Visual arts & new media

The AFA was saddened to learn of the passing of former board member and Alberta artist, Harry Kiyooka, on April 8, 2022. 
 

From the news posted on the Kiyooka Ohe Arts Centre:

Born in Calgary in 1928, Harry overcame prejudice and poverty to become an artist. He eventually received four degrees, including a Bachelor of Education, a Bachelor of Fine Arts, a Masters of Art, and a Masters of Fine Arts, all before turning 30 years old. In 1958, Harry left Canada to study art in Italy. Upon his return to Calgary in 1961, he began a teaching position at the new University of Alberta, Calgary campus. In 1988, Harry retired from the University of Calgary after 27 years with the rank of Professor Emeritus of Art.

Harry co-founded the Kiyooka Ohe Arts Centre in 2007 with his wife, sculptor Katie Ohe. 

The AFA's connection to Harry Kiyooka

Harry served on the board of the Alberta Art Foundation (AAF) from 1977 through 1981. The AAF was one of three government art foundations that were eventually combined to form the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA) in 1991. (Learn more about how the AFA was founded.)

The AFA Art Collection currently holds 17 artworks by Harry Kiyooka, and the Government of Alberta holds an additional six of his artworks in provincial art collections.

The two artworks featured on this post are from the AFA Art Collection:

• SKY SCAPE (serigraph) is estimated to be created during the late 1960’s
• RED CONTIGUOUS was painted in 1972

Harry was heavily influenced by the 'Op and Pop' art movement during this period. He was one of the first artists in Canada to use the medium of serigraphy in  a contemporary style. The artworks employ bold colours, hard edges and geometric shapes to create an optical experience.

Visit the AFA's Virtual Museum (click button below) to view the rest of Harry's works in the AFA's collection.

Sky Scape will be included in the upcoming Alberta Society of Artists (ASA) Travelling Exhibition (TREX) entitled, Montgeries: Montages and Memories from the AFA Collection. The exhibition is scheduled to begin touring in September 2022 and will travel throughout Alberta for three years. The theme of the exhibition is based on the AFA Art Collection's 50^th anniversary.

Image descriptions

Sky Scape - The image is dominated by block of solid bright yellow colour, interrupted by a series of vertical bands of different widths and colours to create an uneven rectangle. The bands of colour include peach, green, orange, grey and blue, and there is also a thin horizontal line of blue placed across the top of the yellow block. 

Red Contiguous - The image contains a series of red, maroon and grey horizontal bands of colour with gaps of space in between each band. A vertical band of dark grey runs through the middle of the painting, which disrupts the horizontal gaps, causing them to diverge in a variety of angles.

The AFA's Work of the Week celebrates the first day of spring.
 

While we wait for days with above 0° temperatures and prolonged time in the outdoors without fear of the elements, we can look to Jean Peters' Spring Thaw, to help us manifest a seasonal transition on this first day of spring.

About the artist

Jean Peters was born in Edmonton, Alberta and has lived in the area all her life. Her childhood years were spent in a rural community and it was there that she developed her sensitivity to natural beauty.
 

She started painting in 1975 and it developed into her passion. She has exhibited in Calgary since 1987, participating in many two or three person shows over the years. 

Jean is a Senior Member of the Society of Western Canadian Artists (SWCA) and is also a member in good standing with the Artists Borealis Group.

Jean's work may be found in galleries in Edmonton and Calgary as well as private and corporate collections in Canada and the United States.

Peters has been teaching acrylic painting since 1998 and enjoys the interaction with her students.

Image description:

An acrylic landscape painting of a wooded pond, light blue sky, melting white snow, leafless and fallen trees and brown grass.

This week's Work of the Week is Girl's Head by Roy Kiyooka. 
 

Portraiture is a very old genre. Excellent examples of it can be found in ancient Egypt, where depictions of the pharaohs, priests and deities were common. 

Portraits have always been more than just a record of a likeness. They have been used to show the power, importance, virtue, beauty, wealth, taste, learning or other qualities of the sitter. Early portraiture tended to idealize the sitter - portraying them in the best light by glossing over physical imperfections. However, this wasn't always the case, Domenico Ghirlandaio's An Old Man and His Grandson, comes to mind as an example of Renaissance portraiture that depicted its subject in a more natural style. 
 

