New gallery exhibition emphasizes importance of sense of connection

ELORA – The Elora Centre for the Arts (ECFTA) is set to launch a new exhibition in their gallery, by award-winning Northern Ontario artist Bruce Cull. 

“The exhibition, entitled Connection and Response, reminds us that we are participants in, and part of the physical world we inhabit,” details a July 28 press release. 

Cull’s work expresses his fear of lost connection with each other, with our environment and a hope that we will rediscover old, new and better forms of connection.

“I live in a geographically isolated place” says Cull. 

“Yet I feel less isolated than many people in crowded urban environments.”

Many of the objects incorporated into his work have been salvaged from the land he lives on. 

His stewardship of the land speaks directly to his connection with it. 

Cull lives in rural North East Ontario, near Earlton in the Timiskaming District.

He lives on 200 acres, in a studio that was once a granary for cattle. 

Cull has always lived in rural areas, which has nourished his lifetime environmental awareness that has impacted his artistic practise.

As Cull explains, “we begin our lives connecting to our parent, our siblings and gradually extending those relationships outward to a greater world of friends, co-workers and others whom we encounter on this journey.” 

He adds, “most of all, we reach for mutually nourishing intimacy in partner relationship and this connection of love brings us hope and strength.

“My hope is that the Centre Wellington community and beyond will engage in a dialogue with this exhibition, finding meaning and connections to their own lives.”

The exhibition will run in the main gallery from July 28 to Sept. 11.

An opportunity to meet the artist will be held on Sept. 11 from 2 to 4pm in the gallery at the ECFTA.

For more information visit the ECFTA website at eloracentreforthearts.ca/connection-and-response-exhibition-by-bruce-cull/.

Gallery and artisan shop summer hours are Wednesdays and Thursdays 10am to 4pm, Fridays and Saturdays 10am to 5pm and Sundays 12 to 4pm.