Fanshawe Grad Clayton King Featured in Ontario Society of Artists Exhibition

Fanshawe Fine Art grad (2010) Clayton Samuel King, or Waab-shki-makoons, is one of 11 emerging artists selected by the Ontario Society of Artists (OSA) for the pARTners: a collaboration project. Waab-shki-makoons, which means New Little White Bear, is King's spirit name.

pARTners pairs emerging artists with practising professional artists. The initiative was developed through a partnership between the Ontario Society of Artists and the Woodstock Art Gallery, to coordinate a unique career development opportunity for all the artists involved, and help fill the gap between the education of young artists and their ability to enter the arts network. The artists worked on their collaborative pieces during the summer of 2011.

The exhibition opens at the Woodstock Art Gallery in Woodstock, Ontario on November 12, 2011. A reception will be held on Saturday, November 19, 2011, at 2:00 p.m. In addition to the artists' shared works, one previously completed piece from each individual artist will be displayed in this exhibition.

Waab-shki-makoons worked with OSA member Robert Montgomery on an installation called G20 Toyland.

Waab-shki-makoons explains in the exhibition catalogue, "Following the G20 Summit held in Toronto in June 2010, I felt compelled to create art that would best convey the brutality that was inflicted on the peaceful protesters and citizens of Toronto."

Montgomery commented, "The G20 events were an outrage in this country that has always prided itself on fairness and rule of law, and we immediately saw how we could both bring our own skills and perceptions of the events to a shared project that would accommodate many possible directions." (Click here to view the catalogue online - the entry for G20 Toyland appears on pages 58 to 62.)

The exhibition in Woodstock runs until January 14, 2012, and then moves on to Hamilton, Aurora and three galleries in Toronto. For details, please click here for a list of galleries, dates, and openings.

Waab-shki-makoons was also selected last spring for the 7th annual juried art exhibition at the Quest Art School and Gallery in Midland, Ontario. And he was one of three First Nations artists featured at the Ontario Museum of Archaeology's Gathering of the Clans exhibit, from November 2010 to January 2011.

Fanshawe's Facilities Management department selected two of Waab-shki-makoons' paintings to hang at London Campus while he was in the second and third years of his Fine Art program. Eagles at the Beach is on display beside H1005, across from the Executive Offices, while May's Rent hangs in the hallway outside of F3011.

For more information about Waab-shki-makoons (Clayton Samuel King) please visit his website at http://www.fineanishinabekart.webs.com/.

In photo above: artist and Fanshawe grad Waab-shki-makoons with his son, Morrison Richard King, who he calls "my greatest creation."

pARTners:a collaboration at the Woodstock Art Gallery

November 12, 2011 to January 14, 2012
Opening reception: Saturday, November 19, 2:00 p.m.
Gallery hours: Tuesday through Friday 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
449 Dundas Street, Woodstock, Ontario N4S 0A7
Telephone: 519-539-6761
Please click here for details of shows in Hamilton, Toronto and Aurora.