Joe Fafard: Retailles

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Public Reception with the Artist Friday Feb 15 at 7 PM

The internationally renowned Joe Fafard is one of Canada’s most recognized and prolific artists. Spanning decades, Fafard’s artistic practice is always evolving, driven by his endless experimentation with subject matter, media, process and technology. Whether in clay, bronze and steel sculpture, or in drawing and printmaking, Fafard’s work reveals his connection to his rural roots, his reverence for art history, and his ongoing inquiry into form and three-dimensional illusion and perspective. Generously laced with his trademark humour, Retailles also offers an insight into Fafard’s exploration of the laser-cut process and his creative renderings of its by-products in this collection of laser-cut and welded metal sculptures, along with embossed and woodcut prints. French for scraps or trimmings; that which is cut away, Retailles not only refers to the act of removing the negative from positive space to create form, but also to the act of recycling these “out-cuts” to create new works. Drawing features prominently in this exhibition, from the reduction of form to line in both three-dimensional and two-dimensional spaces to the Matisse-like cut-outs and the creation of recycled, sculptural collage.

Born to French-Canadian parents in the small agricultural community of Ste. Marthe, SK, Fafard attended the University of Manitoba (BFA 1966) and Pennsylvania State University (MFA 1968). He has since received three honorary doctorate degrees, been named an Officer of the Order of Canada and awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit. His 2007-2009 nationally touring retrospective exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Canada and the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, and three of his works were chosen by Canada Post for their “Art Canada” series of postage stamps in 2012.

Curated by Jennifer McRorie and Kim Houghtaling; organized as a partnership project between the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Swift Current, Burnaby Art Gallery, Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre, Strathcona County Art Gallery @501, Art Gallery of Grand Prairie and Yukon Arts Centre. The exhibition is accompanied by a full colour catalogue.