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Janna Watson, “I did a little trip over my head and my mind,” mixed media on panel, unframed, 40" x 60" (courtesy of Bau-Xi Gallery)
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Janna Watson, “Silence happens inside words,” mixed media on panel, unframed, 55" x 60" (courtesy of Bau-Xi Gallery)
Finding Happiness in “Uncanny, Subtle Moments in Life”
“What makes me the happiest are the uncanny, subtle moments in life that happen second by second,” said painter Janna Watson in an interview with Bau-Xi Gallery. “Life can be unexpected and unconventional.”
That joy shows in Watson’s abstracts, which are bright, yet balanced, elegant, yet playful. Each layer, each wave of colour gives the impression that the works are moving across the canvas. See them in real life this month; her latest exhibition, Poems, is on view now through Feb. 24 at Bau-Xi Gallery in Vancouver.
Watson, who grew up in Northern Ontario, holds an honours degree in painting and drawing from the Ontario College of Art and Design and credits her grandfather for teaching her about abstraction. Her work has been exhibited around the world and is found in several public collections including Telus, the Soho Metropolitan Hotel, Saks Fifth Avenue and CIBC.
Allen D. Crooks, “Untitled,” 2009, archival silver gelatin print on paper, 11" x 14" (photo courtesy of the artist)
Exhibition About “Personal and Social Documentary”
Allen D. Crooks is a Canadian photographer and owner of Halifax Darkroom and Studio. With a practice that focuses on personal and social documentary, he believes a well-crafted print is about giving an image “a beautiful home.”
Allen D. Crooks: Family Matters is on view now through April 7 at Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This evening, Feb. 15, he’ll give a talk about his practice, influences and work, which has been featured across Canada in both solo and group exhibitions.
Harold J. Treherne, “Streetlight,” 1966, ballpoint pen and pencil crayon on paper, 22" x 36" (courtesy of Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery)
Folk and Funk Art Focus of New Show in Moose Jaw
There’s a lengthy and impressive list of artists that are part of a new group exhibition, Prairie Dreaming: Folk, Funk & Their Connections (Part I), on view now through May 5 at the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery in Saskatchewan.
Highlighting works from the gallery’s permanent collection, the shown focuses on a group of artists in Saskatchewan in the early 1970s “who wanted to make work that was situated in this place, not the larger urban centres, which spoke to the commonplace and the experiences that they knew,” said the show’s curator, Jennifer McRorie, in the exhibition statement. “The West Coast aesthetic of California Funk ceramics, which engaged in humour, irony, surrealism and kitsch to focus on everyday subjects, popular culture and personal narrative, became the catalyst for this new Prairie movement.”
The artists: Frank Cicansky, Victor Cicansky, Eva Dennis, Wesley Dennis, Joe Fafard, David Gilhooly, Richard Gorenko, Ann Harbuz, Jerry Kaiser, Molly Lenhardt, Jahan Maka, William McCargar, Harvey McInnes, Fred Moulding, Lawrence Pederson, Allen Sapp, Dmytro Stryjek, John Sutherland, David Thauberger, Harold Treherne, Jan Wyers and Russell Yuristy. ■
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