The Third Jewel
group show

organized by Barbara Berry

July 5 — August 3, 2025
open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 12-6pm or by appointment

Opening Reception: Sunday, July 6th, 2-5pm

Artist Talk: Sunday, August 3rd at 2pm

“In an obscure and puzzling way, the artist develops a work of art. As it gains a life of its own, it becomes an entity, an independent spiritual life, which as a being, leads the life of material realism. It is, therefore, not simply a phenomenon created casually and Inconsequentially indifferent to spiritual life. Instead as a living being, it possesses creative active forces.”   

— Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”

“Art does not reproduce the visible; rather it makes visible”

— Paul Klee (1879-1940) “Creative Credo”

One of the primary purposes of art throughout the ages has been to express and give form to the spiritual. Some art is directly connected to specific religious teachings or doctrines, other art is reflective of a broader search for the inner meaning or the spiritual journey of the individual. 

The ten artists in the exhibition, “The Third Jewel”, are united by their connection to Buddhism, as it has been presented and taught in North America by Tibetan teachers in the late 20th century to the present. The works are diverse in media, form and intent; but all are issuing from a space influenced either directly or indirectly, by Buddhist thought, meditation and philosophy. Included in the exhibition are the paintings of Barbara Berry, Leya Evelyn, Cyndi Levine, Tony Matthews, and Odessa Spore. Also exhibited are the sculptural ceramics of Mindy Moore and Steven Peters and the large-scale photos of Marvin Moore. Both Michael Milligan and Ethan Neville present mixed media works utilizing found objects. 

The exhibitions title “The Third Jewel”, also known as the triple gem, refers to what are known as the Three Jewels in Buddhism. They represent the three core elements that all Buddhists take refuge in and provide a framework for their spiritual development. The first jewel is the Buddha, the second jewel is the Dharma or the teachings of the Buddha, the third jewel is the sangha or community of practitioners who support each other on the path. All the artists in this exhibition are joined as sangha and are also tied together by a commitment to the creative process of being an artist.

Fluent
Catherine Beaudette, David Clarkson,
Laura Millard, Georg Mühleck

August 8 — September 7, 2025
open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 12-6pm or by appointment

Opening Reception: Thursday, August 7th, 5-7pm

On one level, the artworks in FLUENT share a simple visual theme, all displaying images of fluidity; tide pools, melting ice, puddled spills, waves, and so on. On another, less literal level, they also exhibit ‘flow’ — smooth transitions deftly guiding viewers perceptions from one place to another, one subject to another, one emotion to another. Such shifts are intentional, introduced to purposefully create new paths between dispersed elements and significant to an interpretation of the work.

The show is organized by Hermes members, Catherine Beaudette and David Clarkson, who have invited two other artists, Laura Millard and Georg Mühleck, to also contribute examples of their recent thematically relevant work. Beaudette, Clarkson and Millard will be present at the opening reception.

Catherine Beaudette lives in Montreal, Quebec and Pictou, Nova Scotia, and taught at OCADU from 1989 to 2017. She is the founder of Bonavista Biennale and 2 Rooms Contemporary Art Projects, Newfoundland; Gallery 202; Pictou and co-founder, Loop Gallery, Toronto. She has exhibited and attended artist residencies in Canada, Europe, and the US. She received her MFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1998.

David Clarkson moved to Pictou, Nova Scotia in 2024 from Toronto, Ontario, where he has taught in the Faculty of Art at OCADU since receiving his MFA in 2012. Prior 2010, he lived in New York. He has shown his paintings, videos, and sculptures at many galleries and art institutions in Canada, the United States, Brazil, and Europe; and his writing about art has appeared in several national and international publications.

Laura Millard lives in Toronto, Ontario, and is an Associate Professor at OCADU. She has exhibited in a wide range of Canadian and international venues. She received a BFA from NSCAD University in 1983; an MFA from Concordia University in 1992; and has attended many unique artists residencies, including: the Arctic Circle Residency in Svalbard, and Klondike Institute of Art and Culture in Dawson City, Yukon.

Georg Mühleck lives in Koln, Germany, and the northern coast of Scotland, and occasionally, also in Toronto, Ontario. Since 1981, he has shown his work in a wide variety of galleries, and cultural institutions; in Canada, and the United States, Europe, the UK, and in Asia as well, in China, Malaysia, and Korea. He was originally trained during the 1970s as a typographer before turning to digital imaging in 1990.