Alex Janvier Retrospective Opens at the Glenbow

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Alex Janvier

The Glenbow Museum will present the country's largest and most comprehensive exhibition about the 65-year career of renowned Alberta artist Alex Janvier.

This major retrospective, organized by the National Gallery of Canada, features more than 100 remarkable paintings and drawings. It opens June 16 and runs until Sept. 9.

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Janvier’s paintings, with their vivid colours and calligraphic lines, combine Dene iconography with Western art styles and techniques, such as automatic painting and modern abstraction.

Greg Hill, a curator at the National Gallery of Canada, says Janvier's paintings tell the story of his experiences of colonization and residential schooling.

Janvier conveys "what it means to be an Indigenous person in a country that for a long time sought only to eradicate any sense of self-identification or connection to one's Indigeneity," says Hill. 

"Viewers connect to the beauty and truth about humanity that comes through the paintings.”

Janvier, born in 1935, is from the Cold Lake region. He has earned many honours, including the Order of Canada and the Alberta Order of Excellence. His work is held in numerous  public collections and he has completed important commissions. 

Janvier has enjoyed international exposure since the beginning of his career, when he won a prize at a 1950 exhibition at the Vatican. He completed a mural for the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, and his work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in Canada, China, Europe and the United States.

Source: Glenbow Museum