Western Canada’s art magazine since 2002
15 April 2025 Vol 10 No 8 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2025
Shelley Boettcher
From the Editor
On again, off again, on again, off again. Are we facing tariffs? Who knows?!
Tariffs aren't just bad news for car manufacturers and cell phone buyers. There's plenty of discussion around whether they'll affect artists and art sales in North America. The answer appears to be yes, whether we're talking about art supplies or original works.
Calgary gallery owner Deborah Herringer Kiss, past president of Art Dealers Association of Canada, told the Art Newspaper recently that dealers have been talking about tariffs since November.
“Many of our members and other Canadian galleries have clients in the US as well as participate in US art fairs," Herringer Kiss said. "Roughly 76 Canadian art dealers/galleries participated in 28 US-based art fairs in 2024 and, during two fairs here in Canada, we saw 14 US spaces participate.”
A trade war will stop or slow cross-border shopping and participation in American art fairs. Instead, many are saying they'll turn their attention to European collectors and fairs — and our own Canadian market, too.
Yes, more Canadian art for Canadians to buy — and see.
I would personally love to see Toronto Jon Sasaki's two shows Homage and I Contain Multitudes, on view until April 26, at the School of Art Gallery in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Galleries West contributor Lindsay Inglis takes us there to explain how Sasaki created art from the microbial landscapes found in the paintboxes and palettes of the Group of Seven.
Hangama Amiri blends painting, printmaking, and textile techniques to create colourful vignettes inspired by her memory and the diasporic experience. Her exhibition, PARTING/فراق, is at Esker Foundation in Calgary until April 27. Galleries West contributor Lissa Robinson takes us there for a tour.
Further west, Kegan McFadden takes us on a stroll around Victoria in his story, Conversations Around Queer History. The first stop is Gallery Merrick for Ian Stone's recent show, Queer Archive. Then McFadden heads to Ho Tam's new exhibition, Icons Redux, at Deluge Contemporary Art until April 26.
Paul Gessell took us through Joyce Wieland's exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts a few weeks ago; he returns this week with a look at a new book about her work, Joyce Wieland: Heart On.
Part of the Capture Photography Festival, the Richmond Art Gallery is featuring Restless by Nature: Mary Sui Yee Wong, 1990s to the present, until June 8.
Happy spring, wherever you are, and may the challenges we face, as artists and art lovers and, indeed, as a country, bring us all closer together.
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Paul Gessell, Lindsay Inglis, Lissa Robinson, Kegan McFadden
We acknowledge the support of the Government of Alberta Media Fund, the Government of Canada Periodical Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts.
