Karen Cornelius: Growing, Going, Gone and Patricia Eschuk: Tree

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Karen Cornelius, "Weeping for the Untangled Garden," 2021

electro etching and mixed media drawing

The Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery(MHC) invites you to the re-opening of the MHC Gallery which has been closed during the pandemic.

Karen Cornelius' Growing, Going, Gone and Patricia Eschuk's Tree are the first exhibits to be shown in MHC Gallery for a very long time, and through them we will remember, grow, and rebalance as we again engage with our friends, family, and communities. It is all long overdue….

PUBLIC OPENING September 17 at 7:30 pm.

Artist Karen Cornelius' Growing, Going Gone and Partricia Eschuk’s Tree curated by Leona Herzog will re-open MHC Gallery with work that intersects over their concern for our local, national and international trees. Karen Cornelius and Patricia Eschuk prepared for this exhibit much longer than originally planned. Impacted by Covid-19, the delay is just one piece of a significant physical and emotional dislocation resulting from their lived pandemic experience. Like all of us, they longed for connection to people, places, and things that were just out of reach. Experiences of isolation, solitude, and personal loss are explored in both artists’ works, but from different perspectives.

Cornelius and Eschuk both revel in the colours and textures of the natural environment. Cornelius draws on childhood memories and experiences in the Congo brought with her to Winnipeg and later re-experienced in the lush vegetation of the Assiniboine Park Conservatory. Sadly, the Conservatory is no more.

Eschuk draws inspiration from wooded areas near her studio located just north of Gimli. The title of Eschuk’s exhibition, Trees, is the starting point for rebalancing and self-understanding. From the structure and stability of the trees, she moves outwards to explore her environment with a focus on form, colour and mark making. – Leona Herzog Curator

Karen Cornelius is a local Winnipeg printmaker and visual artist making work about identity, belonging and place. She explores, researches and develops environmentally responsible printmaking methods and materials, the most recent of which is etching copper with electricity and water.

Patricia Eschuk is a local Winnipeg printmaker working out of her studio in Gimli surrounded by beloved forest trees. She works with oil paints and mixed media drawing. Her work, which references organic forma, explores a broad width of emotion and energy from chaos and struggle for life, to joyous explosion and calm contemplation.