Western Canada’s art magazine since 2002
5 March 2024 Vol 9 No 5 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2024
Shelley Boettcher
From the Editor
Many years ago, Nancy Tousley was one of my editors at the Calgary Herald. We bonded over a shared love of good red wine, all things pasta, art and Italy.
This issue, Tousley — also one of Canada's top visual arts writers, a Governor General’s Award winner and editor — takes a look at the work of Skawennati, a pioneering Indigenous Futurist whose stereotype-breaking creations are vibrant and thought-provoking. The show is at AUArts in Calgary through March 9 and if you’re in town, stop by to hear Skawennati speaking at the AUArts Stanford Perrott Lecture Theatre on Friday, March 8 from 4 to 5 p.m.
Next we head north to Edmonton, to see the paintings of Brenda Draney, whose exhibition, Drink from the river, is on view at the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton now through May 5. If you aren’t familiar with this Alberta artist’s haunting work, writer Diana Sherlock sums it up remarkably: “Draney paints her subjects from memory. They are stripped back to their essentials and often ambiguously rendered. What she can’t remember, she leaves blank. She builds visual and psychological tension between the flat, broad, sketchy brushstrokes she uses to paint her subjects and the negative space that defines them.”
Then, on the West Coast, writer John Luna heads to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria for Crossing: Art, Heritage, and Personal Journeys, on now through May 26. The show features the work of Asian-Canadian artists Yumie Kono, Andy Lou and Chrystal Phan and looks at Asian migration, identity, heritage and journeys, both physical and spiritual.
A little further afield, the co-director of the Museum of Fear and Wonder, Jude Griebel grew up on a farm between Alberta and Saskatchewan. Now his exhibition, Revenants, is on now through March 23 at Massey Klein Gallery in New York City.
In our Feb. 22 show picks, we also published details on Perception, a photo exhibition at Newzones in Calgary, a group show of Coast Salish art in Vancouver at Coastal Peoples Fine Arts Gallery and a Lorna Russell estate exhibition in Saskatoon at Art Placement, all of which have now concluded. The Han Sungpil exhibition at TrepanierBaer in Calgary also wrapped this weekend, while Maureen Gruben’s latest exhibition at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, which we also included in our Feb. 29 list of show picks, runs until May 5.
On a different note, if you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at art writing, consider entering the SAAG Arts Writing Prize. The deadline to enter is March 30 and winners will receive $1,000 plus a $500 public program opportunity with the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Lethbridge.
Coming up in our next issue: Veteran Galleries West contributor Paul Gessell takes a look at the Henry Moore and Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition on now at Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Dick Averns visits the very cool exhibition, Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky: Edelweiss, at Esker Foundation in Calgary. And there’s much, much more to come.
And a friendly reminder: 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.
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Nancy Tousley, John Luna, Diana Sherlock
We acknowledge the support of the Government of Alberta Media Fund, the Government of Canada Periodical Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts.
