Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
11 August 2020 Vol 5 No 16 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2020
From the Editor
Portia Priegert
It’s been interesting lately to watch how cultural institutions are grappling with systemic racism within their organizations.
For instance, a recent letter from Canadian Art alerted readers to an article by the magazine’s former co-publisher and editor-in-chief, David Balzer, that links the persistence of white CEOs and boards at arts organizations to the need to cultivate donors to pay for cultural programming.
“Culture workers, white and BIPOC alike, are about to butt up against what some have long known to be true: Cultural philanthropy and white supremacy are absolute bedfellows,” Balzer writes.
His article is well worth reading, as is the somewhat opaque response from Canadian Art, announcing that editorial staff are pausing online publishing in order to work on internal changes.
“These issues are ongoing at Canadian Art," the letter says. "Changes haven’t happened at a structural or a governance level. The systemic barriers are significant and real.”
I also recommend reading a recent independent review that found pervasive structural racism in what you might think an unlikely place – the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.
Laurelle Harris, a Winnipeg mediator, arbitrator and lawyer with expertise in women’s and Black studies, has written an incisive report that may also help other cultural organizations understand the impact of systemic racism.
The museum, which released the report in the interest of transparency, has apologized. It also made public its plan for change and appointed Isha Khan, a Winnipeg human rights lawyer and advocate, as its new president and chief executive officer.
Meanwhile, here at Galleries West, we are continuing efforts to bring attention to more BIPOC artists and to publish articles by more BIPOC arts writers. We hope there are parallel efforts at galleries to increase diversity, not only in exhibitions, but also on boards and management teams.
This issue of Galleries West includes Helena Wadsley’s review of an exhibition by Iranian-born Vancouver artist Matilda Aslizadeh, whose video installation, Moly and Kassandra, at the Vancouver Art Gallery, tackles the neoliberal legacy in the mining industry. John Thomson reviews another show at the VAG, Modern in the Making: Post-War Craft and Design in British Columbia.
We also take a quick look at the inaugural online exhibition of the Portrait Gallery of Canada, which includes work by Saskatoon-born Saulteaux artist Wally Dion, as well as Ottawa photographer Christine Fitzgerald’s portraits of women from a Kanien-kehà:ka (Mohawk) family.
There are two book reviews in this issue. Paul Gessell gives a thumbs up to Calgary photographer George Webber's images of rural Saskatchewan, while I consider a new edition of a 1954 book by artist Annora Brown that looks at the wildflowers of Southern Alberta.
Our final story offers a quick peek at Calgary-born artist Erik Olson’s online travelogue of his recent motorcycle trip through the United States. It's well worth a look, especially if you're missing summer travel during the pandemic.
Looking ahead, we are working on a review of a photographic exhibition by Madiha Aijaz, a Pakistani photographer whose work is on view at Vancouver's Contemporary Art Gallery. We'll also publish a review of Winnipeg graphic novelist David Robertson’s memoir, Black Water: Family, Legacy, and Blood Memory, a moving book about his efforts to learn about his family's Indigenous roots.
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Paul Gessell, John Thomson, Helena Wadsley