Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
13 February 2018 Vol 3 No 4 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2018
From the Editor
Portia Priegert
Can an art magazine be all things to all people? I often find myself pondering this question. It’s not rhetorical: art magazines tend to position themselves within surprisingly narrow niches. Some focus exclusively on prominent contemporary art, writing in dense, almost indecipherable, prose. At the other end of the spectrum are magazines that gush, saying little of substance, about artists travelling well-trodden paths. There are publications that concentrate on particular media, like photography or sculpture, or specific groups, such as collectors. Sometimes, as with Galleries West, a strong regional focus drives editorial content.
Summarizing the range of stories in this issue brought the question to mind again. Our cover story is about international art star Takashi Murakami’s show at the Vancouver Art Gallery. But we also look at long-time Alberta artists Peter von Tiesenhausen and Walter May, as well as Brenda Francis Pelkey, who spent her early career in Saskatchewan. And we have stories about younger artists at commercial galleries: Maggie Boyd at Vancouver’s Franc Gallery and aAron munson and compatriots at dc3 Art Projects in Edmonton. My musings are also fuelled by our writers. Some come from a journalistic background and use its formulas effortlessly. Others are artists, curators or academics who delve deep into the work’s ideas and subtexts. I step into this Rubik’s Cube with both journalistic and artistic impulses, working with writers to ensure the text is clear and concise, while ideas are explored with as much depth as short-form writing permits.
Our next issue offers yet more diversity. We are experimenting with a Q-and-A format with Winnipeg artist Ufuk Gueray. Former Winnipegger Sarah Swan is writing from her new home in Yellowknife about Margaret Nazon, who has been beading images from the Hubble Space Telescope since 2009. Sarah made a great pitch: “Some of them are really marvellous – intricate and dazzling,” she says. “What interests me, as a writer, is how through her art one remote place calls out to another remote place – Tsiigehtchic to deep space.” The poetry of that image made it easy to say yes. Other work that caught our attention? The Surrey Art Gallery’s exhibition of art from Indigenous communities in India.
All things to all people? Not quite. But we’re trying.
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Mary-Beth Laviolette, Marcus Miller, Anne Pratt, Lissa Robinson, John Thomson
