanies the exhibition.

SPAO is partnering with the Qu'ART Queer Arts Collective to present the exhibition as part of the Qu’ART meta-festival, a year-long collaborative program that broadens LGBTQ2+/ queer artistic activity and encourages intergenerational knowledge-sharing within our communities. In conjunction with the exhibition, SPAO is also partnering with Qu’ART and the Ottawa International Writers Festival to host the London-based artist, writer, and designer Paul Harfleet and The Pansy Project, an important international anti-homophobia initiative. Harfleet has planted almost 300 individual pansies at sites of homophobic abuse around the world. The Ottawa component of the project will premiere in SPAO’s Photo-Synthesis Garden on May 10.

SPAO is an Official Event Partner with the Canadian Tulip Festival in recognition of the fact that the festival was created by the photographer Malak Karsh. Summer Camp continues until Canada Day, Monday July 1.

Join us on June 22 for the next installation of our lecture series, PARFOCAL LENS: SUMMER CAMP, from 5-7pm at the SPAO Centre (77 Pamilla). Enjoy refreshments, gather with the SPAO community, and gain a deeper appreciation of the art on display in our current exhibition, SUMMER CAMP.

SUMMER CAMP commemorates the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada, the exhibition features lens-based artworks produced over the last five decades by LGBTQ+ artists from across the country.

EXHIBITION NO. 14

The School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa proudly presents Exhibition No. 14, our end-of-year exhibition at the new SPAO Centre. This fourteenth portfolio exhibition celebrates the work of our diploma students and highlights the work of the 2019 graduating class.

Over the past year, our full-time students have been working tirelessly to create innovative installations and portfolios to display their photographic craft. This diverse group of emerging talent is pushing the boundaries of the photographic medium, working with silver gelatin, alternative processes, digital collage, scanography, and digital pigment prints.

The SPAO Centre opened its doors to the public on November 10, 2017 to a record 1,000+ attendees. We are humbled by the continued support of our new neighbours, patrons, and the SPAO community. With Exhibition No. 14, we will share how the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa is shaping the next generation of photo-based artists.

A+ EXHIBITION 2019

Join us for our annual celebration of SPAO's part-time community! We will be awarding 9 prize packages, including 7 selected by our Jury as well as a raffle prize and Peoples Choice Award. Our jury will select 7 winners from three submission categories: Digital Print, Photo Book, and Silver Gelatin/Alternative Processes.

The Peoples Choice Award is an opportunity for guests to select their favourite piece and a raffle prize will also be awarded to one lucky A+ guest just for submitting! The winner must be present to claim their prize, or another name will be drawn.

#OREO_LIVEITWHITE

On January 18, 2019, from 6 pm to 9 pm, join us at the SPAO Centre (77 Pamilla St.) for an artist talk and the opening reception of #oreo_liveitwhite, featuring the work of Rah, an Iranian-Canadian artist from the Ottawa/Gatineau region.

A media and performance artist, Rah developed the character of Oreo to address contemporary political issues and to stimulate dialogue surrounding racism and white privilege. In this exhibition, Oreo performs as an Iranian nationalist who erroneously identifies as Aryan. In Iran and among its related diaspora, it is a part of the national discourse of identity that Iranians are Aryans, and this myth is permeated in present-day visual cultural and political discourses. In her new work, Rah uses social apps as a “relational sketchbook” where she performs as Oreo to critically examine nationalism in the digital age by appropriating hashtags, visuals and symbols used by nationalists from around the world. With this exhibition, Rah inspires an urgent consideration of the ethics of engagement on network technologies.

Rah’s exhibition is presented in partnership with the Qu’ART Collective as the first event of their 2019 meta-festival series. As 2019 marks both the 50th anniversary of the first federal legislation to decriminalize gay sex in Canada, and also the 30th Anniversary of a summer of targeted homophobic violence in Ottawa-Gatineau, Qu'ART's year-long collaborative programming aims to broaden LGBTQ2+/ queer artistic activity and to encourage intergenerational knowledge-sharing within our communities.

Rah will present an artist talk at 6 pm, in collaboration with Capital Rainbow Refuge, an organization that works with LGBTQ communities to sponsor sexual minority refugees. Following Rah’s presentation, there will be a reception at 7 pm, with remarks at 7:30 pm.

On November 2, 2018, from 5 to 11 pm, join us at the SPAO Centre (77 Pamilla St.) for SPAO’s Annual Open House and the opening reception of the 2018 Lineage Exhibition, Ontogeny, featuring the work of the Canadian photo-based artist Whitney Lewis-Smith. We are opening our doors to the public to celebrate the expansion and ongoing evolution of Ottawa’s only arts facility dedicated to photo-based art and video work.

