by Maria Driscoll

By day Nigel Roe is a Graphic Design instructor at Holland College. But by night, Roe heads off to his studio to continue his work as a visual artist. Opening June 28 and continuing throughout the summer, the landscape work he has been developing over the past two years will be on exhibit at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery.

Land Over Time is Roe's second exhibition at the Centre Gallery. His first, Labyrinth in 1992, illustrated his landscape and garden themed works. The exhibit was centered with a large hanging paper maze or labyrinth in the Gallery. This new exhibition of work tracks the transformation of the landscape over time. It illustrates how man has recreated and manipulated the natural landscape into his own concept of nature.

The show is divided into two sections. The wall work is traditional in medium and approach, focusing on mixed media drawings on paper. At the same time, Roe is showing a projected digital drawing project that is aimed at building a discussion around what constitutes a drawing. Does a drawing have to be a static fixed line on paper or can it be a moving and temporary image? Once the projection of an image finishes and all we have of it is in memory, is it still a drawing? The project is not expecting answers to these questions but rather hopes that the audience will continue to question concepts that the artist continues to present to them.

Roe said recently that this will be an ongoing exploration of the collaboration of technology and traditional drawing tools, an area that he is interested in exploring further.

Land Over Time is located in Studio 02 of the Confederation Centre Art Gallery. The exhibition is curated by Shauna McCabe and runs from June 9 - September 15. The official opening is June 28th at 6:30 pm.