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This article was published 11/4/2009 (4826 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
MARC GALLANT / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES
Jordan Van Sewell’s cartoonish ceramics are just one part of Winnipeg’s vibrant, original art scene.
THE Winnipeg-based art magazine Border Crossings recently published an issue entirely dedicated to homegrown artists.
In it, editor Meeka Walsh wrote that in this place of flat terrain, geographic isolation, harsh climate and lack of wealth, "it is necessary to dream a city."
Winnipeg, Walsh wrote, "bewilders other places with its resourcefulness and endless invention."
The city has produced exceptional visual artists in all media: painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, installation, fine craft, performance art, video and the list goes on.
From Aganetha Dyck's unlikely honeycomb-covered artworks to Jordan Van Sewell's cartoon-like ceramics, from Warren Carther's international commissions for architectural glass sculptures to Diana Thorneycroft's droll dioramas, Winnipeg artists are known for originality and wit.
Canadian Art magazine chose a touring exhibition by Thorneycroft, Group of Seven Awkward Moments, as one of the 10 best Canadian shows of 2008.
Our other current art stars include photographer Sarah Anne Johnson and the quirky, recently dissolved collective known as the Royal Art Lodge.
Johnson made a big splash in New York City in 2005 with her show Tree Planting. The Guggenheim Museum bought the entire 64-image exhibit for its permanent collection.
The members of the Royal Art Lodge, including Marcel Dzama, Jon Pylypchuk, Neil Farber and Michael Dumontier, have earned international fame for their naive-looking drawings and other works.
Winnipeg was home to the "Indian Group of Seven" in the 1970s. Acclaimed First Nations artists such as Robert Houle and Kent Monkman continue to produce provocative work.
The Winnipeg Art Gallery, founded in 1912, is the oldest civic gallery in Canada. It is home to the world's largest public collection of Inuit art.
The WAG has played an important role in exhibiting Winnipeg artists such as Charles Comfort, Winston Leathers, Bruce Head, Tony Tascona, Esther Warkov, Wanda Koop, Eleanor Bond, Robert Bruce, Sheila Spence and Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald.
The gallery is reaching out to new audiences with hip exhibitions such as the touring confessional-postcard show PostSecret.
Other important galleries include the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Urban Shaman Gallery, Platform Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts, Ace Art Inc., Martha Street Studio and Graffiti Gallery.
At Assiniboine Park, the free Pavilion Gallery Museum houses the largest collections of works by three renowned Manitoba artists, Ivan Eyre, Clarence Tillenius and Walter J. Phillips.
The park is also home to the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden, which displays elegant bronzes and other works by Mol, Manitoba's most honoured sculptor.
Near the footbridge that leads to Assiniboine Park from the St. James side of the river, Winnipeg's recent commitment to public art is evident in a new stainless-steel sculpture, Agassiz Ice, by Gordon Reeve.
alison.mayes@freepress.mb.ca
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