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“Parallel Play”, new work by Barbara Todd
November 17, 2021 - December 18, 2021
The Lake George Arts Project’s Courthouse Gallery presents Parallel Play, a solo exhibition of new work by Barbara Todd.
*Please note the gallery will be closed for Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Day, Nov 25, and Friday Nov 26.
View our November 20, 2021 Online Talk with Barbara Todd HERE.
Recent article from the Albany Times Union: Less is definitely more for artist Barbara Todd
Listen to North Country Public Radio’s reporter Monica Sandreczki interview with Barbara Todd HERE
Listen to Barbara talk about her work on Look TV’s recent episode of “Where’s Dayna?”
Review of the exhibition on Get Visual: A parallel play of Parallel Plays.
View Checklist of works in the exhibition HERE.
Barbara Todd is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary artist, best known for her textile works. With a minimalist sensibility she draws inspiration from poems, her personal experience and perceptions of the everyday.
Parallel Play is the term for a stage in early childhood development, where children, playing side by side, do not interact, though they may be doing the same thing. For example, one may have a backhoe and the other may be playing with a crane, but they do not cooperate to make something. Or, if they’re at the beach they may each be building a sandcastle but they won’t build a city together.
In the context of this exhibition, three related series of works: sewn fabric drawings, large woolen quilts, and tiny linen collages, share the unique space of the Courthouse Gallery, each adhering to its own, independent, installation plan. Seen together, the works translate fleeting glimpses of color pairings into tactile reminders of place and experience, becoming an abstract archive of things noticed. Just as one day folds into another, and another, it is their accumulation that gives form to the whole.
Todd’s involvement with textiles began early. She says: “When I was seven years old my grandmother taught me how to knit. Our first project was a red mohair sweater. At about the same time another well-intentioned mentor helped me to sew clothes for my Barbie doll. It’s possible my career as an artist began then… Ever since, though I have worked with many different materials, and read and looked widely, textiles remain central to my practice. It’s the conversation between material and process and meaning that keeps me going”.
Barbara Todd earned her B.A. in fine art from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Her work has been featured in major exhibitions across Canada, including her quilt series Security Blankets, which was organized by the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, and traveled throughout Canada from 1992 to 1995. More recent exhibitions include Sculpture – Art Textile, Biennale de sculpture de St. Jean Port-Joli, St. Jean Port-Joli, Québec; Mohawk-Hudson Regional Invitational Exhibition (2020), Albany Center Gallery, Albany, NY; In Faux-Structure, Opalka Gallery, Albany, NY; Artists of the Mohawk Hudson Region (2019), The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY; Fait-main/Hand-made, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec; Bombhead, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC; Home – Collar Works, Troy, NY; Interwoven, Albany Public Library, Albany, NY; Reclamation, Collar Works, Troy, NY; and Barbara Todd: Colour Play, Galerie Art Mûr, Montréal, QC. Her awards include grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and residencies at Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Canada, and Millay Colony, Austerlitz, NY. Her work is represented in many private and public collections, including the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Canadian Museum of History. Her public commissions, include “Many Little Plans” for the St. Patrick Subway Station in Toronto, Canada and “Jardin de guérison” (Healing Garden), a one-hundred foot long colored glass mural for Sacred Heart Hospital, Montréal. She has taught in the Studio Arts Department at Concordia University, Montréal, and in the Arts Department at Emma Willard School in Troy, NY. Todd lives and works in Troy, NY. You can learn more about her work at www.barbaratodd.com.
The Courthouse Gallery is located at the side entrance of the Old County Courthouse, corner of Canada and Lower Amherst Streets in Lake George, NY. Hours during exhibitions are Wednesday through Friday 12 – 5 pm, Saturday 12 – 4 pm, and all other times by appointment. Visit our calendar for more information.
This exhibition is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts; the Town and Village of Lake George; Price Chopper’s Golub Foundation; 518 Profiles; the Glen & Carol Pearsall Adirondack Foundation, and LGAP members. Please Join us today!
