Victor Cicansky: The Gardener’s Universe

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Victor Cicansky, "Root Cellar," 1982

clay, glaze and wood. MacKenzie ArtGallery, University of Regina collection. Photo: Don Hall. detail

Victor Cicansky: The Gardener's Universe

The first ever retrospective of Victor Cicansky’s work that will be debuting at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan, this June.

This exhibition runs at a particularly poignant time, as Canadians have been introduced to a new food guide, one that places a greater emphasis on plant-based protein and vegetables. Cicansky’s work speaks to the very range of environmental concerns that Health Canada aims to address in it's new food guide. Curated by Timothy Long (Head Curator, MacKenzie Art Gallery) and Julia Krueger (craft writer and curator), and drawing on public and private collections from across Canada, the exhibition will present five decades of Cicansky’s work, ranging from early Funk experiments, to ceramic Mason jar pantries and Bonsai bronze trees, to ceramic wall murals and park-size bronze tables and benches. The exhibition will be accompanied by a substantial monograph and documentary film, leaving a lasting legacy and contribution to Canadian art and craft history.

Victor Cicansky (Czekanski) grew up in a large family headed by Romanian parents in an area of Regina known as the “Garlic Flats.” Here Cicansky witnessed firsthand the interdependence of gardener and garden and the constant invention of his blacksmith father. A er studies with noted Regina ceramist, Jack Sures, he pursued graduate studies at the University of California, Davis where he expanded his artistic vocabulary under iconoclastic Funk ceramist, Robert Arneson. In 1970, he returned to the University of Regina where he taught Art Education and worked alongside other revolutionary Regina-based ceramists such as Joe Fafard, David Gilhooly,

Ann James and Marilyn Levine, who together pushed against the stereotypical understanding of ceramics as pottery. Cicansky took up this cause in a series of memorable ceramic sculptures inspired by his childhood experiences of gardens and “working class” people, including major ceramic murals for the Sturdy-Stone Building in Saskatoon. Adding bronze to his repertoire in the 1980s, Cicansky has continued to unearth the multiple histories that connect us to place and to nurture an empathetic relationship with the natural world. Cicansky has been recognized with numerous honours and awards including the Order of Canada, Saskatchewan Order of Merit, and Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award.