The Back Gallery and Project Space

Penny Dunford “Refugees: Lives Behind the News”

July 2 – August 15, 2021

Exhibition Hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 12-4pm

This exhibition: REFUGEES: Lives Behind the News by Penny Dunford is her reaction to the global refugee crisis. All works are inspired by real-life photos spanning several years and the staggering statistics that tell the full story. They are used in mixed media collage pieces or provided inspiration for paintings or sketches. A variety of styles, colours, sizes and mediums are used for different aspects of the refugee story: the chaos that forces them to leave their homes, the flight to escape, and the waiting in limbo for the return of a normal life. Hope for a more just and equitable world through global action is also part of the exhibition with a thirty-piece series combining each of the 30 articles of the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights with current photos showing that there is still much work to be done. 

Penny lives on the Sunshine Coast and calls Halfmoon Bay home.  She is a landscape architect by profession but has explored other avenues of artistic expression throughout her life with numerous painting and drawing courses including a Visual Arts Certificate from the Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta.  Easing towards retirement, she moved from Edmonton to the coast and continues to develop her art through many workshops and travel art trips, drawing and painting in a variety of mediums, sizes, and styles.