From the Editor

June 19, 2023

9:30 PM

Western Canada’s art magazine since 2002

Portia Priegert

From the Editor

The big news since our last issue is Jean-François Bélisle’s appointment to a five-year term as the next director of the National Gallery of Canada. The Ottawa gallery has been a troubled place over the last few years and Bélisle seems to be taking on an almost-messianic aura as someone able to calm the waters and heal the rifts.

While he is personable and brings solid art world experience, he is stepping up from a small regional gallery, albeit one with a strong reputation, to a much larger stage with many profound challenges – from rebuilding a decimated curatorial team and soothing wealthy donors to boosting inclusivity and attracting diverse audiences.

For the inside track on what’s ahead, see veteran Ottawa arts journalist Paul Gessell’s commentary on why Bélisle will need to hit the ground running, written on deadline with information from Paul’s network of impeccable sources the day after the news broke.

It’s no secret that running an art museum is far more complex than it used to be. For background on the pressures facing gallery leaders, I recommend two fine articles: Zainub Verjee’s commentary, A Banquet of Consequences, and Decolonizing the Art Museum, by the late Melanie Scott. Both pieces are stored in our online archive, which includes every article Galleries West has published over the last two decades. It can be accessed by using the search box in the upper right corner of each page.

Moving on, this issue also explores two fascinating exhibitions of Indigenous art to help get you in the mood for National Indigenous Peoples Day tomorrow.

In Halifax, Ray Cronin reviews a nationally touring show, Arctic Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity, which brings together work by artists from two regions facing dramatic environmental challenges. Cronin calls the show, curated by renowned Plains Cree scholar Gerald McMaster and Nina Vincent, a Brazilian curator and anthropologist, “uniformly excellent.”

Meanwhile, Yani Kong eloquently considers motherhood and threads of kinship at a Vancouver exhibition by Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, a Métis and Cree artist, one of five finalists for this year’s $100,000 Sobey Art Award.

Environmental concerns are central in Pulse of the Planet, an ambitious Calgary show by Australian artist Mel O’Callaghan. We also look at two other exhibitions – one in Edmonton with joyous abstract paintings by Alice Teichert, and the other in Dawson City, Yukon, where artists Annie Canto and Jasmina Majcenic scrub up homespun creativity by installing washing machines in the ODD Gallery in Dawson City, Yukon.

Looking ahead, we are working on stories about Faye HeavyShield, Kapwani Kiwanga and Robert Murray.

Until next time,