Joe Fafard opens "Mes Amis" at Slate in Regina

Opening March 26, 2015, this show celebrates fellow artists, past & present, who have inspired Fafard throughout his continued and successful career as one of Canada’s most well known artists.

With a determination to pay homage, Joe Fafard has taken on the challenge of 16 bronze portraits. Several of which are of artists from the 19th and 20th century who influenced the development of his own aesthetic. ”It’s an opportunity to revisit friends, real and imagined” says Fafard. “so the title, Mes Amis is appropriate”. The artists included in this exhibition were chosen by Fafard for “their fearlessness & brevity as well as the delicacy of the work they created”.

In a field that is often male oriented Fafard presents a balance of male and female historical artists. Over half of the portraits included have been newly-created or never before shown. Dempsey Bob, Lucien Freud and Rosa Bonheur join the expanding repertoire of famous artists that Fafard has created in the past such as Vincent Van Gogh, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.

Joe Fafard "Michael Snow"

Joe Fafard "Julien"

Joe Fafard "Egon Scheile"

Joe Fafard "Emily Carr"

Some of the artist portraits in Mes Amis are:

• Emily Carr - 20th century Canadian Modernist painter

• Georgia O’Keefe - 20th century American Modernist painter

• Rosa Bonheur - 19th century French “Animalier” sculptor and painter

• Egon Schiele - 20th century Austrian Figurative painter

• Lucien Freud - 20th century British portrait painter

• Dempsey Bob - Contemporary Canadian (B.C.) Tahltan/Tlingit First Nations sculptor

• Michael Hosaluk - Contemporary Canadian (SK) wood maker

• Russell Yuristy - Contemporary Canadian (SK/ON) painter, printer and sculptor

Mes Amis, is a unique exhibition by a senior Canadian artist that gives viewers a glimpse into the formation of Joe Fafard’s aesthetic and growth as a professional artist and shows how these artists and their work has not been lost over time but has been expanded on by later artists such as himself.

Report from Slate Fine Art Gallery.