Landscapes of the Interior: Canadian Prints 1970-present (2024)
On view at Red Deer Polytechnic, Red Deer, AB, March 2024, in conjunction with the Central Alberta Teachers Conference
On view at Red Deer Polytechnic, Red Deer, AB, March 2024, in conjunction with the Central Alberta Teachers Conference
This exhibit is built around works from the Red Deer Polytechnic Art Collection, which was established in 1974 under a mandate to provide students educational access to a diverse range of artists, techniques, and visual concepts during their education. While active collection of new works has slowed in recent decades, regular donations and the collection of outstanding student work continue to enrich this valuable resource.
In terms of the collection’s Canadian prints, areas of strength include works by Alberta artists, by artists from the Northwest Territories and what is now Nunavut, and works by Canadian painters who created prints in collaboration with major publishers. This last group, which includes notable abstract artists such as Jack Bush and Bill Perehudoff, is not presented here; instead, this exhibit focuses on artists who have actively created work in hands-on, direct involvement with printmaking as an artistic strategy. These works represent a cross-section of ideas and methods used by print artists over the last fifty-some years in Canada; they also highlight the range and diversity within these boundaries.
The earliest pieces on display, Kenojuak Ashevak’s Composition and Marion Nicoll’s Prairie Farm, both from 1970, represent the trajectories of two older movements in Canadian art. In Nicoll’s case, this is the European landscape tradition, as filtered through her training in traditional observational drawing under A.C. Leighton, and her subsequent exposure to mid-century abstraction through the American painter Barnett Newman. In its precise lines and shapes, she evokes the modernist project while declaring her connection to the Alberta prairies.
Kenojuak Ashevak’s Composition provides a glimpse into artistic strategies utilized by Inuit artists after the adoption of printmaking in the Canadian north. Ashevak lived at Kinngait, then commonly known by the English name Cape Dorset. Artists in this community developed distinct technical and visual hallmarks, which are passed down within both individual families and the wider community. Helen Kalvak’s print Assisted by Magic shows some of the stylistic differences that developed between various northern print co-ops, in this case Holman Print Shop (now the Ulukhaktok Arts Centre). Works from this centre often utilize elaborate stencilling to build up layers of colour reminiscent of the original marker and coloured pencil drawings they are based on.
A younger generation of artists in the 1970s embraced photo-printmaking methods common in commercial applications, which had been adopted in the previous decade by artists of the Pop and Conceptual Art movements. The Canadian artists, however, often used this technology in idiosyncratic ways more akin to artists in Japan, Thailand, and Eastern Europe. Karen Dugas, Liz Ingram, Walter Jule, Lyndal Osborne, and Bonnie Sheckter represent one wing of this movement, centred in Edmonton, with works that are apprehensively layered and mysterious in affect. Ontario artists Ed Bartram and J. Carl Heywood show two further approaches to photo imagery, respectively abstracted and hyper-refined through the print process, and both hinting at the long histories held by specific places and artifacts.
With greater interest in printmaking across the country came an increased need for access to equipment. Atelier libre 848, founded in Montréal by Pierre Ayot in 1966 (later known as Atelier Graff, and now called L’imprimerie), was among the first of the communal print studios which popped up across Canada. They were soon followed by the Grand Western Canadian Screen Shop in Winnipeg (1968-1987), Open Studio in Toronto (founded 1972), St. Michael’s Printshop in Newfoundland (founded 1972), and Malaspina Printmakers in Vancouver (founded 1975). The impact of Alberta’s communal printshops, the Society of Northern Alberta Print-artists (SNAP, founded 1982) and Alberta Printmakers (A/P, founded 1988), has been immense in the fostering of print communities beyond academic institutions. Works from founding members of these shops—Marc Siegner from SNAP and Kate Baillies from A/P—are joined by work from subsequent printshop members, volunteers, and employees, such as April Dean, Sara Norquay, and Andrew Thorne.
