Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
14 July 2020 Vol 5 No 14 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2020
From the Editor
Portia Priegert
I generally take an inclusive view of what art is and can be when I assign stories for each issue of Galleries West.
My journey through daily journalism gave me a reporter's curiosity and love of story. Later-in-life studies in the visual arts, along with the wonderful experience of working with artists as the director of an artist-run centre, left me intrigued by experimental projects. And since I was raised in a family concerned about social and environmental justice, I'll often support politically engaged work that takes a critical look at the world.
To top things off, I'm susceptible to pitches from writers who are excited about something – it can be almost anything if the pitch is engaging.
The result is a magazine that speaks to many arts world niches.
So why am I writing about this? Well, by way of introducing this issue, which has a broad range of stories about everyone from pop culture icon Bob Ross, a painter no one would accuse of high-brow pretensions, to Santiago Mostyn, whose work about colonial oppression and the Black diasporic experience prompted reviewer Tyler J. Stewart to ponder the role galleries can play as sites of protest.
Meanwhile, in Kamloops, B.C., Ernie Kroeger writes about his friend and colleague Donald Lawrence, whose fascination with optics and exploration led him to build several unique watercraft.
And in Winnipeg, curator Noor Bhangu considers Weaving Cultural Identities, an unusual collaboration between Muslim and West Coast Indigenous artists.
This issue is rounded out by speculative landscapes by longtime Saskatchewan artist Leslie Potter and photographs of gated communities by Argentinian artist Andrea Alkalay.
Zooming ahead, look for coverage of recent text-based work by longtime Calgary artist John Will and a Vancouver show honouring the centennial of the birth of Haida artist Bill Reid.
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Noor Bhangu, Ernie Kroeger, Tyler J. Stewart