Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
22 October 2019 Vol 4 No 22 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2019
From the Editor
Portia Priegert
We had sad news last week with the sudden death of one of our own, Jeffrey Spalding, consulting editor to Galleries West. His passing was particularly shocking as his immense energy and enthusiasm made him seem an eternal force of nature.
Jeffrey died in Canada while waiting for a visa that would let him return to his latest gig as art consultant at the Tao Hua Tan Cultural and Creative Company in China. He had been appointed “lifetime senior artist” for a residency program at its Peach Blossom Pool resort, in Anhui province west of Shanghai.
As I started to write his obituary, the words “a tireless champion of Canadian art” came to mind. Jeffrey was many things – an artist, a curator, a museum director, a writer, an educator and, of course, a columnist for Galleries West. But underlying all those roles was his passion for this country’s art.
I first met Jeffrey in Calgary about six years ago. He was setting up a group show due to open that evening. It was half hung, with pieces still en route, but he made time to sit and chat. I felt a bit queasy thinking of all the work ahead. But when I popped by that evening with Galleries West publisher Tom Tait, a minor miracle had transpired. The show looked great.
Tom was friends with Jeffrey, and would regale me with accounts of Jeffrey’s adventures when he moved to Fredericton as chief curator of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, and then to Vancouver for a brief sojourn as an art consultant. From there, Jeffrey fetched up in China, where he was treated like a visiting dignitary.
He had time for his own work and was the subject of a bittersweet documentary that aired on regional television, raising his profile in China. Soon he was curating shows for Chinese galleries and talking about spending the rest of his life there. I recall one particularly amusing story about him adopting a puppy who escaped into a marsh near the resort, with Jeffrey waist-deep in dogged pursuit.
We asked Jeffrey many times to write about China for Galleries West, certain his stories would make great reading. But somehow those personal reflections never came. He used his column as a forum to tackle important issues – whether the recent trend to hire foreigners for senior cultural jobs in Canada, international slights to the reputation of David Milne, or the National Gallery’s selective approach to partnerships with regional galleries.
Editing Jeffrey was like trying to harness a hurricane, but he was always kind about my efforts. Mostly, I tried to wrangle his enthusiasm down to the 1,000 words that would fit on one page of the print magazine. His writing could be as madcap as his life, with sudden shifts in tone and direction, as well as colourful asides and the insider references common to those with long histories and encyclopedic memories.
Over the last week, I have been struck by the depth of Jeffrey’s network. Our obituary has been shared almost 4,000 times. The CBC and the Calgary Herald followed suit, quoting art world figures who lauded Jeffrey’s work to build various art collections, as well as the quality of his own art.
The last coverage that Jeffrey suggested to us was Marie Lannoo’s retrospective this fall at the University of Saskatchewan, which includes work made at the Tao Hua Tan residency. We’ll publish a review by Maxine Proctor, the managing editor of BlackFlash magazine, in an upcoming issue.
In the meantime, you can read about another Saskatoon show, this one by American artist Puppies Puppies. Also in this issue, we have reviews about Attila Richard Lukacs, Katie Ohe, Elise Rasmussen and Dee Barsy. Our final article looks at Transits and Returns, a Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition by Indigenous artists from the Pacific region, north and south.
In a few days, we'll post stories on artists Nep Sidhu and Christeen Francis as the lead-in to our next issue in two weeks.
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Sylvia J. Dreaver, Paul Gessell, Amy Gogarty, Jera MacPherson, Lissa Robinson, Dorothy Woodend