August 5th – November 14th
Trafalgar Campus Gallery
Referencing Andy Warhol’s often-repeated aphorism on fame, Fifteen Minutes of Frame, invites us to look more closely at the everyday, and to reconsider which objects and artifacts of visual culture are deemed worthy of our attention. In the exhibition, artist, curator, and collector Jamie Owen presents a small selection from his vast personal collection, amassed over more than five decades.
Describing the exhibition as “a deep dive into the history of frames and image making as found in vintage shops in Ontario.” The objects on display include mass-produced prints, family photographs, hand-made original artworks, as well as household curios such as paint-by-numbers, hand-lettered certificates and framed proverbs. These are objects that ordinary people have found meaning in, including items once proudly displayed in homes, yet often dismissed as kitsch and excluded from galleries and traditional art historical narratives. Here, they are given their own “fifteen minutes of fame,” as viewers are offered the opportunity to reflect on their personal, aesthetic, and cultural significance.
Without being overly nostalgic and sentimental, Fifteen Minutes of Frame uses humour and shared cultural memory to spotlight and celebrate domestic life as an accessible and potent site of artistic expression. Owen invites us to consider not only what people choose to frame, but how those choices are shaped by historical, cultural, and material contexts.
At the centre of the exhibition is Owen’s own artwork, The Frame Makes the Picture: an assemblage of deconstructed vintage frames, reconfigured to nest one inside the other. This sculptural piece embodies the exhibition’s guiding inquiry into physical and conceptual framing, both literal and metaphorical. It exemplifies how seemingly mundane and commonplace objects can serve as creative entry points and continue to inspire artists.
Jamie Owen was born in the years following World War II near Stoney Creek, Ontario. Describing himself as an “artworld outsider,” his artistic and curatorial practice is deeply influenced by his early childhood experiences, everyday visual culture, and a decades-long career behind the scenes of major Canadian art institutions.
Owen’s interest in frames began early, as a five-year-old child assisting his father. During the war, his father taught pilots and aircrews aircraft recognition, a practice of close observation and visual analysis that profoundly shaped Owen’s way of seeing. After the war, his father turned to woodworking, and Jamie and his brother helped build furniture and frames in the family workshop. Together, they made much of the furniture and most of the frames in their home, used to display calendar prints and his brother’s paint-by-numbers.
Owen began collecting in the 1970s while working as an antique picker for stores and restaurants. Initially drawn to the frames themselves, he then became increasingly interested in the relationship between the frame and image, how frames direct our attention, and what people choose to display or discard. His ever-evolving collection now spans over 1,400 objects and includes an eclectic range of items such as doors, linoleum flooring, puzzles, toys, art supplies, mass-market prints, and handcrafted folk art, all found in vintage shops and antiques markets across Ontario. Portions of the collection have been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution, Harbourfront Centre, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
Owen studied commercial art at Sheridan College, graduating with its inaugural class in 1969. He went on to work as a printmaker, art handler, and exhibition designer, holding roles at institutions such as the Art Gallery of Hamilton, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, and the National Gallery of Canada. In 1990, he returned to Sheridan, first as a print media technologist, and later, in 1998, as the exhibition designer for the Trafalgar Campus Gallery. Until his retirement in 2021, Owen was a familiar presence on campus, often found in the gallery installing student work with the same level of care and respect he would give a Monet or a Van Gogh, while mentoring generations of emerging artists.
Fifteen Minutes of Frame celebrates Owen’s creative legacy and his lasting contributions to Sheridan and the wider arts community.
Exhibition Reception: November 13, 6pm-8pm
Creative Campus Galleries 