Two different styles from two different eras of Saskatchewan landscape art are currently on display at the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery. Belinda Harrow’s work occupies the front of the gallery with sculptures, drawings, and paintings representing animal and human interactions and overlaps in and around Regina. It is titled Unsettled.
“I think people will really enjoy them,” Jennifer McRorie, Director/Curator at MJMAG says, “they have a lot of whimsy and humor, but they also have deeply layered meanings, political themes, themes surrounding land and animals, and indigenous themes around indigenous use of the land and colonialism.”
Harrow is a highly-educated Saskatchewan artist who has taught at the Design and Art College of New Zealand and been a guest lecturer in Beijing, China and Ahmedabad, India. Working across a wide variety of art mediums, she has had exhibits across Canada, and in New Zealand, the UK, China, and Thailand. Some of her work is part of the permanent collection of the Yukon Government. She lives and works in Regina.
At the back of the gallery is an extensive display of David Milne’s art on loan from the Art Gallery of Windsor. Its curator Chris Finn will be participating in an Artist’s Talk hosted by MJMAG this Wednesday at 7:00pm. The link to the virtual talk can be found on the Gallery’s current exhibitions page.
Milne’s art was, “Pretty ahead of its time, approaching landscape in abstract ways,” McRorie comments. “He was involved during his time with making work with the Group of Seven, whom most people have heard of. But he also studied in New York and was heavily influenced by the abstract experimentation taking place there just prior to WWI.”
Milne continues to have a heavy influence on Saskatchewan landscape painting. The exhibit, titled ‘Blazes Along the Trail’: Exploring David Milne’s Imaginative Vision, also explores his history, legacy, and current influence.
The current lobby exhibit is from MJMAG’s permanent collection, and is called Shibui: Rob Froese, Shoji Hamada, Jack Sures, Randy Woolsey. It showcases ceramics by Canadian and Japanese artists. Those wishing to see Shibui should go soon, as it will leave the lobby on Sep. 26th.
The Heritage Gallery has a deeply moving new exhibit called Lost Children of the Residential School System, incorporating community-contributed objects from the display at St. Andrew’s United Church, which was in response to the recent revelations surrounding residential school system abuses.
Finally, MJMAG is looking forward to once again hosting the Moose Jaw Art Guild’s annual exhibition. Titled Looking Out My Window, it will run from Nov. 12 to January 9.
Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery’s hours are Tuesday to Sunday from 1:00 to 5:00pm. They also have special hours on Wednesdays from 10:00am to noon specifically for seniors and immunocompromised individuals.
