Exhibit brings unique look at Atlantic Canada's past, present and future to Sussex

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Artist Natt Cann peers into the past, to stories and events forgotten within Atlantic Canada, and onto the future, how advancements in tech, climate shifts and social stagnation will impart new narratives into the quietness of New Brunswick with a new exhibit featuring his work.

Officially opening Friday and running until June 1 at AX, the Arts and Culture Centre of Sussex, the New Brunswick artist’s show, Forlorn, keenly explores these notions through lens-based printed matter, material choice, installation practices, and community involvement. It’s a show, the centre’s programming coordinator says, that fits the centre’s approach of featuring unique work that shows exploration from an artist.

Having Cann exhibit his work at the centre falls into the goal of featuring a variety of mediums and artists, Ashley Henwood said.

“Generally what happens is we’ll get applications from artists throughout the year and then as we’re selecting artists we get a jury together and we go through all the applications,” Henwood explained of the process on how exhibits and artists are selected. She said in Cann’s case the jury would have taken into consideration a variety of things such as submitted works and his artists statement.

“Natt has a very concise idea for his works, kind of working on a continuing theme and he always takes it to a new level.”

As an example, she pointed to his creations of presenting houses turned into skyscrapers and his series of Knock, Knock prints that feature a wide variety of doors found around New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and some from New York.

“The works speak for themselves,” Henwood said.

Cann has exhibited across Canada, and has acted as a mentor, instructor, and technical assistant to numerous students and professionals unversed in printmaking, states his artist’s bio. He has been granted numerous residencies and his recent print projects have been intertwined with a variety of publications, exhibitions, and research grants. Cann’s work has been consistently supported by ArtsNB’s funding programs and the Canada Council for the Arts. He resides in Moncton.

“Natt’s (work) obviously has quite a bit of exploration because he’s been working on the similar subject matter for quite awhile so there’s evolution of the work is nice to see,” said Henwood.