Gladys Wozny Siemens | The Archival Shore

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G. Wozny Siemens “La Pensée…,” with Step Frame (detail) 2011

direct plaster cast with detritus, plaster frame and cast on wood armature and acrylic paint. Cast 10/06/13 near Rush Lake. Courtesy of the Gallery.

Public reception on March 3, 2023, 7:00-10:00 pm

AGSC is pleased to present recent work by established Swift Current area artist Gladys Wozny Siemens in an exhibition entitled The Archival Shore that includes a series of sculptural reliefs. In the artist’s words, her work revolves around recording and representing records of the naturally occurring environment around her.

It began in 2005 when I noticed the tracks of a wild animal passing through my garden where I live in Rush Lake. There had been talk of cougar sightings in the hayfields nearby and I set out to make a plaster cast of an imprint to see if I could identify it. I was stunned with the resulting cast.  It articulated the ridges of the pads, and the sharpness of the claws in such detail it seemed to pulse with life. It set in motion an idea to incorporate these wondrous records of track patterns, soil formations, the detritus of roots, stones, feathers, shells, and other earth textures found along shores, into my abstract sculptures at the time.

 As part artist and part archivist I juxtapose these direct earth casts with elements of human culture: words and geometric forms. I present these haptic and often visceral records in three-dimensional form, to reconnect with the natural world and to reflect on our relationship to it.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Gladys Wozny Siemens was born in Saskatchewan and studied at the University of Saskatchewan, obtaining an Honours B.A. in Visual Arts. She moved to Toronto, where she continued her practice making abstract, frontal sculptures with an interest in the optical nature of the object rather than its three-dimensional qualities. Wozny Siemens showed these pieces at the Isaacs Gallery, Toronto, in an exhibition entitled Five on the Scene who should be Seen.

The artist returned to Saskatchewan, exhibiting her work at the Mendel Art Gallery in 1973 and then moved to the Swift Current area and, following a long hiatus, resumed her art practice in 2006. Her current body of work, The Archival Shore, is an enduring project that has its origins in work dating from 2006, parts of which have been exhibited in the province, including the Mann Art Gallery, Prince Albert, Estevan Art Gallery & Museum and the Art Gallery of Swift Current.