Take in a variety of local and national art that includes student multimedia, Indigenous and Ukrainian culture and miniatures in ceramic.
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After two long heat waves in July, it’s a good idea to have some indoor options for those hot August days. What’s better than an art gallery, where you can explore the works of a variety of local and national artists?
Here are five exhibitions to explore in four galleries around the city this month:
GORDON SNELGROVE GALLERY
Read’s work features performance art and digital innovations, using piano parts as artistic expression as she explores how digital tools reshape our experiences of art.
“Reverberations is a two-week performance-based exhibition that invites viewers into the creative process of deconstructing pianos and transforming their parts into a compelling installation. … What sets Reverberations apart is its rare approach: the exhibition unfolds in real-time before closing immediately upon completion, offering a unique and ephemeral artistic journey,” Read said.
Airing features a variety of works from the 2024 MFA graduating class and runs at The Gallery, Frances Morrison Central Library.
A multidisciplinary artist, Otayemi explores objects as mediating devices for a migrant’s uncertain journey, and how they can keep a person grounded amid the changes and challenges of a new environment.
“I look at the precariousness of the journey and the enduring aspects of self that we hold onto in the midst of transformation. The skewing and reconfiguration of their original forms reflect the whirlwind I have found myself within. Something unexpected and mercurial. Ajakubo,” Otayemi said.
UKRAINIAN MUSEUM OF CANADA, TWO SHOWS
Divine Visions is a celebration of the life and works of Stratiychuk, who was a renowned master in woodworking, carving, iconography and painting restoration. The exhibition looks at his contributions to Canadian churches, particularly in Saskatchewan.
Cree artist Nicholas and Ukrainian artist Semchuk collaborated on photo installations and videos, until Nicholas’s death in 2007. Their exhibition is a retrospective of 15 years together, exploring the issues faced by Ukrainian settlers and First Peoples in Canada while honouring the land, plants and animals that are integral to their stories.
“Although the iconography of Vasyl Stratiychuk and the collaborative photographs of James Nicholas and Sandra Semchuk are extremely different in form and style, both, I think, are profound mediations on what it means to be human. Icons reflect on the suffering of saints as a way of guiding one’s own actions in a good way in this life. And the photographs of Nicholas and Semchuk meditate on the possibilities and limitations of intercultural and personal understanding between the First Peoples of Turtle Island and Ukrainian settlers, or between a husband and wife,” said UMC executive director and CEO Jen Budney.
COLLEGE ART GALLERIES
The exhibition features three bodies of photographic works developed over four decades. The Bear Portraits, Indians on Tour and Strong Hearts: Powwow Portraits explore historical and contemporary representations of Indigenous identity in photography, while investigating the absence of Indigenous-produced images.
“Addressing his personal experiences growing up in urban environments where access to his own Indigenous history was limited, Thomas aims to make these histories accessible and empowering through images that assert Indigenous agency and self-determination in sites where it is absent,” curator Leah Taylor said.
“The first Bear portrait, Culture Revolution, set in motion a new way of looking at the city and, like the graffiti, my revolution was against the invisible urban Iroquois presence,” Thomas added.
SASKATCHEWAN CRAFT COUNCIL GALLERY
The exhibition features miniature vignettes that are whimsical and pensive, asking viewers to investigate beyond the surface to see the deeper meaning behind each piece.
“This mud has been formed into extraordinary ceramic artworks, rich with humour, irony, and passion … This mud has shaped the lives of these two colleagues, expressing an exquisite rapport with the essential materiality of the medium known only to the practitioners of the ceramic arts,” said local photographer and arts writer Patrick Close.
“Truly, in matters pertaining to the ceramic arts … mud matters.”