Featuring the work of Rob Niezen

Opening Reception: Saturday July 15, 2023, from 2:00 to 4:00pm at Kawartha Art Gallery

Artist talk at 2:30pm

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

Cross Cut is a series of linocuts reflecting on traditional songs from Ontario with a contemporary perspective.

CBC radio host and folklorist Edith Fowke collected field recordings of folk songs in rural Ontario during the 1960’s. The origin of these songs dates back to a period of 1820 to 1920.

I have selected 23 songs and placed the original narrative in a contemporary context by ‘crosscutting’. Crosscutting is a technique borrowed from film editing used to illustrate a narrative action that happens in several places at the same time, or in one place at different times. A 24th linocut of Edith Fowke completes the series.

Traditional music came to Ontario with European settlers, and were passed on orally from generation to generation. Lyrics and tunes were adapted to local experiences and culture, as well as to the personal preferences of singers and players, and they offer a reflection of society at different moments in history. The chosen collection of songs include local narratives with songs like The Backwoodsman (featuring Omemee and Downeyville), Bill Dunbar (Kinmount, Pigeon Lake), New Limit Line (Bobcaygeon and Minden), and Saturday Night in the Kawarthas.

The underlying themes are of a timeless nature, as they deal with human existence and social and societal issues: settlement and immigration, work and leisure, politics and war, romance, murder and death, and so on.

Superficially things have changed, but the human conditions now seem not that different from 100 or 200 years ago. The exhibition aims to connect our recent history and today’s society, and the issues we face as citizens of Ontario and Canada, and invites viewers to reflect on what’s happening with them and around them. Has life improved, or is progress only on a materialistic level? Folk songs make global issues accessible to everyone, as they are created and sung by real people telling real human stories.

Crosscutting is also a term describing cutting wood perpendicular to (across) the wood grain.

The linocuts use both the traditional method of carving the material, and contemporary and experimental ways of mark making, including drilling, scratching, laser engraving and etching.

Linocuts originating around 1900, and initially used in school art classes, invoke the era of the chosen traditional songs. By using innovative techniques, and adding contemporary elements to historical scenes, I convey the parallels and juxtapositions of then and now. The prints are handprinted on an etching press.

Each song is represented with a linocut and its lyrics: the 5x7” linocut in a 20 x 16” frame, and the 8 x 10” sheet of lyrics in a 12 x 16” frame. The linocuts are hand printed on Legion Madison Print 300 gsm paper (10% cotton rag, acid-free) using an etching press. The exhibition could consist of all 24 linocuts, or a selection of the prints. The complete series would need about sixty feet of wall space.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My painting and printmaking are both influenced by European graphic novels and Dutch graphic tradition. My approach to layout and composition is significantly influenced by my experience in advertising and graphic design in Europe and Canada. Similarly, narrative and visual contrast are essential elements in my work. With an eye for randomness, I view the ordinary from extraordinary angles or at extraordinary moments, seeking visual narratives

Started, in 2019 and continued into 2022, Cross Cut is a series of twenty-four linocuts that are a contemporary response to traditional songs (circa 1800-1940) collected by CBC’s Edith Fowke in rural Ontario during the 1950s and '60s. The underlying themes of these songs are of a timeless nature, as they deal with human existence: love, deception, politics, war, immigration, work, leisure, murder, death, etc. The linocuts use both the traditional method of carving the material, and more recent and experimental ways of mark making, including laser engraving and etching. The work invites viewers to reflect on society in the past and today; superficially things have changed, but the human conditions now are not that different from 150 years ago.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Rob Niezen is a painter, printmaker, and illustrator. He paints mostly in oils, and his printmaking includes etchings and linocuts. His art has been shown in solo exhibitions at Agnes Jamieson Gallery, Art Gallery of Northumberland, John M. Parrott Gallery, and Art Gallery of Bancroft, as well as in over forty juried exhibitions, and he has participated in the annual Kawartha Studio Tour from 2010 to 2021 (organized and juried by Art Gallery of Peterbrough). In 2018 he was one of the selected artists included in Roll-O-Matic, Public Acts of Printmaking, as part of ArtsWeek Peterborough.

Rob created the illustrations for Ameliya Disappears, a children’s book published in 2021 by Jamaican author Angela Punky Stultz. Recent printmaking projects include his Heads & Tales series that combines linoprint, blind deboss, collage (stamps), and text, and Cross Cut: traditional Ontario folk songs revisited, an exhibition of linocuts that first showed at Lang Pioneer Village Museum in 2022. In 2023 and 2024 Cross Cut will be exhibited at Agnes Jamieson Gallery, Kawartha Art Gallery, Temiskaming Art Gallery, Museum of Lennox and Addington, and Art Gallery of Bancroft. A songbook co-produced with music historian Dr. Allan Kirby, and a music CD with traditional music group Backwoodsmen are also part of the Cross Cut project.

In 2015 Peterborough County awarded Rob Niezen a Leadership in Arts & Culture Recognition Award. He was a Board member at the Art School of Peterborough for six years and is still involved as a volunteer. His work is in private and corporate collections across Canada, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and United States, including Peterborough Regional Health Centre, SickKids Toronto, and Siemens Canada.

Rob Niezen is partly self-taught and studied at Vrije Akademies in The Hague and Delft, Netherlands, (drawing and painting), at the Art School of Peterborough (painting), and at the Haliburton School of the Arts (printmaking). He was born in The Hague, the Netherlands, and lives and works in Douro, Ontario, Canada.

Rob Niezen gratefully acknowledges the support from Ontario Arts Council

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