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Each piece in the show is chosen to demonstrate the best of each artist, and, cumulatively, the strength of the capital’s art scene. There’s a typically masterful painting by Leslie Reid; Frank Shebageget’s large mobile of miniatures of the de Havilland “Beaver” float plane, which has long been a lifeline for remote aboriginal communities; and more from Eric Walker, Leslie Hossack, Jennifer Lefort, Guillermo Trejo and Justin Wonnacott.

Amy Schissel’s 2014 piece Animate Grounds, which debuted at Volta Basel in Switzerland, is so massive that SAW can accommodate only two-thirds of it or so. Even reduced, the piece is a galaxy of Schissel’s imagination, a room-length representation of the digital universe made tangible, and comprehensible.

Two paintings especially stand out in Big Bang. Gavin Lynch’s “not yet titled” canvas is spectacular, with the old forests of British Columbia gloriously recast in angular relief, like nature’s cathedral. Lynch framed the large painting — approximately four-and-a-half by six feet — in many shards of wood that seem to project outward the sunlight that plunges through those soaring, ancient forests. If Lynch keeps this up, he may someday tower over the art world like the giant cedar and spruce trees he represents.

In stark contrast to Lynch’s epic forest is Michael Harrington’s Basement King, a five-by-seven-foot portrait of a man who is up to . . . something. Harrington has cast the basement as dark and moody, the back wall cluttered with tawdry pin-ups. The “king” stands alone in his socks and flip flops, and an outrageous fur-trimmed, bright yellow and pimpin’ coat. He, and his lights and camera, face the viewer, who is left to wonder what this pasty, subterranean regent is filming. Basement King is everything that’s great about Harrington’s work — cinematic, enigmatic, and disquieting.

There’s one more part of Big Bang that will only be seen on Sept. 10, when Dana Michel presents her dance performance Yellow Towel. “With a blend of gravity and buffoonery, she digs into the stereotypes of black culture, turning them upside down to see what is revealed,” says Michel’s Facebook event page. Admission to Yellow Towel is $20. Admission to the Big Bang exhibition is free.

What: Big Bang, new works by Ottawa artists

When & where: To Oct. 10 at SAW Gallery, in Arts Court, 67 Nicholas St.

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