Two exhibitions at the Godfrey Dean Art Gallery are celebrating lives.
“Remember Me” is a celebration of the late Sandra MacColl, who had been a prominent member of the local arts scene, whether through her participation in the local galleries, the arts council, the library or the countless activities she was involved in over the years. This showcases her collection of Royal Stanley Jacobean pottery, with over 250 pieces, collected over 50 years. The pottery was made in Staffodshire England between 1910-20, and MacColl’s collection might be the largest in the world.
“Pretty much everyone who walks through the door has the same experience of mouth open, jaw dropping ‘oh my goodness there is a lot of it...’ Nobody knew she had this much,” says Don Stein, Executive Director of the Godfrey Dean.
The pottery is reminiscent of MacColl herself, with an exuberant colours and graphics on the pottery, as well as a massive collection which is appropriate for someone who was always fully engaged in whatever she set out to do.
“She was a larger than life personality, wasn’t she?”
The pottery has characteristics of the art deco, and Stein says it’s reminiscent of pottery in the 1970s and 1990s as well.
“There’s something in this Royal Stanley aesthetic which is a bit more universal. It took up the themes of its time, but it’s still fresh and it still speaks to us almost 100 years later.”
MacColl’s family hopes that the collection can stay together, and they can find a permanent home for it. Stein says that in putting it on display, it’s a combination of appreciating the work itself, and having a memorial moment for the person who compiled the collection itself, remembering her through the object which she had a passion for collecting.
The second show is “Five 5tages,” a series of five photographs showcasing artist Brittany Urzada’s struggle with the five stages of dealing with grief and mortality. Photographed in black and white by Kiriako Iatridis, who lost his father to cancer, it’s a striking depiction of someone dealing with a serious disease.
“Everybody experiences this range of emotions, so they have one photograph for each of those.”
It is an emotionally raw series, and one that shows a human side of a cancer diagnoses.
“It puts such a human face on it, you see a person struggling, a young person. You can see survival, you can see treatment works, you can see you don’t have to be just afraid. Because it’s a young person, in the peak of her life, you can see that this can happen to anybody.”
There will be a reception for “Five 5tages” on May 14 at 2:00 p.m. with Brayden Ottenbreit’s Close Cuts for Cancer, featuring Brittany Urzada.
