Lonsdale Gallery presents Osheen Harruthoonyan in A Circle of Bluebirds. This solo exhibition will be on view in the Main Gallery from Saturday, October 15 – Sunday, November 13, 2016 with an opening reception on Saturday, October 15th from 2-5pm. The artist will be in attendance.

Harruthoonyan draws on his rich experiences growing up in such diverse countries as Iran, Greece, and Canada. He employs a multi-faceted approach towards his artistic practice investigating the complex relationships between time, history, and memory. Harruthoonyan’s experimental wet darkroom techniques are the physical manifestation of these concepts in his photographs. His alchemical processes allow for time, chance, and layering to play a critical role in these multi-faceted narratives.

Harruthoonyan’s newest body of work, A Circle of Bluebirds, was inspired by observations of the cosmos throughout the Middle East, Canada, and Europe, including a recent residency in Italy. During his time abroad, Harruthoonyan spent hours under dark skies viewing meteor showers, investigated cosmic theory and physics, and explored planets through telescopes. The resulting work is a visual collection of these experiences and theories. The intimate scale of the work, most photographs are 11 x 14 inches, echo the artists awareness of himself in relation to the vastness that is the universe. Harruthoonyan manipulates and collages his negatives in order to construct his own personal narratives within galaxies that imbue the familiar while still making room for the expanse of outer space.

Osheen Harruthoonyan is an experimental photographer based in Montreal, Canada. His work as been featured in exhibitions for the Contact Photography Festival in Toronto; the Peel Museum, Brampton; Gallery 44, Toronto; the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga; and the MacDonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph. Harruthoonyan is the recipient of multiple grants from the Toronto and Ontario arts councils, and his work can be found in the collections of the Canadian Art Bank, Seneca College, and private collections across North America.