Long-time curator Marnie Fleming organizes final exhibition at Oakville Galleries

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Oakville Galleries is pleased to announce the opening of our summer exhibitionYou’ve Really Got a Hold on Me. In her final exhibition before retiring from Oakville Galleries, curator Marnie Fleming will present a broad selection of works from the Galleries’ permanent collection, highlighting more than twenty years of her collecting efforts.

Please join Oakville Galleries to celebrate the opening on Sunday 8 June from 2:30 pm–3:30 pm at Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square, followed by a reception at Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens from 3:30 pm–5:00 pm. Oakville Galleries’ collection of contemporary art is, in many respects, the beating heart of the institution.

Drawn from a curatorial program that encompasses many of today’s most accomplished visual artists, the Galleries’ holdings have grown to become a valuable resource through which we can study the past, consider the present and imagine the future.

Fleming says, “On the occasion of my retirement, I am taking an opportunity to share some of the acquisitions that resonate most strongly for me. These objects and images represent just a fraction of the Galleries’ holdings, but offer a telling glimpse into our collection—art that has moved me, challenged me and made me think in new and unexpected ways during my twenty-plus years here.”

Art that has moved me, challenged me and made me think in new and unexpected ways," says Flemming.

While these pieces do not adhere to a simple unifying narrative, they do tell a notable story: not only of Fleming’s two decades at the Galleries, but of the history of this institution and a diversity of art practices as they’ve unfolded since the early 1990s.

“Securing a home for these works in Oakville over the years has brought me a great deal of pleasure,” Fleming notes. “If I have had only one goal during my time here, it is that visitors to Oakville Galleries have encounters with these works that are as satisfying as my own, luring them in, stirring their soul and prompting their imagination.”

Fleming has served as Oakville Galleries’ Curator of Contemporary Art since 1991. Prior to her time at Oakville Galleries, she held positions at the London Regional Art Museum (now known as Museum London) and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me features works acquired by Kim Adams, Stephen Andrews, Bill Barrette, Jeremy Borsos, Janet Cardiff, Ian Carr-Harris, Wendy Coburn, Greg Curnoe, Colin Darke, Stan Denniston, Susan Dobson, Aganetha Dyck, Paterson Ewen, Robert Fones, Angela Grauerholz, Susanna Heller, Spring Hurlbut, Tania Kitchell, Micah Lexier, Ken Lum, David Mabb, Liz Magor, Scott McFarland, David Merritt, Tatsuo Miyajima, Kim Moodie, Paulette Phillips, Ed Pien, Jeannie Thib, Ian Wallace, and Colette Whiten.