Toni Hafkenscheid and Karine Gibouleau
Saturday 15 March - Saturday 19 April
Opening Reception: Sunday 16 March

The Niagara Artists’ Centre presents work by three visual artists who use the miniature to explore our world. The artists, Toni Hafkensheid from Toronto, Karine Gibouleau of Montreal, and Anne Warren of St. Catharines, each bring a distinct approach and media to the creation of their work.

Toni Hafkenscheid, an established commercial and fine art photographer, brings to NAC large colour prints (some of them four feet by four feet) that he creates using ‘tilt-shift’ photography. This traditional, non-digital photographic technique allows Hafkenscheid to make photographs of actual scenes that look like they are models, as if each photo depicts part of an elaborate model train set. Nineteen of Hafkenscheid’s photographs are displayed. He has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout Canada, the US, and Europe.

Karine Gibouleau is an emerging artist who creates intricate whole worlds populated by miniature sculptures. Toy-like figures bring to life stories that audiences can follow. Though the stories are often somber, they are told using humour to amplify Gibouleau’s social criticism and conserve her optimism. After a recent visit to China, Gibouleau created, All You Can Eat, a large model world inspired by factory conditions in the burgeoning Asian economy.

Anne Warren, a NAC member and Port Dalhousie resident, will be showing concurrently in the Dennis Tourbin Members’ Gallery. Warren has created nine elaborately detailed miniature vignettes that document the life and times of Farini, a daredevil from the Victorian era originally from Port Hope, Ontario who became world famous for feats such as tightrope walking across Niagara Falls.

In the Mind’s Eye, a two-person show of work by Toni Hafkensheid and Karine Gibouleau runs in NAC’s main space gallery from Saturday 15 March until Saturday 19 April. Anne Warren’s, The Great Farini is on display in NAC’s Dennis Tourbin Members’ Gallery from Saturday 15 March until Friday 11 April. There will be an opening reception for all three shows on Sunday 16 March from 2 until 4pm.



Check out interviews with Toni, Karine and Anne on
CBC Arts & Entertainment here