SPAO’s Annual Open House is our largest event of the year. Visitors to the SPAO Centre can tour the facility and learn more about our space, a purpose-designed arts facility and Ottawa’s innovative photo hub. Meet faculty and students, see the work of current diploma students, tour the gallery, studio, and darkroom facilities, and get a sneak peek at the 2nd floor expansion that will house the Media Lab and Library. Speeches and special announcements will take place at 7 pm.

The SPAO Centre Gallery’s annual Lineage Exhibition showcases work by members of the immediate and extended SPAO family and celebrates artistic achievement while highlighting its connection to our community. The 2018 exhibition presents work by Whitney Lewis-Smith, an alumna of the SPAO diploma program who has gone on to become an instructor at the School. Her new work uses heliogravure printing to translate photographic images into copper plate etchings. During a recent residency in Mexico City, she has just completed what may be the largest heliogravure photographic etchings to date worldwide. One of these etchings will be on display in the exhibition, along with glass plate negatives and prints, to give a full sense of the processes involved in Lewis-Smith’s artistic production.

Whitney Lewis-Smith completed her photographic education at the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa and her work is in many prominent private and public collections, including the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the City of Ottawa Art Collection, and the private collection of Sophie and Justin Trudeau. She is represented by Galerie St-Laurent+Hill in Ottawa, Canada, and Subject Gallery NYC in New York.

Join us on Friday November 16th at the SPAO Centre (77 Pamilla St.) at 7 pm for Fabricated Visions, the latest event in our Parfocal Lens series. This panel discussion, moderated by Jonathan Hobin (Creative Director at SPAO), will include renowned photographers and photo-based artists Dina Goldstein, Diana Thorneycroft and Whitney Lewis-Smith. They will present on art practices that use props, sets, and carefully constructed environments to reflect on our everyday world.

All three panelists create dreamlike tableaux in their photographs that comment on aspects of contemporary culture. In Thorneycroft’s “Group of Seven Awkward Moments,” she fabricated sets that contrast with iconic Group of Seven paintings in order to point out complex issues confronting Canadian society. Goldstein’s “Fallen Princesses” created tableaux featuring Disney heroines in realistic situations that underscore the negative consequences of the perpetuation of illusory goals. Lewis-Smith’s still-lifes, on view in the exhibition Ontogeny at SPAO, explore the impact of consumerism on the environment. An experienced set designer, Jonathan Hobin will moderate a discussion which will undoubtedly give attendees insight into the construction of images.

MELT / TONE

On September 28, 2018, from 6 to 9 pm, join us at the SPAO Centre Gallery for the opening reception of the 2018 SPAO Artist Residency Exhibition, featuring the photo-based work of India d’Scarlett and Neeko Paluzzi. The SPAO Residency is designed for artists who have completed formal training and are ready for an intensive focus on an aspect of their career or a specific project. It is a self-directed residency that affords the time and environment needed to research, experiment, and produce a new body of photo-based work.

This exhibition is the culmination of the 2017-18 Artist Residencies and features work created by the artists during their tenure at the SPAO Centre. d’Scarlett’s photo series Melt looks at the relationship between a queer couple while exploring the photographer’s own queer identity. Using experimental techniques, she blurs the boundaries of the two lovers’ bodies, depicting oneness, intimacy and connection. For "TONES, This Place is a Shelter," Paluzzi has used darkroom equipment as a musical instrument to visualize a minimalist composition by Olafur Arnalds by creating exposures that match the tonality of the music, note for note. Presented together, the works by these two artists represent the range of experimentation and exploration offered by the residency.

India d’Scarlett is a photographic artist from Cairns, Australia. d’Scarlett received a BFA in Photography with High Distinction from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. d’Scarlett’s work uses experimental in­-camera techniques to blur the lines between women, their environment, and preconceived notions of their sexuality. Her work has been exhibited throughout Australia and Canada.

Neeko Paluzzi is an Ottawa-based artist and educator whose images blend the possibilities of traditional darkroom processes with contemporary photographic techniques. He is a graduate of the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (2017) and holds a Master of Arts from the University of Ottawa (2013). Neeko is the recipient of the 2017 SPHINX bursary from the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (in support of the residency) and the 2018 Project X Photography Grant from the Ottawa Arts Council.

THERE IS NO OUTSIDE

The SPAO Centre Gallery is honoured to present Roger Ballen: There Is No Outside, the first exhibition in Ottawa of work by the internationally acclaimed South Africa-based photographer. Known for his inspired use of black and white film, Roger Ballen has sparked controversy through his exploration of the shadowy depths of human consciousness. Developing a style he describes as ‘documentary fiction,’ he has collaborated with people living on the margins of South African society to create powerful psychodramas. 

