I love Winnipeg. I have lived here my entire life and have weaved in and out of careers, galleries, schools and creative ventures since graduating from art school in 2004.
When people ask why I’ve never left, I point to the city’s working class history, which has given us a down-to-earth collective mindset. We aren’t perfect, but we are real. Our winters are long and bitterly cold which leaves plenty of time to make art, connect with community and strengthen bonds of love, resistance and hope.
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on the celebrations and coming together of communities that makes Winnipeg’s art scene so strong. One of the things I like the most is how many groups create opportunities for people regardless of their experience, wealth or ability. We make space for everybody.
New York artist Queen Andrea created this mural, "Love All Day," on Garry Street in Winnipeg as part of this year's Wall-to-Wall mural festival. (photo courtesy of Synonym Art Consultation)
There’s The Ephemerals, a collective of Indigenous women that made the long list for this year’s Sobey Art Award. There are community-based initiatives like the Wall-to-Wall mural festival organized by Synonym Art Consultation. And there are experimental project spaces like Blinkers and artist-run facilities like Martha Street Studio. All are a testament to the collective power of Winnipeggers.
Several shows this year by local artists tapped into this familial energy. Karen Asher’s show, Class, at Plug In ICA, was a burst of ridiculous joy and playful energy that celebrated friendship, freedom and absurdity.
Over at Urban Shaman, Dee Barsy painted the gallery in her signature shade of blue and abstracted a variety of insects with a nod to their ecological work in These Tiny Helpers / Agaashiiwi-wiiji’iweg / Ókik ká yá apisísisicik owícihiwéwak.
John Paskievich’s photographs in his Winnipeg Art Gallery show, The North End, honoured people and places in one of the city’s most diverse neighbourhoods.
Artists are attuned to what matters around them.
Dee Barsy, "These Tiny Helpers," 2019
As much as I don’t want to think about the tragedy of the July 22 fire that destroyed a Jarvis Street warehouse that housed many artist studios, I don’t think I can talk about 2019 without mentioning it. Important work by much-loved artists was lost, as well as the gear and practice space of several musicians, and part of Agape Table, a charitable community kitchen.
The art community – local and national – rallied together via an online fundraising campaign that has collected more than $121,000 to help artists rebuild in new spaces. We mourned together and are still in shock.
I am looking forward to some fresh faces and spaces in 2020. Recent departures include Jenifer Papararo at Plug In and Hannah Godfrey at artist-run centre Ace Art Inc., where local artist Helga Jakobson has taken the reins. New ideas, directions and energies are sure to follow. Another big development will be the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Inuit Art Centre, expected to open in late 2020.
A rendering of the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Inuit Art Centre, designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture. (courtesy Winnipeg Art Gallery)
One of my most moving art experiences this year came when I took the Grade 9 class I teach to see Winnipeg artist Divya Mehra’s giant inflatable Taj Mahal, which has just been bought by the National Gallery of Canada. We had watched Mehra’s journey with its creation in an episode of a new CBC Television series, In the Making, and my predominantly Punjabi students gasped in surprise to find it at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
They then took me around the works in Vision Exchange: Perspectives from India to Canada, which brings together the work of 20 contemporary artists from India and artists of Indian heritage living in Canada. They asked me to dissect the pieces with their cultural understandings as my guide. “What do you think this says in English, Ms. A? Why did the artist use that image beside that text in that case? Where in India do you think this is?”
That is community. That is engagement. That is why I love art. ■
Divya Mehra, "Afterlife of Colonialism, a reimagining of Power: It’s possible that the Sun has set on your Empire OR Why your voice does not matter: Portrait of an Imbalanced, and yet contemporary diasporic India vis-à-vis Colonial Red, Curry Sauce Yellow, and Paradise Green, placed neatly beneath these revived medieval forms: The Challenges of entering a predominately White space (Can you get this in the gift shop?) where all Women and Magical Elephants may know this work, here in your Winnipeg, among all my Peers,” 2019, inflatable attempt at the Taj Mahal, acrylic deep base paint, 15’ x 15’ x 15’ (photo by Ivan Hughes; image courtesy the artist and Georgia Scherman Projects)
PS: Worried you missed something? See previous Galleries West stories here or sign up for our free biweekly newsletter.
