Wait for the Wheel

26 October, 2022 - 16 April 2023

William (Bill) Acres, Jack Bechtel, Salvador Dalí, Michael Falk, Michael Flomen, Sara Graham, Basia Irland, Otto Rogers, C.V. Stübbe-Teglbjaerg, Takao Tanabe, Dondi White and York Wilson

Curated by Jennifer Bullock

In Greek and Roman mythology, the goddess Tyche, or Fortuna, is the fickle mistress of our destinies. Sometimes she helps you win and sometimes she lets you lose. In The Consolation of Philosophy (524 CE), perhaps the last great work of Classical literature, the 6th century Roman senator, consul and philosopher Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius illustrated the goddess’ inconstancy through the metaphor of Fortuna’s wheel.

This imagery persisted from Classical antiquity through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. People imagined themselves as passengers on this metaphorical wheel of misfortune and advantage. Works in the exhibition explore this concept of fate’s constant turning. If events follow an eternal cycle–an ending always followed by a beginning–one may trust that destruction will be followed by renewal; despair must give way to hope. One need only wait for the wheel.

Premier Exhibition Sponsor:

Michael Falk (Israeli, b. Germany 1929). Chad Gadya V: Angel of Death and the Holy One (detail), 2004. Oil on wood panel, 70 x 60 cm. Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery Collection: Donated by Alan Tanenbaum. From the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Collection of International Naïve Art, 2019. © Michael Falk. Used by permission. Photo: Robert McNair.

Gallery Images:

Folk imagery of the top half of a man in his bed about to be taken by the grim reaper and the bottom half is of the grim reaper being scared away by angels with trumpets

an image of a white circle drawn on a blue backrop

folk imagery of a man feeding a goat in the top half and on the bottom half the goat is being attacked by a panther with a frightened girl watching

folk imagery where the top half is an image of a dog scaring away the panther and the bottom half is the owner finding the dog dead

folk imagery where the top half is of a man making a fire and the bottom half is of a group of people sitting around the fire holding baskets

Folk imagery of a man finding a cow drinking water by the river and the bottom image is of him bringing the cow home