Bodies also appear time and again in these prints. Artists Marnie Blair, Marilène Oliver, and Lisa Turner specifically reference medical imagery in their work, revealing the ways in which we understand our bodies through both historical medical illustration and cutting edge digital imaging, while also pointing to the uncanny gaps between the feeling of being in a body and how the body is represented.
Somewhere between the body and the land are the stories and surreal narratives of a last group of these print artists. Alexandra Haesecker presents to the viewer two dogs out for a walk, with their human companion’s torso floating nearby, conspicuously missing their legs. In a more recent print by Kaitlyn Konkin, bodies slip and slide through different visual planes, suggestive of unspoken narratives and unresolved fragments of memory. In works by such artists, recognizable places and forms twist and transform, becoming strange so that we might investigate them anew.
Red Deer is represented by a number of print artists in this exhibit. Jim Westergard taught printmaking at Red Deer College from 1975 through 1999. Subsequently, Jason Frizzell, Lisa Turner, Marnie Blair and Luke Johnson have been instructors in different print media and technologies. Works from this year’s 2D Strategies and Technologies course, taught by Blair and Johnson, are present to show the directions being taken by these artists, and the ways in which previously explored themes in Canadian art are being invoked, built upon, and expanded in works fresh off the presses.
— Luke Johnson, exhibit curator, 2024
Exhibited work by Kenojuak Ashevak, Kate Baillies, Ed Bartram, Derek Besant, Marnie Blair, Sean Caulfield,
April Dean, Steven Dixon, Karen Dugas, Jason Frizzell, Alexandra Haesecker, J. Carl Heywood, Liz Ingram,
Luke Johnson, Walter Jule, Helen Kalvak, Kaitlyn Konkin, Jo Manning, Norval Morrisseau, Marion Nicoll,
Sara Norquay, Marilène Oliver, Lyndal Osborne, Lucy Qinnuayuak, Evan Robinson, Bonnie Sheckter, Marc Siegner, Andrew Thorne, Lisa Turner, Jim Westergard, John Will, Louise Zurosky
works from students in Marnie Blair and Luke Johnson’s ART 391 & 393 classes, 2023-24:
Sonia Bukhanevych, Bailey Horton, Ally Mendez, Heather Parker, Andrea Swainson, Theresa Towers-Rickard
In terms of the collection’s Canadian prints, areas of strength include works by Alberta artists, by artists from the Northwest Territories and what is now Nunavut, and works by Canadian painters who created prints in collaboration with major publishers. This last group, which includes notable abstract artists such as Jack Bush and Bill Perehudoff, is not presented here; instead, this exhibit focuses on artists who have actively created work in hands-on, direct involvement with printmaking as an artistic strategy. These works represent a cross-section of ideas and methods used by print artists over the last fifty-some years in Canada; they also highlight the range and diversity within these boundaries.
The earliest pieces on display, Kenojuak Ashevak’s Composition and Marion Nicoll’s Prairie Farm, both from 1970, represent the trajectories of two older movements in Canadian art. In Nicoll’s case, this is the European landscape tradition, as filtered through her training in traditional observational drawing under A.C. Leighton, and her subsequent exposure to mid-century abstraction through the American painter Barnett Newman. In its precise lines and shapes, she evokes the modernist project while declaring her connection to the Alberta prairies.
Kenojuak Ashevak’s Composition provides a glimpse into artistic strategies utilized by Inuit artists after the adoption of printmaking in the Canadian north. Ashevak lived at Kinngait, then commonly known by the English name Cape Dorset. Artists in this community developed distinct technical and visual hallmarks, which are passed down within both individual families and the wider community. Helen Kalvak’s print Assisted by Magic shows some of the stylistic differences that developed between various northern print co-ops, in this case Holman Print Shop (now the Ulukhaktok Arts Centre). Works from this centre often utilize elaborate stencilling to build up layers of colour reminiscent of the original marker and coloured pencil drawings they are based on.