Portraiture tended to remain out of the reach of the general public due to cost until the advent of photography, which allowed the average person to finally have a likeness of their image created. 

About the Artist: Roy Kiyooka (1926-1994)

Roy Kenzie Kiyooka was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in 1926. He grew up in the prairies and lived in Calgary, but being of Japanese extraction, he and his family were required to register as enemy aliens during World War II, and Kiyooka spent the war years working on a farm. He studied at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art (now the Alberta University of the Arts) in Calgary from 1946 to 1949 with Jock Macdonald and Illingworth Kerr, and in 1956, spent eight months in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, where he studied the works of the great Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, Gabriel Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.

After returning to Regina, Roy Kiyooka began teaching at the Regina College (now the University of Regina) and became a regular participant at the Saskatchewan Emma Lake Artists' Workshops in the 1950s, including one hosted by famous American abstract painter Barnett Newman in the summer of 1959. Later that year, he took up a teaching position at the Vancouver School of Art and subsequently played a leading role in the city's bustling cultural scene. During this period, he began writing poetry and over the years published many collections of his poetic works. He was hired to teach at the University of British Columbia, where he stayed from 1973 until his retirement in 1991. In addition to his teaching positions in Regina and Vancouver, Roy Kiyooka also taught in Montreal at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University), and in Halifax at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design

Roy Kiyooka's career as a visual artist was rich and influential. His many exhibitions included shows in Montreal, Winnipeg, Toronto, Seattle, Minneapolis, Kyoto, Japan, and São Paulo, Brazil. In 1969, he was commissioned to create a sculpture to be displayed at the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 70’ in Osaka, Japan. In 1975 the Vancouver Art Gallery organized a major retrospective of his work.

See more portraits in the AFA collection. 

This week’s Work of the Week is Furthur by Jeff Nachtigall. Nachtigall’s work draws on a wide range of traditions, and is laden with references to graffiti, pop culture, modernism, architecture and fine art.
 

About the Artist: Jeff Nachtigall

Jeff Nachtigall is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, activist, and speaker. His curatorial practice focuses on community-based projects that challenge the stereotypes and stigma surrounding those living with special needs. He is equally committed to both artistic excellence and inclusivity, and the artist work that emerges from his participants, as well as the positive impact on their lives, is a testament to this.

While working as the full-time artist-in-residence at an assisted living facility in 2006, Nachtigall developed the Open Studio model for healthcare. This inclusive, non- hierarchal, client-centered strategy challenges the traditional clinical approach of art therapy and pushes the boundaries of the arts in health care. This model has evolved and grown into a community-based practice, engaging marginalized groups throughout North America in art interventions that act as a catalyst for social change.

Nachtigall is also the inventor of the Mobile Painting Device (MPD), an adaptive technology that transforms the wheelchair into a giant paintbrush, giving people living with neurological deficits opportunity to express themselves on a very large scale. The MPD has been used in a number of communities and projects throughout Canada and the United States.

March is Alberta Francophonie Month! So for this week's Work of the Week, we are sharing an artwork by one of the Francophone artists in the AFA collection - Drop City, 1964 by Josée Aubin Ouellette.

About the Artist: Josée Aubin Ouellette
 

Multi-disciplinary artist and curator Josée Aubin Ouellette describes herself as “interested in the dynamics between artist and institution [and] the relationship of artworks to their exhibition space.” She earned her BFA in Painting and Drawing at the University of Alberta (2007), during which time she undertook a “Works to Work” curatorial internship at Edmonton’s The Works Art & Design Festival (2006) and another internship with the Art Dealers’ Association of Canada at the Scott Gallery (2007). After receiving the Natalka Horeczko Scholarship in Painting and Print-Design through the University of Alberta (2006) and the Jason Lang academic achievement scholarship through the Government of Alberta (2007), she undertook her MFA at the Glasgow School of Art (2012). She completed the Society is a Workshop Visual Arts Residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts (2013) and the Gushul Studio Trap/door collaborative residency with Erik Osberg at the Crowsnest Pass in Blairmore, Alberta (2014).

