Teresa Posyniak — Resilience

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Teresa Posyniak, “The Healer,” 1990, oil stick on paper, 37.5" x 53" (courtesy of the artist)

Alberta painter Teresa Posyniak’s thought-provoking new exhibition, Resilience, at the University of Calgary’s Nickle Galleries in Calgary, is really three in one: an installation of 62 eight-foot sculptures in one gallery, a collection of mixed-media drawings, paintings and constructions in another and an Expressionist grassland landscape exhibition in the hallway.

This retrospective, on view until Dec. 14, illustrates the evolution of Posyniak’s work from the early 1980s to the present. Curated by Michele Hardy and Christine Sowiak, it is both intriguing and incremental.

The first installation, entitled Resilience, is instantaneously haunting with its black walls and eerily lit stick figures. It is like walking on stage with a cast of motionless ghostly sentinels. Wander through the forest-like setting, and upon examination, the works become more organic, perhaps just bone and flesh — as if the skin or bark has been peeled back. Look closer and cracked half eggs on the floor are filled with what looks like hair and wool, creating nests, symbols of fertility or rebirth? Some contain lace doilies, conjuring memories of a grandmother’s house. 

Or perhaps you notice the pillars along the walls. When seen from afar, they resemble legs with an amorphous foot. Look closely and the densely textured surface resembles beehives or perhaps the work of birds. In places, doilies are embedded in the pillars, but unlike the ones in the eggs, they are not pure white, juxtaposing innocence and decay.  

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Teresa Posyniak, “Resilience,” 1983-2024, mixed media installation at Nickle Galleries, University of Calgary (photo by Josie Chu)

Posyniak’s various narratives evolve. Are the pillars symbols of civilization? Are the skinny structures crutches from a hospital in a war-torn country? Is there a war between humans and nature? Is it about the struggle to survive — by both humans and nature? 

While the installation is solemn, it is sensitive rather than aggressive or horrific. Look closely at the surfaces, and you will find bright colours that suggest something is growing and about to emerge, perhaps a glimmer of hope or renewal.

In the second gallery, drawings and paintings demonstrate Posyniak’s mastery of mark-making which conveys angst and liveliness. Again, there is a sense of sorrow but also sensuality, hope for a new (better) life, be it a pregnant woman, a mother and child or a seed pod.  

There is only one artwork – The Healer — that is dark, both in colour and statement. But even it demonstrates hope: a block of white that contains the outline of a figure and yellow hues of hope or happiness.  

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Teresa Posyniak, “Annunciation I, II, III,” 1987, oil stick, acrylic, chalk pastels, charcoal on paper (courtesy of the artist)

The three large-format drawings entitled Annunciation I, II and III, are beautiful in form, colour and mark-making. Their delicate sensuality and mystery invite further contemplation and introspection.  

Four torso-like foamcore and styrofoam-textured constructions are on the far wall. Each has a rock formation at the top and a triangular shape that thrusts into the ground beneath, with cryptic, fossil-like objects embedded in them. Upon further examination, the triangular shape becomes a mask which looks as if it has been buried under the rocks. 

In the hallway looking down on the Nickle’s main gallery is the third exhibition, a series exploring prairie grasslands viewed close-up. Nature always becomes abstract when magnified. In Posyniak’s case, it is an opportunity for her to  demonstrate her mastery of mark-making and colour using different tools and media.  

With work in public and private collections across Canada, including the Glenbow, Posyniak holds a bachelor of fine arts in painting and printmaking as well as a master of fine arts in sculpture from the University of Calgary. The ambiguity of her work allows for a plurality of possibilities, including resilience. ■

Teresa Posyniak, Resilience, is on view at the University of Calgary’s Nickle Galleries in Calgary until Dec. 14

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