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Tourism, Culture and Recreation
May 14, 2010

The following is being distributed at the request of The Rooms Corporation:

Edward Burtynsky: Oil Exhibition Makes Canadian Premiere at The Rooms

Today The Rooms officially premieres the first Canadian showing of Edward Burtynsky: Oil, an original exhibition featuring 56 large-scale chromogenic colour landscapes by renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky. A major highlight in The Rooms display of leading international exhibitions, the showing of Oil solidifies The Rooms ability to not only bring the world's best artistic and historical exhibitions to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador but to the entirety of Canada as well.

Edward Burtynsky: Oil is an examination of one the most important subjects of our time by one of the most respected and recognized contemporary photographers in the world. From 1997 through 2009, Mr. Burtynsky travelled internationally to chronicle the production, distribution, and use of this critical fuel. In addition to revealing the rarely seen mechanics of its manufacturing, he photographs the effects of oil on our lives, depicting landscapes altered by its extraction and by the sprawl generated around its use.

"We are enormously proud to be able to bring Edward Burtynsky: Oil to The Rooms, to Newfoundland and Labrador - and to Canada' commented Shelia Perry, Director of The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery. "Edward Burtynsky's images allude to the complexity and socio-economic impact of oil and its prevalent nature in our lives and our own consumerism, while at the same time delivering a sense of the unrestricted and the sublime; it's a truly captivating exhibition."

Edward Burtynsky's large-scale colour photographs render his subjects with transfixing clarity of detail. His extensive exploration is organized thematically displaying aerial views of oil fields, the architecture of massive refineries, highway interchanges ribboning across the landscape and motor culture aficionados at automotive events. The artist concludes his exploration with a series of striking "manufactured" landscapes including ancient oil derricks, vistas of junked vehicles, recycling yards, and mammoth shipbreaking operations. Mr. Burtynsky photographs the phenomenon of oil in an effort to portray its complex psychological and physical dimensions, the images conveying a story of mankind expressed through our discovery, exploitation, and celebration of this vital natural resource.

Edward Burtynsky: Oil was organized by the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC. and made possible with the generous support of the Scotiabank Group.

An opening reception for Edward Burtynsky: Oil will be held at The Rooms tonight at 7:30 pm, the artist will be in attendance and media are invited to attend.

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Media contact:
Deanne Fisher
Director of Marketing and Development
The Rooms
709-757-8070
deannefisher@therooms.ca 


BACKGROUNDER

Edward Burtynsky is one of the world's most respected photographers. His colour photographs of industrially transformed landscapes are in the collections of over 50 major museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum in New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC., and the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. Born in 1955 of Ukrainian heritage in St. Catharines, Ontario, Mr. Burtynsky is a graduate of Ryerson University and Niagara College. His father worked on an automobile production line at the General Motors plant in his hometown; Mr. Burtynsky credits this experience as his earliest exposure to the subject of industry, and oil in particular.

Mr. Burtynsky's past solo exhibitions include Manufactured Landscapes (2003); Before the Flood (2003); Burtynsky — China (2005); and Edward Burtynsky — Quarries (2006), all of which traveled extensively to venues in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia. Among many honours, in 2004 Mr. Burtynsky was awarded a prestigious TED Prize, and in 2007 he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada. He is the holder of three honorary Doctorate degrees for his contributions to fine art.

The Rooms is Newfoundland and Labrador's largest public cultural space with a mandate to collect, research, exhibit, educate, and develop the province's cultural and historical treasures into a constant source of information and inspiration for all residents and visitors. As an emblem of provincial passion and pride, and though the expertise of The Rooms Provincial Archives, Art Gallery and Museum Divisions, The Rooms has become "one of the most compelling and amazing cultural museums of its size in the world" (Emily Wolman, Lonely Planet Publications).

The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery Division, responsible for displaying Edward Burtynsky: Oil, manages a collection of over 8,000 works, ranging widely from historical, contemporary and international art, to crafts and folk art. While concentrating on Newfoundland and Labrador artists, the collection includes numerous other Canadian works.

2010 05 14                                                   10:15 a.m.
 


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