Opening Reception: Where We Gather (Brian Barrer)

Wingbeats and Words: Visualizing Connection in Where We Gather

The Alex Dufresne Gallery is pleased to present Where We Gather, a new exhibition by mixed-media artist Brian Barrer, running from February 28 to March 28, 2026. The opening reception will be on Saturday February 28th from 2:00 – 4:00pm and the artist will be present with light refreshments and free museum admission. This innovative body of work examines the unexpected parallels between human social rituals and the instinctive patterns of birds, revealing a shared language of gathering, communication, and community.

Developed after Barrer’s return from urban living to a rural Northern Ontario landscape, the series reflects his renewed attention to the subtle dynamics of daily life. Scenes of people meeting in cafés, sharing conversations, or negotiating shared spaces are placed in dialogue with the choreography of birds in flight, at feeders, and within their natural habitats. Through this interplay, Barrer uncovers a universal truth: connection — whether spoken, silent, or instinctive — is an essential behaviour across species.
Barrer’s approach blends mixed media, abstraction, and photographs, creating compositions that feel at once familiar and dreamlike. Visitors to the exhibition can expect works that invite close observation, reflection, and emotional resonance. Each piece offers what the artist describes as “dislocated familiarity” — an image rooted in everyday experience but transformed through imaginative reconstruction.
“Art slows us down long enough to see differently,” Barrer notes. “Where We Gather grew from watching how both people and birds come together — how we communicate, share space, and form community. These rhythms are more deeply connected than we realize.”

Born in Toronto and raised in Northern Ontario, Brian Barrer has exhibited across Canada and the United States since first showing his work at age fourteen. His award-winning practice merges traditional techniques with photographic processes, resulting in visually layered and psychologically rich works that explore perception, imagination, and human experience.

Where We Gather offers audiences a timely and beautifully rendered meditation on belonging — a reminder that, even in moments of fragmentation, the desire to gather remains universal.

For More information please contact:
Natasha Wiatr (Curator)
705-752-2282 (ext 502)
nwiatr@callander.ca