The Terra Nova Art Foundation is pleased to announce that two Newfoundland artists
will participate at the Collateral Event of the 55th International Art Exhibition of La
Biennale di Venezia titled ABOUT TURN: NEWFOUNDLAND IN VENICE, WILL GILL &
PETER WILKINS. About Turn presents new bodies of work by Will Gill (St. John’s, NL)
and Peter Wilkins (Clarke’s Beach, NL) contemporary artists based in Newfoundland
and Labrador, Canada. The exhibition is co-curated by Mireille Eagan and Bruce
Johnson, and will be on display in Venice from June - November, 2013.
Taking their place beside the official state pavilions, Gill and Wilkins embrace an
unprecedented opportunity to represent their province's unique, confident and
contemporary culture on the biggest of world stages. Each is developing a major,
collaborative installation of new work to be presented within Galleria Ca’ Rezzonico, a
gothic palazzo on Venice's historic Grand Canal.
Their practices, which span video, photography, and painting, deftly play within the
boundaries of abstraction and narrative, the recognizable and the intangible. Gill’s
works blend a feigned naïveté with formal control, lifted from family life and fleeting
dreams. Wilkins’ images bridge the art historical and contemporary, employing subtle,
distilled abstractions of duration and form.
The project is developed and realized by the Terra Nova Art Foundation (TNAF), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to sharing Newfoundland & Labrador's visual culture with the world. The foundation's directors are composed of volunteer curators,
academics, business people and patrons, all dedicated to promoting contemporary
artists of Canada’s most easterly province on the international stage. TNAF is thrilled to
have its vision endorsed by the curatorial panel of the 55th International Art Exhibition in
its initial venture; the first in an ongoing, multi-year plan to present a range of
Newfoundland & Labrador artists at future Biennales and international venues.
About the Artists:
William Gill (Will Gill) studied sculpture and printmaking at Mount Allison University and
graduated with a BFA in 1991. He moved to St John’s, Newfoundland in 1997. Gill was
named as a national semi-finalist for the Sobey Art Award for the 2004 and 2006
(Canada’s premiere award for contemporary art for artists under 40). His work is in
private and corporate collections throughout Canada and the United States. Recent
exhibitions include a well-received installation at Toronto’s Scotiabank Nuit Blanche
festival in 2012.
Peter Wilkins is a British multimedia artist living in Newfoundland, Canada. Wilkins’
various bodies of work have been exhibited in public and private galleries across
Canada, from The Rooms in Newfoundland to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in B.C.
His portrait and landscape artworks are held in public and private collections in Canada,
UK, US, Germany, France and Greece. In 2009 Peter Wilkins was the inaugural artistin-residence at Memorial University in St John’s, Newfoundland. In May 2011 new works based on the architecture of Toronto were exhibited as a featured exhibition of
the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival in Toronto. In 2013, Wilkins is the subject
of a solo exhibition at Canada House in London, England.
For further information, contact:
Terra Nova Art Foundation
3 Harbour Drive
P.O. Box 111
Clarke's Beach, NL, A0A 1W0 info@tnaf.ca
++1 709 683 8472 www.tnaf.ca
About Terra Nova Art Foundation
The Terra Nova Art Foundation was initially formed in 2010 to showcase Newfoundland & Labrador artists on the international stage, in particular at Venice Biennale. In 2012 the Terra Nova Art Foundation (TNAF) was incorporated as a not-for-profit art foundation to fulfil this aim.The Terra Nova Art Foundation’s Board of Directors is made up of curators, academics and patrons and were appointed by a group of founding members.
Board Members:
Jennifer Dyer
Bruce Johnson
Mireille Eagan
Deborah Inkpen
Sharon Pippy
Jim Price
Founding Members:
Jennifer Dyer
Bruce Johnson
Mireille Eagan
Deborah Inkpen
Sharon Pippy
Jim Price
Sheila Perry
Michelle Mahoney
Anita Singh
Will Gill
Peter Wilkins
Lisa Moore
