12 posts tagged “art”
Where has the time gone? This winter hasn't seen a lot of painting, you know, the usual excuses of having a job, family, small tiny house, etc etc. not leaving much time or will for art-making. ... but it still happens on a small scale. However, it's all good (especially with all the running, hiking and snowshoeing that got done).
I've recently had the good fortune to have works bought for a couple of major collections. The Glenbow Museum purchased Big Rivers (2006) from its exhibition Honouring Tradition, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts purchased Magpie (2006) and two paintings from the Constellations Series entitled Island and Mainland (2006), and Mini Sosa (2008).
Mini Sosa was completed last summer, featuring the Indigenous communities and populations of the upper Missouri River (Mini Sosa in Lakota).
I managed to get out of the studio this week to visit two very different art galleries in southern Saskatchewan, the McKenzie in Regina and the Shurniak in Assiniboia. The McKenzie had much to offer with five simultaneous shows, including a portrait exhibition from their permanent collection, a Kent Monkman installation, and painting exhibitions featuring Wally Dion, Dorothy Knowles and Allen Sapp. CAPTURED: Portraiture and the Permanent Collection was chock-a-block with drawings, paintings and photographs by regional and international artists. The works all vied for wall space, despite being hung in the largest gallery room. However, a few images stood out for me, including a piece by Carl Beam and a portrait in oils, of a northern Cree trapper (unfortunately I don’t remember the artist) which was handled without the usual romanticism. Happily, the other exhibitions were allowed to breathe, and Allen Sapp: Portraits of Community was rewarding in the sense that one does come away with a feeling for Sapp’s northern Saskatchewan community. His paintings are successful in large part because each one is a gentle reminder that native people are first and foremost just people living their lives, as a opposed to one dimensional characters or a political entity. Wally Dion also addresses issues of identity with his fragmented portrait works. Betty stood out as an exception to the rule that no one does monumental portraits of their elder female relations. Well, Dion does, and he did it beautifully. In Assiniboia, Bill Shurniak’s extensive private art collection is on public display at the gallery named after himself. There you have the opportunity to view works by the Group of Seven, Bill Reid, and other national and international artists. The Shurniak also hosts temporary and travelling exhibitions, all within the comfortable setting of the newly built gallery. I look forward to returning next month for Kiwetinohk, reproductions of Northern First Nation Rock Art from Northern Saskatchewan and Northern Manitoba. I’m also looking forward to returning to the McKenzie Gallery for Bob Boyer: His Life’s Work, opening September 19. Acrylic on acid-free canvas paper
11&3/4" x 9"
Studio view of (left to right) Calgary 82-O, a freedom fighter in-progress (for the Gwich'in) 12" x 12", and Just Completed And Not Yet Titled (36" x 30"). Unfortunately, this photo isn't picking up the heavily worked surface of the large painting, that's why professional photographers are so handy!
Two recent works: Drumheller 82-P (24" x 36") on left, and unfinished piece on right. Both works are graphite and acrylic on board-mounted topographic maps.
Last evening the Glenbow Museum in Calgary hosted the opening celebration of Honouring Tradition: Reframing Native Art, featuring over 200 works of art by traditional and contemporary artists such as Joane Cardinal-Schubert, Robert Houle, Frederick MacDonald, Gerald Tailfeathers, and White Wolf, just to name a few. It was good to meet up with friends and meet new people, and the Glenbow always puts on a good opening! The exhibition itself is amazing, and extensive. I'm thinking that a second, more leisurely visit is definitely in order. Respect, thanks, and congrats to the curators and staff at the museum.
My painting, Big Rivers, is included in the show and exhibition catalogue. Honouring Traditions is on view through to July 13, 2008. Go check it out!
I finally made it to Banff yesterday to check out the 2007 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art at the Walter Phillips Gallery, entitled Living Utopia and Disaster. For such a dramatic title I was expecting something more exciting, however, there were some cool pieces. I really enjoyed Jonathan Kaiser's installation Lost Boys and the Hundred Year Mortgage which requires the viewer to participate by entering the piece through a narrow entryway. Inside, it looks like a front-room of a nice suburban house, but something is wrong, water is dripping from the ceiling, liquid noises are amped in, buckets of water and bleach sit on the floor and small empty aquariums awaiting pets sit in alcoves on either side of this small room. The work in the WPG's Bison Courtyard Satellite in downtown Banff was worth the sidetrip, featuring works by Terrance Houle & Jarusha Brown, Geoffrey Hunter, and two others whose names I forget (sorry!). TH & JB's Landscape photos are humorous comments on native identity and history on the contemporary landscape. Unfortunately, the 2007AB ends today, but definitely check out this satellite space if you're in Banff, even if you don't go up to the Banff Centre. I also visited the Whyte Museum's Les Graff retrospective. Some evocative paintings from the alberta artist's collection are on exhibit, with emphasis on the artist's mountain landscape works.
As a compliment to the Constellations series of paintings, I've made several laminated collaged art cards using found images, text and maps that highlight Native communities in the Americas. I like them because they're miniature works of art, compact, affordable, and very collectable. Check em out at my shop.
I'm proud to announce that INAC's Indian Art Centre in Ottawa has updated their collection with the purchase of Ksisaskatchewan from the Constellations Series of paintings.
Ksisaskatchewan celebrates Indigenous presence in what are currently the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Modern urban, rural, and rez populations are highlighted in Cree, Blackfoot, Tsuu T'ina, Ktunaxa, Nakoda, Dunne-za, Metis, Saulteaux, Denesuline, Nakota and Dakota countries.
Ksisaskatchewan is the fourth Canadien painting to be added to the INAC collection. See their website at www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/art/art
Chinook Illahee
from the Constellations Series
Copyright Bruno Canadien 2006
Acrylic, pencil, on canvas
20" x 24" x 2"
This painting features what is now Oregon and Washington states in northwestern U.S.A., with the lower Columbia and Snake rivers dominating. As there are many indigenous nations and cultural groups in this area, it was hard to come up with a title which would fittingly describe the country as a whole. Also, I could not find an indigenous name for the one feature that unifies the area, the Columbia River. In the end, I settled upon Chinook Illahee, which means Chinook Country, in the Jargon which was widely spoken in the northwest.
As in all of the Constellations paintings, the stars denote contemporary Native communities and populations, including reservation, rural, urban and suburban communities. The names on the left are Tribes.
Acrylic paint and old found maps of North and South Dakota cities are collaged onto this canvas celebrating Native American presence in the Dakotas. The Tribes in these states include several Lakota and Dakota tribes; Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara; and Anishnabe (Chippewa). Many other First Nations are also represented in the overall population.
The cities in this painting are: Bismark (1,884 Native population out of 55,532); Fargo (1,326 /88,809); Moorhead (625 /32,177); Rapid City (6,046 /59,607); Sioux City (2,627 /123,975). (U.S. Census figures)
After a couple of weeks of intermittent evening work, this painting was completed two days ago. The ribbon work was the most time-consuming.
Dakota Cities has been listed on brunocanadien.etsy.com
