Wilf Perreault

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Wilf Perreault, installation view, 2021

Opening Reception with the artist Saturday, December 4 2 - 4 pm * weather dependent 

Wilf Perreault is one of Saskatchewan’s most celebrated artists. For over 40 years the Regina based painter has been best known for a humble subject, the urban back alley. During this time Perreault has been inspired by this unlikely muse, capturing alleys at various times of day and season producing captivating portraits of a familiar, but disappearing, world.

“There is a light inside the work. It doesn’t really matter if it’s day time or night time — there’s a light that comes from within. I think the light is actually life. Somehow my job is to take that painting and make it live and breathe and exist beyond the photograph or beyond me. A photograph is the starting point and I’m only a part of the whole process. Sometimes I have to give it mouth-to-mouth, sometimes I pump the chest of this painting and bring it back to life….I fumble a lot. I don’t know where it’s going, but I have the strength and the faith that it will be okay.” — Wilf Perreault

Born in Albertville, Saskatchewan in 1947, Wild grew up in Saskatoon, attending the University of Saskatchewan, graduating BFA with Honours in 1970. Wilf Perreault is a member of the Royal Academy of Artists and was awarded the Queen’s Jubilee medal in 2003. In 1989 Perreault was one of five artists chosen to represent Canada and was awarded a Silver Medal in Les Jeux de la Francophonie in Morocco, Africa. In 2014 the Mackenzie Art Gallery mounted Wilf Perreault: In the Alley, a major retrospective of his career. In 2016 Perreault was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit. Perreault’s work can be found in several private, public and corporate collections including the Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina; Pemberton Houston, Willoughby; Bank of Montreal; The Mercantile Bank; Goldman Sachs and Co., New York; Osler Hoskins, Toronto; Ernst & Young; Touche Ross & Co.; Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa; Saskatchewan Arts Board; Petro-Canada Inc.; Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan; Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon; and the Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta.