Western Canada’s art magazine since 2002
2 April 2024 Vol 9 No 7 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2024
Shelley Boettcher
From the Editor
I’m writing this on a soggy night in Italy, in a wine bar literally at the point where Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio meet. I’m lucky, I know. There’s not a snowflake to be seen — and I’m grateful for that — but the rain! Torrential! Waves of it, cascading in sheets down the cobblestones outside the windows.
As a Calgarian, I'm definitely not used to it but I’m not complaining. My wine glass is full and I’ve just returned from seeing German artist Anselm Kiefer’s new exhibition, Fallen Angels, at Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. On view through July 21, it is intense, beautiful, dark and rich. Kiefer, incidentally, just received the Queen Sonja Lifetime Achievement Award, the world’s most prestigious prize for printmaking, in honour of his influence on woodcut printmaking throughout the past five decades. If you’re in Italy in the next few months, do consider a visit.
Then again, we have much to inspire us in Canada, too.
One of our most prolific contributors — and a former Galleries West editor — Paul Gessell returns once again, this time with a look at Marcel Dzama's new exhibition, Ghosts of Canoe Lake: New Works by Marcel Dzama. On now through June 9 at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, it explores the Ontario wilderness made so famous by the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson. After Ontario, the exhibition moves to Contemporary Calgary from June 27 to Oct. 27 and then the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg, Nov. 24 to March 9, 2025.
Award-winning essayist Sarah Swan returns this week, too, with her latest, The Exploding Chameleon, a thought-provoking, multi-layered, fun and fascinating monologue on art and AI and, yes, social media in 2024. (A bonus shout-out here to Singaporean artist Brandon Tay, who responded to me in about 20 minutes when I asked if he had photos of his work that we could use to accompany Sarah’s story.)
And Lissa Robinson takes us through Harry Mitsuo Kiyooka – Artist. Educator. Activist. (1928-2022), on view at Nickle Galleries until April 28. “The term wanderlust comes to mind as you journey through Kiyooka's life and take in his extraordinary art,” she says.
We go from coast to coast this issue, with a stop in Newfoundland, where Mi’kmaq artist Nelson White's new show, Wutanminu - Our Community, on view at Fogo Island Arts until Nov. 30.
Then to Vancouver, where avant-garde filmmaker and 3D art innovator Al Razutis has a new exhibition, Gravity Wins, Entropy Rules, on now through April 30 at UNIT/PITT.
Nate McLeod’s bright new exhibition, Slow Burn, is on view now through April 6 at Herringer Kiss Gallery in Calgary. Also in Calgary, Patrick Dunford’s Branch Lines is at Norberg Hall until April 20.
Audie Murray: To Make Smoke is at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina until Sept. 8. Curated by Tak Pham, the exhibition is the second installment in the gallery’s NEXT series, which aims to “highlight artistic innovation and support transformational pivots in fresh careers.”
And Shary Boyle's new exhibition, Vesselling, is on now through April 13 at Patel Brown in Montreal. It is her first solo exhibition with Patel Brown, but follows the success of her touring show, Outside the Palace of Me, which will be on view at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Saskatchewan from April 5 to Sept. 9, 2024.
And please do consider shopping with us: We have an association with Amazon that allows you to support independent arts journalism in Canada by buying books directly through our site. If you purchase a book by clicking on the Amazon link in a review, Galleries West may receive a small commission.
Last but not least: I'm drinking a red wine that, sadly, isn't available in Canada. But if I were looking for something similar, I'd pick a Rosso di Montalcino, a (relatively) value-priced red wine made from Sangiovese grapes, from the region where the glorious Brunello di Montalcino wines are made.
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Sarah Swan, Paul Gessell,
We acknowledge the support of the Government of Alberta Media Fund, the Government of Canada Periodical Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts.
