Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
18 May 2021 Vol 6 No 10 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2021
Portia Priegert
From the Editor
I started art school part-time in my 30s and had my first art shows in my 40s – already too late to even dream about the Sobey Art Award. But now late-blooming artists across Canada can savour that fantasy as the Sobey, a leading award with a top prize of $100,000, has finally acknowledged an obvious truth – emerging artists can be over 40.
This year, for the first time, the award has no age barrier. And when the long list of 25 artists was announced earlier this month, the oldest nominee, according to Globe and Mail arts writer Kate Taylor, was 58-year-old Maureen Gruben, an Inuvialuk artist based in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T.
Taylor raises the salient point that age restrictions discriminate not only against late bloomers, but also against BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and disabled artists, who, understandably, might take longer to gain attention for their work due to systemic barriers.
The shift in this year’s long list is remarkable: One-third of artists are in their 40s and 50s, and, interestingly, given another historical inequity, many are from outlying communities within the five regions the award recognizes – the Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies and the North, and the West Coast and Yukon. Each artist will receive $10,000.
It’s an overdue change that will address a longstanding inequity, and hopefully not simply see the award overtaken by older emerging artists with comparatively longer resumes than younger colleagues. We'll let you know this fall who has emerged as the winner.
Meanwhile, please enjoy this issue of Galleries West, which features work by artists at all levels of experience.
For instance, Haida artist Corey Bulpitt has produced a body of amusing work – including my favourite, a ceremonial drum that features Bart Simpson as a yellow thunderbird – that carries deeper undertones about Indigenous culture and the mass-media colonization of childhood.
We also have a Q & A with Christina Hajjar, an emerging Lebanese-Canadian artist and curator, whose fascinating conversation with Winnipeg arts writer Lindsay Inglis explores the aesthetics of queer diaspora and the everyday in art.
We also have articles about three other artists – Ian Wallace, one of Vancouver’s leading lights; Calgary-based emerging artist Yvonne Kustec; and Matt Bahen, who is showing enigmatic paintings in Edmonton.
Finally, Devyani Saltzman, a Toronto cultural leader with a deep practice in multidisciplinary programming, contributes a Commentary about how cultural spaces can sustain meaningful change.
Looking ahead, we are working on stories about Tammy Salzl in Edmonton, Holly Schmidt in Vancouver, and the late American abstract artist Leon Polk Smith, whose work is on display at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver.
Stay tuned!
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Lindsay Inglis, Yani Kong, Agnieszka Matejko, Mark Mushet, Devyani Saltzman, Katherine Ylitalo
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.
