The first of six Re View exhibitions celebrating the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Judith and Norman Alix Art Gallery in downtown Sarnia is set to close Jan. 21.
It tells the story of Sarnia photographer JS Thom and his studio at the corner of Christina and Lochiel streets where the public art gallery opened a decade ago.
Thom, who was also an artist, was born in 1893 and died in 1933.
“Mr. John S. Thom is a photographer of merit,” the Sarnia Canadian Observer newspaper said in 1905. “His studio turns out as good pictures as any in this province.”
He said Thom came to Sarnia 20 years before 1905 and eventually located his business at the downtown corner.
While his original building there was destroyed by fire, he rebuilt what became known as the Thom Building.
“Mr. Thom is a camera artist,” the newspaper said. “He has natural talent for arrangements of light and shade, grouping and compositions – all the details that go to making a pleasing picture.”
“He also executes portraits in watercolour, pencil work and airbrush. Sarnia is fortunate to have a photographer of his ability.”
The more than $10-million Lambton County-owned art gallery construction project opened in the fall of 2012 behind the red brick façade of the Thom building and across the second floor of a neighboring building.
The new public art gallery – home to a permanent collection of Canadian art – replaced a leased location in the former downtown mall and, before that, space on the second floor of the downtown Sarnia library.
“We’re taking an opportunity to look to the past,” curator Sonya Blazek said previously about the first of the six exhibitions being staged for the gallery’s 10th anniversary. “I wanted to look at the artist who built the Thom building.”
The exhibition uses photographs and artifacts loaned by John Rochon, the Lambton Heritage Museum and Lambton County Archives to show the evolution of the Thom building. It also includes some of Thom’s photos and one of his pencil drawings.
A David Moore painting, In Celebration of the New Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery, is also part of the exhibition.
The gallery plans to create additional exhibitions in the Re View series over the next year and a half with work from its permanent collection.
Each exhibition will also have an audio tour written and voiced by gallery volunteers.
Gallery hours and other information can be found online at jnaag.ca.