Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
14 June 2022 Vol 7 No 12 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2022
Portia Priegert
From the Editor
A small brown envelope adorned with a dragonfly arrived in the mail last week. It came from a friend who had attended the memorial gathering for my former studio mate, Sara McDonald. She died in February after battling a cruel disease, ALS.
Like many artists, Sara was an avid collector. On her walks, she picked up interesting bits of twisted wood and rusty metal that she displayed in our studio, a rough and tumble mouse-infested building in a former public works yard in Kelowna, B.C. Sara also loved thrifting, and had squirrelled away an array of antique measuring tapes and old knitting patterns, among other things, some of which ended up in her art.
The envelope in question contained small black seeds of unknown origin and species – another collection, apparently – that Sara’s friends were invited to plant in her memory. I scattered some amidst the vegetables in my community garden plot here in Victoria, and placed more in a shadier flower bed, hoping to increase the odds of germination.
I took a moment to think of Sara’s art, mostly prints and mixed-media pieces, two of which now hang in my home. I also thought of her many kindnesses, her wicked sense of humour, and how life has a way of disrupting our comfortable routines. Sara showed immense courage in her final years. Her death came far too soon.
Much of the art in this issue of Galleries West asks us to confront difficult realities and remember the past.
Our look at this year’s Whitney Biennial, one of America’s most influential exhibitions, focuses on stunning works by two Indigenous artists from north of the 49th parallel, Rebecca Belmore (Anishinaabe) and Duane Linklater (Omaskêko Cree). Belmore’s powerful work, ishkode (fire), in the words of critic Aruna D’Souza, a Canadian critic who writes for the New York Times and other publications, offers “a tragically timely challenge” to find a way out of repeated cycles of devastating gun violence.
Meanwhile, Ottawa writer Sylvia Dreaver introduces our readers to the fascinating work of Jobena Petonoquot, who melds aspects of Victorian culture with Algonquin traditions in a solo show at the Ottawa Art Gallery. Petonoquot’s practice emphasizes perseverance and pride in her Indigenous identity, as well as the defence of age-old values and teachings.
Also in Ottawa, Paul Gessell looks at the National Gallery of Canada’s retrospective for General Idea, the three-person Toronto-based art collective that helped take Canadian art out of the closet. Gessell notes that one of collective’s most important contributions was helping people come to terms with the AIDS crisis. “This is political art at its best,” he writes.
In Calgary, Lissa Robinson visits an exhibition of portraits of Holocaust survivors and learns about the new lives they built in Canada, while Vancouver writer Mark Mushet considers a show that documents the horrors Russia is wreaking on Ukraine.
Finally, another Vancouver writer John Thomson trips through Michael Kluckner’s exhibition and illustrated coming-of-age novel in The West Coast in the Seventies. Kluckner’s project came about as he pondered how youth today are facing many of the same issues he did, including unemployment and environmental crises, although they are now parsed through the growing influence of technology and materialism.
Looking ahead, we’re working on stories about Leah Hennel’s moving photographs of the pandemic, many shot in Calgary hospital wards, as well as a roundup of highlights from recent art auctions across Canada.
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Sylvia Dreaver, Aruna D'Souza, Paul Gessell, Mark Mushet, Lissa Robinson, John Thomson
We acknowledge the support of the Government of Alberta Media Fund, the Government of Canada Special Measures for Journalism Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts.