Curated by SPAO’s Creative Director Jonathan Hobin, the exhibition presents a selection of photographs and videos that capture Ballen’s signature mix of raw and surreal imagery, inviting viewers to enter into an uncanny dreamworld. Roger Ballen: There Is No Outside is the first in SPAO’s new series of annual exhibitions that feature an international artist. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Roger Ballen is one of the most influential and important photographic artists of the 21st century. Born in the United States in 1950, Ballen has lived and worked in Johannesburg, South Africa since 1980. By integrating drawing into his photographic and video works, Ballen has made a lasting contribution to the field of art and produced a powerful commentary about the human condition and its creative potential.

Jonathan Hobin is an award-winning and internationally noted photo-based artist and art director. He is currently the Creative and Executive Director of the SPAO Centre (School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa).

Join us on Friday, September 14th at the SPAO Centre (77 Pamilla St.) at 7 pm for Debating Ballen, the next session of our panel series, Parfocal Lens. This panel will focus on the issues and concepts brought forward by the current exhibition on view in the SPAO Gallery, entitled Roger Ballen: There Is No Outside. Based in Johannesburg, the American-born artist Roger Ballen is a controversial figure whose work often depicts people and spaces that exist on the margins of South African society. 

SPAO has invited three panelists to respond to Ballen’s work, including the way in which it intersects with their personal histories. The acclaimed photographic artist Jennifer Dickson was born in South Africa but left to pursue an art career that ultimately brought her to North America. The art historian and curator Charles Reeve organized the 2009 exhibition of Ballen’s work at the Ontario College of Art and Design, Roger Ballen: Boarding House. The social scientist Patrick Lynn Rivers, whose design research practice is partly based in Cape Town, will speak to Ballen's work with reference to apartheid South Africa and the present moment.  

The panel will be moderated by Dr. Monica Patterson, an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies at Carleton University. A scholar, curator, and activist, her work explores the intersections of memory, childhood, and violence in postcolonial Africa, and the ways in which they are represented and engaged in contemporary public spheres. 

In conjunction with the dark and troubling images of the exhibition, this is a conversation certain to be both challenging and illuminating.

CANADIANA - SELECTIONS FROM THE ART BANK COLLECTION

On May 11, 2018, the SPAO Centre will launch the SPAO Centre Gallery with the exhibition CANADIANA - Selections from the Art Bank Collection.

Featuring the work of Ed Burtynsky, David Craig, Denis Farley, Chris Gergley, Lorraine Gilbert, Angela Grauerholz, Mary Longman, Shelley Niro, and Greg Staats, this exhibition will be the SPAO Gallery’s inaugural Canadiana Exhibition, an annual showcase of artists from across the country presented in partnership with the Canadian Tulip Festival.

In recognition of the fact that the Canadian Tulip Festival was created by the photographer Malak Karsh, the SPAO Centre is partnering with the festival for this important exhibition. An official Launch Soirée for the festival will be held in tandem with the Gallery launch at the SPAO Centre. The event is free and open to the public. The exhibition continues until July 1, Canada Day.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the SPAO Centre has commissioned Deborah Margo to create an Artist’s Garden on site, starting on May 11. It will grow and develop over a six month period as a part of Ottawa’s Garden Promenade. Inspired by the gardens in Little Italy, Margo’s installation will change configurations and heights as it is adapted to the growth of her selected palette of plants.

"Often associated with memorabilia or literature, the word Canadiana signifies that something is symbolic of this country and its culture. This term is problematic at best, especially in the current moment of intense debate about how we choose to define ourselves, which stories we choose to tell, as well as determining who speaks for whom.

The photographers in this exhibition have each turned their attention to the land - as a site of interaction, of conflict or of contemplation. They seek to trouble the notion of Canadiana by upending old mythologies and by telling new stories in their place. They invite the viewer to see the ordinary as extraordinary or to think about place as a continuum rather than as a location at a particular time and for a particular purpose. Each in their own way is interested in point of view, rather than a point on a map, or a line from the anthem.

We are extremely grateful to the Canada Council Art Bank for this opportunity to explore their collection. Canadiana is the first in a new series of annual exhibitions at the SPAO Centre." – Johanna Mizgala, Guest Curator

Join us on Saturday, June 16 from 5-7pm at the SPAO Centre for Parfocal Lens: Challenging Canadiana, the second session in our 2018 visiting artists’ lecture series. Enjoy refreshments, good company, and gain a deeper appreciation of the art on display in the exhibition currently on view (until July 1) in the SPAO Centre Gallery, CANADIANA: Selections from the Art Bank Collection.

The curator of the exhibition, Johanna Mizgala, will join exhibiting artists Denis Farley, Lorraine Gilbert and Angela Grauerholz in a far-ranging conversation about contemporary Canadian photography and sense of place. In her curatorial statement, Mizgala claims that the artists in the exhibition have turned their attention to the land “as a site of interaction, of conflict or of contemplation.” The conversation will redefine the terms of what constitutes Canadiana.