Western Canada’s art magazine since 2002
19 March 2024 Vol 9 No 6 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2024
Shelley Boettcher
From the Editor
I’m in Europe this spring, visiting friends and family and, no surprise, seeing lots of art and live music, too. A highlight has been the Mark Rothko retrospective at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, France. It features 115 works from public and private collections and is on view until April 2. If you will be in Paris, consider making the trek to Bois de Boulogne and braving the lineups — and book ahead to guarantee a ticket. Take time to explore the spectactular building, too, designed by Canadian-born architect Frank Gehry.
Of course, when it comes to outstanding visual arts, we have plenty going on in Canada, too. Galleries West contributor Paul Gessell takes a look at the lives and work of Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore: Giants of Modern Art, on view to June 2 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
We head to Edmonton next, where former Galleries West staffer and regular contributor Megan Klak steps into Emmanuel Osahor’s exhibition, I made this place for you, on view at the Art Gallery of Alberta until May 5. She says it feels like being welcomed into a neighbour’s garden. “You’re immediately transported into a lush, painted world, where huge canvases patterned with luminous foliage stretch across the walls and the faint sound of burbling water echoes just out of sight,” she writes.
No gardening yet for me this month but I have spring cleaning on my to-do list, which has made me think about Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky’s installation Edelweiss, on view until April 28 at Esker Foundation in Calgary. “What might we find lurking in the dark? What long-forgotten items await rediscovery at the back of your closet, garage, attic, crawlspace, storage locker or shed? And are these objects simply clutter, the product of lapsed spring-cleaning efforts, or vessels for memory and comfort?” writes Galleries West contributor Dick Averns in his richly layered review of the show.
Then, in Toronto, leading glass artist Ernestine Tahedl has assembled more than 4,000 pieces of vividly hued glass to create a massive coloured window for one exterior wall of the city’s new Salvation Army Sanctuary.
In B.C.? Seven contemporary Canadian artists — Wally Dion, Wanda Lock, Zachari Logan, Amanda McCavour, Samuel Roy-Bois, Andreas Rutkauskas and Sami Tsang — are featured in Significant Forms, on view now through June 9 at Kelowna Art Gallery.
Playful, surreal, mysterious and magical — that’s the vibe at Bolivian-Canadian artist Marcelo Suaznabar's eponymous new exhibition, on view now through March 14 at Gallery Merrick in Victoria.
And Hugh Kearney’s new abstract series, Big Boy and his Adventures at the Circus, is a glorious riot of colour, shape and texture. It is on view now through March 28 at Pendulum Gallery in Vancouver.
Next stop: Banff. We’re a little late for the Academy Awards but the world’s fascination with celebrities has no deadline. Inspired by police bookings of well-known people, Les Thomas began turning celebrity mugshots into paintings. His exhibition, Arrested, is on view now at Canada House Gallery.
For the past six years, Michael Gibson Gallery has curated an exhibition that celebrates colour. The new show, Chroma VI, is on now through March 30 at the gallery, located in London, Ont. and includes work from Mark Dicey, Ron Moppett, Jonathan Forrest, Clark McDougall, Will Gorlitz, Hans Wendt, William Perehudoff and Greg Curnoe.
And there is still time to enter the SAAG Arts Writing Prize. The deadline is March 30 and winners will receive $1,000 plus a $500 public program opportunity with the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Lethbridge.
Coming up in our next issue: Award-winning Galleries West contributor Sarah Swan returns with a stylish, thought-provoking look at AI and art. Paul Gessell looks at the work of Marcel Dzama. Lissa Robinson examines the life and art of Henry Kiyooka.
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CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Paul Gessell, Megan Klak, Dick Averns
We acknowledge the support of the Government of Alberta Media Fund, the Government of Canada Periodical Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts.
