The McClure Gallery is pleased to
present three artists – Victoria Block, Ehab Lotayef and Helga Schleeh.
All
three artists have worked and continue to work “in community” with
“dialogue” and interfaith groups. The photographs of Ehab Lotayef, a
practicing
Quebec Muslim, deal with both local and Middle Eastern issues.
Victoria
Block and Helga Schleeh utilize light as a medium in their work,
serving to
underscore the idea of unity beneath the diversity of cultures and
religions.
The artists frequently employ their
artistic interventions as mediation tools for conflict resolution, as a
process
through which to effect greater understanding amongst diverse cultural
religious groups and to shed light on issues usually ignored.
A common theme throughout the work of all artists is the underlying
touchstone of human fragility. How is such fragility made manifest,
assuaged, protected. How is it given voice as the commonality of human
experience? The work in this exhibition will bring forward, through the
relation of one to the other, these issues as the artists continue the
process
of understanding through their own artistic practice.
Victoria Block is a
landscape painter from Ithaca New York who lives and works in Montreal.
Her
work is in many private and corporate collections, notably Canadian
Embassies
in China, Florida, Mexico, Zimbabwe and Guatemala.
Ehab Lotayef is an established poet
and photographer living in Montreal. His advocacy for social justice
is
evident in his works. His poetry collection "To Love a Palestinian
Woman" was recently published by TSAR.
Helga Schleeh has over 50 exhibitions
to her credit, including at the United Nations in New York, Beijing,
Washington, and Miami. She has worked with the World Council of
Churches for
the UN, and presented an art video on the beauty of the Planet to the
United
Nations conference on Climate Change in Montreal.