Bright Light: Remembering Reuel Dechene
SATURDAY DECEMBER 1, 2018
Preview: 2-4 pm
Party: 7pm-12am
G101 is honoured to present a solo exhibit of artwork by Reuel Dechene in a celebration of light and life.
Preview for family and friends is 2-4pm Saturday December 1st, 2018.
The party begins at 7pm when we open the doors for a night of celebration, drinks and dancing bathed in the shimmering glow of Reuel's flashing art/text works.
This celebration of his work will be shown for one night only, Dec 1, 2018.
Gallery 101 is located at 280 Catherine Street, Ottawa, Ontario
For more information call 613-230-2799 or email director@g101.ca
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Gallery 101 is pleased to be working with Eliza Griffiths to present this memorial exhibition of artwork by Reuel Dechene on the occasion of his death one year ago.
We will light up the night in remembrance and celebration of his beautiful spirit. I met Reuel in 1990 when his partner, painter: Eliza Griffiths joined the Enriched Bread Artists’ studio coop. Whether it was supporting events with bar tending and risqué entertainments at the EBA, walking the Black Tie to Bondage catwalk in support of SAW Gallery, volunteering as we endlessly renovated around the central staircase at the G101 location above Wallacks, or exhibiting his Christmas light text works at Creative Outlet; Reuel Dechene was a very busy and well loved part of the Ottawa arts community. Reuel gave all of his free time to the cultural scene in Ottawa while working full time at his government job. He and longtime love Eliza moved to Montreal and we missed them both. Even though they came to visit often, an era had ended. It was a wonderful move for Reuel, who was able to attend art school and to begin serious studio work of his own. Please join us for this very special event where we will dance, drink and party like its 1995 so that we can channel the spirit of joy and abandon that Reuel added to all of the cultural events he attended.
– Laura Margita
Gallery 101’s presentation of this memorial exhibition of artwork by my late husband Reuel Dechene, who succumbed to brain cancer in late October 2017, is a powerfully loving gesture of honouring, celebrating, and sharing the artistic legacy of a truly special man and artist. Between the years 1992 until 2005 when we made a bittersweet move from Ottawa to Montreal, Reuel found his artistic `tribe’ and open creative community at Gallery 101 as well as the key artistic ports in Ottawa.
It is beautifully fitting that this exhibition of his magnificent light-based sculptures is being held at Gallery 101 with Laura Margita as its Artistic Director. The Ottawa art scene had a sense of ambitious, excited, and game for anything collective creative energy that Reuel was tuned right into naturally.
Gallery 101 was a major hub of that community, along with the EBA, SAW Gallery and DIY galleries such as Creative Outlet, and Artengine. Reuel (and I) connected deeply with the intense and open creative energy and excitement of that period, and Laura was the queen of the scene. This was his passage into the social world of creative and committed art-making, sharing, working together and playing in the name of ART; a perfect site for his edgy sense of joie de vivre, and his remarkable, joyous and ingenious light-based sculptural work to flourish.
During that period, Reuel exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions in a variety of artistic and extro-artistic spaces, as well as exhibitions in Toronto at Swizzle Gallery and Katharine Mulherin. He worked collaboratively on projects in Montreal, and exhibited and was represented by the fabulous Dale Smith Gallery. He was involved in Artengine as well as other artistic networks and organizations in Ottawa and then later in Montreal.
After moving to Montreal in 2005, he completed a degree in Intermedia/Cyberarts at Concordia University, focusing on electronics in art, sculpture, and video. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at the McClure Gallery/Visual Arts Centre, and numerous group shows including the touring museum exhibition, 18 Illuminations: Contemporary Art & Light and in 2016, Sparrow Nights at the Museum of London in Ontario.
Reuel is missed desperately but we celebrate his life and presence in our lives.
- Eliza Griffiths