Community Tour: 'The Collectors’ Cosmos: The Meakins-McClaran Print Collection’ led by Alex R.M. Thompson (SNAP)

This month we are excited to welcome Alex R.M. Thompson, artist and board member at SNAP Gallery to tour the exhibition The Collectors’ Cosmos: The Meakins-McClaran Print Collection and give us some background on the printing process. This program is happening during our monthly FREE night at the AGA, which happens the last Thursday of the month from 4-7pm, and will take place inside the exhibition. 

This event will take place in the exhibition. Registration is not required - please note capacity is limited due to the size of the gallery. 

About Alex R.M. Thompson: Alex R.M. Thompson is a print- and installation-based artist who holds a BFA from OCAD University (Toronto), and an MFA from University of Alberta (Edmonton). He currently teaches at the University of Alberta in the Faculty of Art & Design, and is an active member and instructor at the Society of Northern Alberta Print-Artists (SNAP). 

About the Exhibition: The Collectors’ Cosmos: The Meakins–McClaran Print Collection provides a glimpse into the making of what became one of the foremost private collections of European prints in Canada. Built over the course of four decades, the core of this collection comprises a wealth of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish prints. Drs. Jonathan Meakins and Jaqueline McClaran recently donated a significant portion of these works to the National Gallery of Canada, thus doubling the holdings of early Dutch and Flemish prints in the national collection. This generous gift advances the study of early Northern European printmaking, and includes an impressive number of print series depicting seasons or months of the year, times of the day, planets, elements, animalia and more. These works enrich our understanding of the role played by prints in Early Modern Europe, illustrating humanity’s quest to make sense of the world and find order in chaos. 

The exhibition features a wide variety of artists who played important roles in the flourishing of this art form, including, Rembrandt van Rijn, Hendrik Goltzius, and Jacob van Ruisdael.

Organized by the National Gallery of Canada. 

About Community Tours: Our monthly Community Tour Series which invites a new speaker each month to lead a tour of a current exhibition, giving our audience a unique perspective on the artwork on display.