A younger generation of artists in the 1970s embraced photo-printmaking methods common in commercial applications, which had been adopted in the previous decade by artists of the Pop and Conceptual Art movements. The Canadian artists, however, often used this technology in idiosyncratic ways more akin to artists in Japan, Thailand, and Eastern Europe. Karen Dugas, Liz Ingram, Walter Jule, Lyndal Osborne, and Bonnie Sheckter represent one wing of this movement, centred in Edmonton, with works that are apprehensively layered and mysterious in affect. Ontario artists Ed Bartram and J. Carl Heywood show two further approaches to photo imagery, respectively abstracted and hyper-refined through the print process, and both hinting at the long histories held by specific places and artifacts.
With greater interest in printmaking across the country came an increased need for access to equipment. Atelier libre 848, founded in Montréal by Pierre Ayot in 1966 (later known as Atelier Graff, and now called L’imprimerie), was among the first of the communal print studios which popped up across Canada. They were soon followed by the Grand Western Canadian Screen Shop in Winnipeg (1968-1987), Open Studio in Toronto (founded 1972), St. Michael’s Printshop in Newfoundland (founded 1972), and Malaspina Printmakers in Vancouver (founded 1975). The impact of Alberta’s communal printshops, the Society of Northern Alberta Print-artists (SNAP, founded 1982) and Alberta Printmakers (A/P, founded 1988), has been immense in the fostering of print communities beyond academic institutions. Works from founding members of these shops—Marc Siegner from SNAP and Kate Baillies from A/P—are joined by work from subsequent printshop members, volunteers, and employees, such as April Dean, Sara Norquay, and Andrew Thorne.
Bodies also appear time and again in these prints. Artists Marnie Blair, Marilène Oliver, and Lisa Turner specifically reference medical imagery in their work, revealing the ways in which we understand our bodies through both historical medical illustration and cutting edge digital imaging, while also pointing to the uncanny gaps between the feeling of being in a body and how the body is represented.
Somewhere between the body and the land are the stories and surreal narratives of a last group of these print artists. Alexandra Haesecker presents to the viewer two dogs out for a walk, with their human companion’s torso floating nearby, conspicuously missing their legs. In a more recent print by Kaitlyn Konkin, bodies slip and slide through different visual planes, suggestive of unspoken narratives and unresolved fragments of memory. In works by such artists, recognizable places and forms twist and transform, becoming strange so that we might investigate them anew.
Red Deer is represented by a number of print artists in this exhibit. Jim Westergard taught printmaking at Red Deer College from 1975 through 1999. Subsequently, Jason Frizzell, Lisa Turner, Marnie Blair and Luke Johnson have been instructors in different print media and technologies. Works from this year’s 2D Strategies and Technologies course, taught by Blair and Johnson, are present to show the directions being taken by these artists, and the ways in which previously explored themes in Canadian art are being invoked, built upon, and expanded in works fresh off the presses.
— Luke Johnson, exhibit curator, 2024
Exhibited work by Kenojuak Ashevak, Kate Baillies, Ed Bartram, Derek Besant, Marnie Blair, Sean Caulfield,
April Dean, Steven Dixon, Karen Dugas, Jason Frizzell, Alexandra Haesecker, J. Carl Heywood, Liz Ingram,
Luke Johnson, Walter Jule, Helen Kalvak, Kaitlyn Konkin, Jo Manning, Norval Morrisseau, Marion Nicoll,
Sara Norquay, Marilène Oliver, Lyndal Osborne, Lucy Qinnuayuak, Evan Robinson, Bonnie Sheckter, Marc Siegner, Andrew Thorne, Lisa Turner, Jim Westergard, John Will, Louise Zurosky
works from students in Marnie Blair and Luke Johnson’s ART 391 & 393 classes, 2023-24:
Sonia Bukhanevych, Bailey Horton, Ally Mendez, Heather Parker, Andrea Swainson, Theresa Towers-Rickard