A LIFE IN ART June Handera June 23 - July 3/22

Gallery 1313 1313 Queen St. West 416-536-6778

MAIN GALLERY works by June Handera – (b. June Fuller, Sudbury On. 1938 d. Toronto 2021.)

Fine Arts at Ontario College of Art in the early sixties was in its last decade of being a Fine Art department linked exclusively to the western classical tradition of Drawing and Painting. The idea of ‘appropriating history’ so common to students in the eighties was anathema to June’s time at OCA, as it was assumed you were joining a community of artists that linked you ‘from here to Giotto’ and beyond. The woman’s movement was underway and women scarce to the art world were enrolling in greater numbers forging a place within a mainly male dominated community. Add in a very civil ‘tug of art’s’ between the Fine Art department teachers, themselves all practicing artists contributing to the Canadian scene, each standing in for various art’s movements from Renaissance art to German Expressionism with the lone voice of Jock MacDonald introducing Abstract Painting and thought. It was into this very rich mix of influences June as a student waded -1958-62, taking on all that was on offer, which set the very diverse course of her own evolution as an artist.

After an intended permanent move to Greece, post graduation, where by chance she rented a house formerly inhabited by Leonard Cohen; she returned after two years –family matters called. She settled in Toronto working in various animation studios while supporting her own art practice. She traveled widely with her husband Vladimir Handera (an innovative producer director in the early day’s of Moses Nimers City TV). One of the destinations most influential on her work were the states of Arizona and New Mexico with their indigenous Navaho culture reserves – rug and pottery design touching June deeply. In 1972 June and Vlad gave birth to their son Dmitri and settled in the Annex area of Toronto.

June’s honing instincts as to what she needed to grow as an artist were usually on target. The simplicity of Arte Provera was one of the many influences that she adopted using discarded materials like cardboard. These can be seen in a series of large beautifully designed collage pieces painted in a variety of subtle metallic tones made during the early to mid eighties and exhibited at the Robert McLaughlin public Gallery in Oshawa Ontario June’s home town where at the age of ten she was written about in the Oshawa examiner, having won a silver medal as a young violinist. June’s life in the arts began early.

Underlying all of June’s art was a passion for social justice and a deeply held respect for the integrity of ‘selfhood’; this comes through in the sensitivity of her figurative works. Introduced to the potential of abstract art by her teacher Jock MacDonald she ventured into the world of abstraction and took the human figure with her. It’s this melding of those two opposites with all they’re complexities that bestows the energy and courage that is June Handera’s art.

Gallery Hours Wed- Sat. 1-5pm Sun. 1-4pm

Gallery 1313 Celebrating 25 years of Contemporary Art