Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
4 May 2021 Vol 6 No 09 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2021
From the Editor
Portia Priegert
It's awards season! Sure, there's the Oscars, the Grammys and all the rest. But here at Galleries West, we have a special place in our hearts for the Alberta Magazine Awards, handed out annually by the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association.
There's no red carpet or paparazzi, and the award ceremony, usually held in a suburban Calgary hotel, is largely attended by creative types who work for the 50-odd magazines based in Alberta. But for Galleries West, a Calgary-based magazine that covers the four Western provinces, it's our tribe.
This year, of course, the ceremony will be a virtual event that I can easily attend in a carbon-free way from my home in Victoria. And despite the lack of in-person camaraderie, my spirits are already buoyed with news that our team has been recognized as finalists eight times in five award categories.
Way to go, everyone!
Two Galleries West stories are finalists in this year's first-time COVID-19 category. They are Sarah Swan's beautifully written essay, Art in a Time of Pandemic, which looks at how artists coped in the early days of the pandemic, and my story, Digital Dash, which sprints through a quick analysis of how galleries pivoted to online platforms. This is a category we hope will be eliminated soon!
Galleries West also has two finalists in the Digital Project category. One is Mark Mushet, whose video series about Vancouver artists was launched last year with Fei Disbrow and Stephen Waddell. As well, the judges gave a nod to last fall's three-part series, Art & Healing, which included Paul Gessell's story about two Western Canadian hospitals with their own art galleries, and two stories by me, one on art therapy and the other a Q & A with Dick Averns, who led an ambitious social practice project in Calgary about mental wellness.
In the Essay category, Sarah's yowl from the wilderness, In Defence of Art from Small Places, is a finalist. In Feature Writing (Short) our finalists are Dorothy Woodend for Age of Extinction, which looks at Vancouver artist Julius Csotonyi’s dramatic dinosaur art, and Fish Griwkowsky, who danced through a review of a rumpus-room disco installation by Curtis Talwst Santiago at the Art Gallery of Alberta.
More recognition came for my pet project, the arts book issue, which we've published each December for the last four years. It was named as a finalist in the Service: Journalism category. Along with my roundup of Canadian art books published last year, the issue featured reviews of five international books: Paul Gessell on Young Rembrandt by Onno Blom; John Thomson on The Art of Banksy, edited by Gianni Mercurio; Sarah Swan on How to be an Artist, by Jerry Saltz; Agnieszka Matejko on The Obama Portraits by Taína Caragol, Dorothy Moss, Richard J. Powell and Kim Sajet; and my review of Short Life in a Strange World: Birth to Death in 42 Panels, which documents a project by British writer Toby Ferris to visit all extant paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
This big show of support for Galleries West is especially pleasing given the struggles of the last year. While we have a very lean operation and already had remote digital systems in place, our finances took a hit early in the pandemic as potential advertisers were forced to close their doors. We decided to soldier on, digging up stories where we could and stretching ourselves in new ways to provide readers with an uninterrupted flow of six articles every two weeks, along with regular news items.
Our digital model is a real advantage. Larger publications, such as Canadian Art have foundered, delaying a print issue last summer, and then last month laying off 12 staff members and closing for three months, with little sense of what's to come. We were grateful to receive funding last year from both the Canada Council for the Arts and Canadian Heritage, which allowed us to continue providing a voice for the visual arts in Western Canada.
Meanwhile, in this issue, we wrap up our five-part series about how artists in different regions are responding to the pandemic with Sarah Swan's lovely piece about five artists in the North.
We've also published a new Commentary about the struggle public galleries are facing not only with financial issues but also with their identity and role in a changing society. It's written by Zainub Verjee, a winner last year of the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, and urges the federal government to assist the museums sector. We publish commentaries on an occasional basis and welcome pitches from diverse voices with something to say about issues in the art world.
Also included is a review of a fascinating show in Metro Vancouver that explores artificial intelligence with machines that produce remarkable images of gallery visitors.
We also introduce three new writers – Deborah Thompson on Kristy Gordon's painting exhibition in the B.C. Interior, Kitty Kerr on a show at the University of Manitoba that's based on a gaming platform, and Galleries West's first-ever intern, Megan Klak, on an Edmonton show by Indigenous artist Kiona Ligtvoet.
Looking ahead, we're working on articles about Ian Wallace, Matt Bahen, Corey Bulpitt and Yvonne Kustek, as well as a Q & A with Winnipeg artist and curator Christina Hajjar.
And, of course, we'll update you on the Alberta Magazine Awards once the winners are announced in early June. Fingers crossed!
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Kitty Kerr, Megan Klak, Sarah Swan, Deborah Thompson, John Thomson, Zainub Verjee
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.
