Juanita Klassen | Extra Ordinary
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Cre8ery Gallery & Studio 2-125 Adelaide St, Corner of William, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3A 0W4

Juanita Klassen, “Portrait-in-motion,” no date
created using multiple image transfers, acrylic and ink (courtesy of the gallery)
Juanita Klassen is a Winnipeg-based artist who took the long way around to finally arrive at the cre8ery with her first solo show. Her quest for stability and mental health is a huge part of the process behind Extra Ordinary, along with a need to create a three dimensional body of work inspired by all of her wonderful slow summer bike rides, and a desire to make something beautiful that will live into the future.
Art Statement | Extra Ordinary
Extra Ordinary is a story about a plain bike that accidentally changed everything, i.e. opened up a whole new world for Juanita, cruising through old Winnipeg neighbourhoods on a new-old bike, feeling like a kid at 55, seeing her familiar surroundings with new eyes. This show is about doing new things that are old, enjoying ordinary adventures, and it is about practicing how to get out of the house to breathe the air and look at the sky every day, appreciating a regular job and ordinary days where ordinary things happen.
Extra Ordinary is also about figuring out how to become visible while struggling with apocalyptic levels of anxiety because staying invisible feels so much safer. What surrounds you on these walls is her daily anchoring exercise, one manifestation of learning how to fight addiction and achieve balance, i.e to become ordinary. This is a quest for ordinary, to have as much ordinary as possible, to become extra ordinary. This is about practicing gratitude and juggling more of everything with less energy while the clock ticks faster into forever. This art is about THIS moment, right NOW, and it is about sailing on a bike (a.k.a. lifeboat) close to other people, making connections to make the journey easier, shedding unnecessary baggage to prepare for the home stretch.
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