Western Canada’s art magazine since 2002
21 November 2023 Vol 8 No 22 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2023
Shelley Boettcher
From the Editor
I'm writing this on a bright sunny day in Calgary. There are blue jays out my window, hot tea in my cup and Wilco on the stereo. A couple of doors down, the neighbour kids are playing in their back yard. My typing is punctuated by their loud laughter. It's good. Life's good.
If I were to post an Instagram photo right now it would probably be pretty cheery. But — let’s face it — that’s what social media is for most of us anyway: a place to post carefully edited pics of our lives, the messy or sad stuff tucked carefully out of view.
That dichotomy can be good fodder for art, however. Take, for instance, Allison Tunis + Collaborators: The Chronic Illness Art Project on now until Dec. 3 at the McMullen Art Gallery. Writer Agnieszka Matejko takes us on a tour of the show as Tunis, an Edmonton-based artist, and nine other artists explore both sides of the self: the Insta-friendly successful exterior and the darker inner self, with its doubts, illness and despair.
I've watched Mark Mushet's sensitive, beautiful video interview with British-Canadian artist David Spriggs a few times now, and each time, I take away something new to ponder. Spriggs' massive 3D landscapes were part of legendary British musician Peter Gabriel’s latest tour, but you can experience their powerful magic during Spriggs' solo show, Dimensionalism. It's on view at the Paul Kyle Gallery in Vancouver until Jan. 20.
Writer Zoe Schneider takes a nostalgic wander through Saskatchewan artist David Thauberger’s new solo exhibition, Endless Summer, at Slate Fine Art Gallery in Regina through Dec. 2. “As our world feels ever more on the precipice of a mighty fall, Endless Summer privileges the viewer with a vacation from the turmoil for a short time,” Schneider writes.
We take a quick stop at Kelowna Art Gallery for All the Stars We Cannot See, a visualization of more than 25,500 satellites in the skies above us; it's on view to Mar. 10. The Art Gallery of Alberta exhibition, Ally McIntyre: Kindling, uses animals to explore climate collapse, on now through Jan. 28 in Edmonton. And Carol Wallace’s solo exhibition Give or Take a Few Million Years at Nelson Museum, Archives and Gallery brings art and geology together. See it until Feb. 24, 2024. And the late pop art superstar Keith Haring's vibrantly coloured, playful works are featured in Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody, now to March 17, 2024 at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.
As always, there has been plenty of news, too: Kablusiak wins the 2023 Sobey Art Award. Dr. Heather Igloliorte is joining the University of Victoria as the first Canada Excellence Research Chair in Decolonial and Transformational Indigenous Art Practices. West Baffin Cooperative turns 65 in 2024, and Peter Shostak has been named a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society. Canada Council for the Arts reported a surplus. Jean-Francois Bélisle, the National Gallery of Canada's new director, has announced he is not interested in decolonization, and there’s a kerfuffle in Ottawa over the artist chosen for the National Monument to Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan.
Looking ahead to Dec. 5, you'll won’t want to miss our annual books issue, just in time for the holiday shopping season.
Do you have a story idea? News? Or just want to say hi? Drop me a note at editor@gallerieswest.ca. As always, I look forward to hearing from you.
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Agnieszka Matejko, Zoe Schneider, Mark Mushet
We acknowledge the support of the Government of Alberta Media Fund, the Government of Canada Periodical Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts.
