Alan Stein: Postcards From the Past at Wasaga Beach Public Library
On May 1, 2025 an exhibition of charcoal drawings by Alan Stein, RCA will open at Wasaga Beach Public Library. The charcoal drawings are from the successful multi-media performances last year at the Festival of the Sound and the Collingwood Music Festival.
In this exhibition Alan will present a series of original charcoal drawings and paintings highlighting real and imagined events from his grandparent’s lives, inspired by messages found on old family postcards. The exhibit is enhanced by reproductions of selected old photographs and the postcards themselves.
The images in this exhibit take us on a trip through time, from a young woman in St. Petersburg Russia during the Russian Revolution, and a young man in Lodz, Poland to the invasion of Poland, inside the Lodz ghetto, then immigration to Toronto and New York City, and a joyful marriage. How did they meet? What secrets were never told? What happened to the families left behind? We will never know but perhaps we can imagine. There were dreams of youth, tragedy, war, and finally love.
The performances featured renowned Canadian musicians performing an array of works to complement the narrative thread, including heart-warming Yiddish songs, profoundly moving children’s poems set to music, and stirring works by a variety of Jewish composers, and Yiddish narration of the postcards. Starring Andrea Ludwig, mezzo-soprano; James Campbell, clarinet; Jaclyn Grossman, soprano, Moshe Hammer, violin and Daniel Vnukowski, piano.
Alan will also present at Wayzgoose #47 Book Arts Fair, a celebration of the book arts to be held at Grimsby Public Art Gallery, April 26. Their 50th-Anniversary Exhibition will feature Alan’s handprinted work while an artist’s talk by Alan, titled “Bill Poole and the Founding of the Grimsby Public Art Gallery,” will take place on at 1 p.m.
https://www.alanstein.art/news/2024/6/15/postcards-from-the-past
https://wasagabeachpubliclibrary.ca/
https://www.grimsby.ca/parks-recreation-and-culture/art-gallery/wayzgoose-and-special-events/