While running her own fashion design business La Fabrique since 2009, she’s served as curator for the Hydeaway All Ages Art Space in Edmonton (now closed), the Blue Plate Diner restaurant, the NextFest Emerging Artist Festival, and her own Institute Parachute.

Aubin Ouellette has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Skirt the parlour and shun the zoo... at The Walter Philips Gallery in Banff, Don’t leave me This Way at the Künstquartier Bethanien in Berlin, and Autonomous Supports (with Aideen Doran) at Generator Projects in Dundee, Scotland. She’s mounted solo shows in Glasgow, including BODY BLOCKS/Electric Blanket at the Govanhill Baths Ladies Pool and Provisional Structure Gallery at the Shipping Container Gallery, and several one-woman programmes in Edmonton including Sick Room at the Art Gallery of Alberta, MILK at Harcourt House, and Object Theatre Paintings for The Works Festival.

Aubin Ouellette’s prizes include an arts bursary from the Edmonton Arts Council and the Florence Andison Friedman Award in Painting from the University of Alberta. She has received two nominations for the Professional Arts Coalition of Edmonton (PACE) award at the Mayor’s Celebrations of the Arts (2009, 2010) and in 2014 received The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award. She lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland.

This week's Work of the Week is Gallery by John Snow. 
 

September is Month of the Artist in Alberta! A good way to celebrate is to visit one of the many excellent galleries and museums in Alberta - just like the people in this lithograph by Alberta artist John Snow. 
 

Find an art event or exhibition taking place near you (or online) by visiting the Month of the Artist website. 

Did you know? The word 'museum' is derived from ancient Greek, which denotes a place dedicated to the Muses - the Greek patron deities of the arts! The most visited museum in the world is the Louvre in France. 

About the Artist: John Snow (1911-2004)

John Harold Thomas Snow was raised between Vancouver, BC, England, UK, Olds, AB, and Innisfail, AB. At age 15, he told his father he wanted either to be a banker or a painter and had successful careers as both. In 1928, he joined the Royal Bank of Canada, first in Bowden, AB, then in Calgary, from which he retired after 43 years at age 60. His time with RBC was interrupted only once with his enlistment and overseas tour during World War II from 1940-1945.

Once back in Calgary, Snow began studying life drawing under Maxwell Bates and experimenting with woodblock printing techniques. In 1953, Snow and Bates rescued two decommissioned lithography printing presses and several old limestone blocks from the Western Printing and Lithography Company, and Snow quickly established himself both as a master lithographer and an instrumental mentor to colleagues and new artists. He exhibited nationally and internationally during his lifetime in print and graphics biennials, as well as in solo and group gallery shows. His landscapes, still lifes, florals, and portraits in lithography, watercolour, oil, mixed media, concrete sculpture, textiles, and intaglio relief helped usher Alberta into the modernist period.

Snow worked diligently and prolifically until 1992 and died peacefully in 2004.

The awards bestowed upon him are numerous; notable among them are the Salon des Beaux Arts, Paris (1965), an honorary Doctorate from the University of Calgary (1984), the Alberta Achievement Award (1984), and the Alberta Order of Excellence (1996). His work is held in the collections of the Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery, the Glenbow Museum, the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Alberta Government House Foundation, and the National Gallery of Canada. In 2001, Snow’s two-storey home in Lower Mount Royal (Calgary), where he lived and worked for nearly 50 years, was purchased by Calgary author Jackie Flanagan to accommodate writers who took part in the Markin-Flanagan Distinguished Writers Programme. As of 2010, the John Snow House is administered by The New Gallery. It holds its resource centre (a combined library and archive), hosts an artist-in-residence program, and is available for community events.

This week’s Work of the Week is Night Prairie Piece by Lynn Malin.
 

Fall is a great time of year to get outside and do some stargazing! Alberta has some of the best night skies in the world for viewing the cosmos. In fact, our province is home to five Dark Sky Preserves, which are designated areas located all over the world where artificial lighting is reduced to a minimum and the reduction of light pollution is promoted and encouraged.
 

