Gathering
Gathering
Making art and making a life is an ongoing inquiry.
—Nancy Stevens (Class of ’56)
Organized in conjunction with the seventy-year reunion of the Class of 1956, Gathering features recent work by Nancy Stevens alongside a selection of graduate self-portraits from the Owens’ archive. Known primarily for vibrant, geometric abstractions, Stevens draws inspiration from a wide range of interests, including music, language, art history, nature, and the transient events of everyday life. As she explains, “I am drawn to the clarity of geometry and the aesthetic potential of music and words. Combining these interests with the natural rhythms of land, sea and sky, I have translated them into optical events where spatial conflicts and their resolutions can occur.”
Stevens’ abstract paintings are accompanied by her graduate self-portrait, which is part of a selection of self-portraits from the Classes of 1951, 1956, and 1961. From the late 1940s to the mid 1960s, Mount Allison Fine Arts students were required to paint a self-portrait in their fourth year, which they submitted as their “Diploma Piece” before receiving the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. The portraits were to be life-sized, painted in oil on canvas or board, and measure 40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm). Forty years after Stevens graduated from Mount Allison, her self-portrait appeared in the exhibition Face Value: Nova Scotia Portraiture (Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1996). At the exhibition opening, Stevens was reunited with her former teacher, Alex Colville (1920-2013), who looked at her self-portrait and remarked, “It stood up very well, hasn’t it Nancy?”
All the artists in this exhibition studied under Colville, who taught at Mount Allison University from 1946 to 1963. His influence had a particularly profound impact upon the Classes of 1956 to 1961, whose graduates include Mary Pratt (1935-2918), Christopher Pratt (1935-2022), Nancy Stevens, Dawn MacNutt, Tom Forrestall (1936-2024), and Ken Tolmie. In 2000, Colville Gallery was created to honour Alex Colville’s contributions to the artistic legacy of Mount Allison, and it now houses the triptych mural Athletes, which he was commissioned to create for the lobby of the university’s new Athletic Centre when it opened in 1961. These and other histories are featured in the recent publication, Leaders in the Field: The History and Legacy of Art at Mount Allison, which “showcases the vitality and significant contributions of Mount Allison University’s Fine Arts department to Canadian visual art and culture.”
Accessibility
This exhibition is located on the main-floor. The stairs to the Owens from the entrance nearest the University Chapel have a handrail. There is also ramp access at this entrance, however, the ramp is steep. The stairs to the Owens entrance off York Street also have a handrail, but there is no ramp. The main floor of the Owens is wheelchair accessible. Our second-floor gallery is not wheelchair accessible. Two flights of stairs lead to the second floor. Find more information at owensartgallery.com/visit/accessibility/
Top Image: Nancy Stevens, GATHERING, 2026, acrylic on hardboard with collage, 36” x 36”, Courtesy of the Artist. © Nancy Stevens.
