Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
22 February 2022 Vol 7 No 4 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2022
Portia Priegert
From the Editor
Much of Galleries West is devoted to exhibitions at established galleries, whether public, artist-run or commercial spaces. But last week, I was reminded again of the wealth of independent projects, often quite ephemeral, but no less vital or interesting. These happenings are often hard to cover for an array of practical reasons – not least because they often appear and disappear quickly with little fanfare, making it difficult to organize timely reviews.
Last Friday afternoon, I bicycled over to check out a pop-up show on the ground floor of an office building along the Gorge, Victoria’s long and scenic tidal inlet, at the invitation of Sue Donaldson, who retired recently from the B.C. Arts Council and is reconnecting with her curatorial practice. The venue, once occupied by GoodLife Fitness, is now stripped largely down to its shell, making it a great place to display art.
The show’s centrepiece is a rebuilt façade from one of the city’s old iron foundries, which Mayne Island artist Jeremy Borsos salvaged in 1997 from its original site across the Gorge. He carefully reassembled the first-growth fir boards, and added a peephole through the door. It reveals a clever trompe-l’oeil diorama – a rear-projected video of the ocean, along with some beach grasses on which a plastic bag is snagged. With the help of a fan, it flaps in an apparent sea breeze, completing the illusion. The installation, Lost Foundry, like the old cast iron manhole covers and storm drains produced at the shop, is a spectral reminder of the industrial history of the city’s early colonial era.
It’s accompanied by Fukushima Rising, Victoria artist Lance Olsen’s experimental sound piece and suite of 10 recent abstract paintings, moody works on a black substrate. His project responds to the 2011 tsunami and subsequent disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. The work is deeply relevant in its evocation of the spread of contamination – whether radioactive or viral.
It was good catching up with Sue and seeing the 8,000-square-foot space generously loaned for the show. It would make a great permanent space for art, perhaps, as Sue observed, a satellite for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. If you happen to be in Victoria, the show is open Friday through Sunday afternoons until March 6.
This issue of Galleries West pays tribute to the work of another remarkable community builder, the late Cliff Eyland, with a story about his retrospective exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Cliff, an artist, curator and educator, wrote occasional reviews for Galleries West.
On a 2016 visit to Winnipeg, Galleries West publisher Tom Tait and I popped by Cliff’s studio in the old warehouse district after a long day of gallery hopping. Tom can set a gruelling pace, and I promptly collapsed into one of the studio chairs. Sizing up the situation, Cliff dispatched his assistant for prosecco, which I gratefully downed in a valiant attempt to regain focus.
I remember marvelling at a nearby table laden with hundreds of his paintings, all the size of index cards, some of which may well be in the current show, and am grateful to Winnipeg journalist Alison Gillmor for stirring up my memories of a lovely man with her story about the show, Library of Babel.
A strong environmental thread also runs through this issue: Saskatoon-based artist Laura St. Pierre writes on Rachel Rozanski’s exhibition about the perils of the North's melting permafrost; Mark Mushet covers B.C. artist Keith Langergraber’s fire tower installation in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s outdoors Offsite venue; and Calgary’s Alexa Bunnell explores The Distance Between, which considers ecological catastrophe with works by Jude Griebel and Lorraine Simms.
We round things out with Lissa Robinson’s review of collages by Calgary-based artist Sondra Meszaros that critique the objectification of the female form, and Vancouver writer Beverly Cramp’s look at a Richmond Art Gallery exhibition that considers what it means to be nourished, both physically and spiritually.
Looking ahead, we are working on stories about Robert Houle, Sandra Sawatzky, Liz Ingram and Bernd Hildebrandt, among others.
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Alexa Bunnell, Beverly Cramp, Alison Gillmor, Mark Mushet, Lissa Robinson, Laura St. Pierre
We acknowledge the support of the Government of Alberta Media Fund, the Government of Canada Special Measures for Journalism Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts.