About the Artist: Lynn Malin

Lynn Malin is a painter working full time in Edmonton since 1985. She works primarily in oils on canvas, paper, and lexan, and practices both within and outside the tradition of landscape painting. She employs still-life and site-specific techniques, but veers away from the traditional wilderness scenes, and instead take a vertical, bird’s eye approach to her subjects. She incorporates small calligraphic marks in her work to represent both natural and man-made patterns in the landscape, and explores the human tendency to grid, order and reorganize nature. Her work explores the dichotomy of these patterns, and the process of order and disorder in the landscape.

Malin received her education at the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto, and attended residencies and workshops at Emma Lake, Emily Carr College of Art and Design, and at the Banff Centre. She is a member of the Alberta Society of Artists where she served as Vice President and Branch Chairman.

Malin was awarded public commissions at the Kelly Ramsey Building/Enbridge Tower in Edmonton, AB and at the Emerald Hills Leisure Centre and Bethel Transit Station in Sherwood Park, AB. She exhibits her work in solo and group shows throughout Alberta. Her work is held in the collection of the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Government of Canada Embassy in Egypt, and in the University of Alberta Faculty Club and Alumni House.

You can see more of Malin’s work at the Art Gallery of St. Albert. The exhibition Lynn Malin: Landwatch is on view until October 24.

This week we spotlight Dr. Joane Cardinal-Schubert's artwork, Borrowed Power. Cardinal-Schubert's piece will be featured in David Garneau's exhibition Métissage, presented at the University of Calgary's Nickle Galleries.
 

About the art
 

Artist David Garneau requested the loan of Cardinal-Schubert's Borrowed Power to honour the late artist for her role as a mentor and influence in his life. Garneau's exhibition runs from February 2 - April 22, 2023.

This particular piece is featured in the 1994 documentary, Hands of History, where Cardinal-Schubert is filmed creating the artwork. Cardinal-Schubert is one of four contemporary female artists featured in the documentary which explores the role Indigenous women fulfill in nurturing Indigenous cultures.

Borrowed Power can be viewed in the AFA’s Virtual Museum, alongside a number of Joane's artworks held in the AFA collection. 

About the artist

Joane's legacy extends beyond her work as an artist. She played a vital role in establishing new relationships between the AFA and Indigenous artists within Alberta.

Helping to diversify the AFA's holdings in its art collection, her work lead to the acquisition of artwork from artists like Alex Janvier, George Littlechild, and Cardinal-Schubert herself.

Read more about the legacy of Joane Cardinal-Schubert and her impact on the AFA Art Collection.  

To acknowledge both Indigenous Veterans Day (November 8) and Remembrance Day (November 11), the AFA's Work of the Week is Untitled (Soldier Sask Airport Mural Drawing) by James Nicoll.

About the artwork
 

This drawing is part of a series of sketches that were used to develop a mural at a Saskatchewan airport. There is another James Nicoll drawing of a Paratrooper in the AFA Art Collection, and the artwork includes the following text: “Drawing Series for Mural – Royal Canadian Air ABM, Saskatchewan airport.”

AFA staff have been unable to identify for which airport in Saskatchewan these drawings were created. (Any tips can be sent to afacontact@gov.ab.ca.)

About the artist

James (Jim) Nicoll was born in Fort Macleod, Alberta in 1892, and he primarily grew up in Nelson and Fernie, British Columbia. He served during World War I.

Jim started painting in 1930, while he was working as an engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Nicoll met his wife, well known Calgary artist Marion Mackay [Nicoll], at the Calgary Sketch Club in 1931. They married in 1940 and, in 1945, they settled in Bowness, a village just west of Calgary.

Jim was a realist painter, who worked primarily with oils. He was a self-taught artist who believed in representing the correct anatomy of objects, architecture, and people. Like his wife, Nicoll was important to the creation of the art scene in Alberta and Calgary. Read more about the artist. 

The AFA currently holds 389 different artworks by Jim Nicoll, which can be viewed on the AFA Virtual Museum.