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Winnipeg Free Press
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Lady of Fire and other shapes of landscapes to come
Opinion In the early spring, well before out-of-control wildfires tore through northern Manitoba and Ontario, well before the snow had even melted, I went to see Marcel Dzama's Ghosts of Canoe Lake in its final days at Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art. The works comprising the exhibition were inspired by the iconic Canadian landscape paintings by the Group of Seven, but if the Group of Seven's beloved jack pines were on fire. The destruction wrought by climate change was top of mind for the Winnipeg-born artist when he created these works — 'It was my fear of what we're doing to the environment and how we're just throwing away one of the most important and beautiful things,' he told me in an interview before the exhibition opened — and one cannot paint modern landscapes without grappling with modern anxieties. But no painting from Ghosts of Canoe Lake captures Manitoba's current reality better than Lady of Fire, an arresting, large-scale diptych of a flame-haired woman in a swirling red dress. Her head is thrown back and her eyes are wild as she basks in an inferno that is swallowing up the landscape behind her. Stare at it long enough and you'll notice there are ghostly figures in the flames, and the terrible snarling faces of fanged, demon-lions. The sky in the painting is inky and dark, but we know from the photos of Lynn Lake — or the photos from Jasper, Alta., in 2024, or the photos from any of the record-breaking Canadian wildfires of 2023 that sent landmark-obscuring smoke down into New York City, where Dzama lives, or the photos from Lytton, B.C., in 2021, or, or, or — that a dark sky doesn't necessarily mean it's nighttime. ● ● ● From 1920 to 1933, the artists who made up the Group of Seven — whose ranks eventually swelled to more than seven — were captivated by Canada's wild and vast landscapes. Their art movement was rooted in nationalism following the First World War; they are widely credited with creating a legible Canadian art identity distinct from European styles. But of course, Canada's landscapes weren't just documented — or was it, let's be clear, discovered — by settler artists. Indigenous artists have been making art about the land since time immemorial and continue to do so, with many contemporary Indigenous artists documenting human-made changes to the landscape and environment. There are too many examples to list here, but I think of Inuk artist Tarralik Duffy's works that comprised Gasoline Rainbows, her solo exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. She creates pop art inspired by China Lily soy sauce bottles and jerry cans — nostalgic, ubiquitous and plastic, jarring on the northern landscape. 'There's something that's so permanent about southern packaging. Everything that we had as Inuit in the past would just go back to the earth, and then these things have a permanence that is dangerous — as dangerous as the fuel in the can,' she told me at the time. So many Indigenous teachings tell us that we are meant to be stewards of the land, caretakers for subsequent generations. We inherit it, then we pass it on. People will no doubt continue to deny that the devastating wildfire season Manitoba is in is the result of climate change. Forest fires are a natural part of a landscape's life cycle, they will protest, not accounting for the fact that there are more storms (which means more lightning), drier conditions, hotter temperatures and shorter winters. Bigger fires. Some day, those landscapes will only exist in paintings. The Lady of Fire will have reduced them all to ash. ● ● ● In 2010, American writer Nora Ephron published her last book, I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections. Two lists close the book: What I'll Miss/What I Won't Miss. It doesn't explicitly say, but it is explicitly clear: they are lists about being alive. Ephron knew she was sick when she made these lists; the rest of the world, including those close to her, did not. Her illness was a viciously guarded secret, an idea that some people had trouble squaring with the woman for whom 'everything is copy.' She died two years later. It's too easy to take things for granted — especially things such as trees, or landscapes or seasons. Our summers moving forward will look less and less like the summers of our past without some dramatic intervention. So this is my version of Ephron's list. What I'll Miss (When Summer Is Just Always This) MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES No painting from artist Marcel Dzama's recent Ghosts of Canoe Lake exhibition better captures Manitoba's current reality than Lady of Fire. Clear blue — true blue — skies Sunshine the colour of butter The perfume of cedar and moss in the bush Stands of shimmering jack pines reflected in a lake Cool mornings The idea of cool mornings Fresh, rain-scented breezes Spiderwebs bejewelled in dew Bees Wednesdays A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future. The idea of bees Birdsong The smell of campfire as comforting instead of foreboding Summer Jen ZorattiColumnist Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the weekly newsletter NEXT. A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the Free Press in 2013. Read more about Jen. Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
24-05-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Canada needs new approach to meet new U.S. challenges: Frum
Canada needs a 'plan B' in the face of tariffs and political instability introduced by U.S. President Donald Trump, says writer and political commentator David Frum. Frum shared that message Friday at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, during an appearance presented by the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce and Business Council of Manitoba. Canadians have often faced challenges and difficulties in the U.S.-Canada relationship, Frum said, and there is 'a well-established playbook' as to how Canada meets these challenges: the prime minister and premiers work together with their allies at the state level in an attempt to show U.S. Congress and the president why the measures the U.S. are taking are not in the interests of the American people. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Political commentator and Atlantic staff writer David Frum speaks during a Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce event Friday morning at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Through a combination of 'mobilizing friends (and making) timely concessions,' said Frum, a staff writer at U.S. magazine The Atlantic, 'the trillion-dollar relationship flows along in relatively smooth waves.' Today, however, Canada faces a different situation, he added, likening current relations to a scene from the 1964 spy film Goldfinger in which the titular villain has a laser pointed at protagonist James Bond. 'Do you expect me to talk?' Bond asks. To which Auric Goldfinger responds: 'No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.' 'It's kind of hard to negotiate that situation,' Frum said. 'That has been Canada's problem. Since this new (U.S.) administration has taken power, there are a series of complaints, there are a series of threats, there are a series of attacks, but there's no ask.' The old playbook no longer works, he added, so the country needs a 'plan B' in case it decides to abandon its current tactics. One thing Canada could do is introduce export tariffs on products the country sends south of the border that would be difficult for the U.S. to replace, including potash, electricity, wheat used to make everyday pasta products and wood pulp used to make one-third of the toilet paper in the U.S. With international student enrolment in danger at U.S. post-secondary institutions and scientific funding under threat, Frum recommends recruiting professors and researchers from America to move to Canada and continue their work here. 'Go poach their talent,' he said. 'The United States has been poaching Canadian talent for a long time. Turn the tables, this is the moment to do that.' Frum, who was a speechwriter for U.S. president George W. Bush in the early 2000s, went on to suggest Canada further develop its relationship with Mexico. While both countries have both been party to the former North American Free Trade Agreement and Canada-United-States-Mexico Agreement, it's always been the U.S. organizing these trilateral relationships, Frum said. 'Canada needs to develop its presence in Mexico City (and) find areas of commonality,' he said. 'You're in a trilateral relationship. It's a fact. Act on it and work on the last leg of that triangle in pursuit of a common goal.' While introducing his final suggestion, Frum noted when it comes to defence agreements between Canada and the U.S., 'the most important way Canada has contributed … is by the use of aerospace,' at times giving that aerospace away for free. If Trump's proposed 'Golden Dome' missile defence system becomes a reality, the U.S. should pay for whatever Canadian 'real estate' the system uses, Frum said. 'A lot of things that didn't have a price before should (have a) price now,' he said. 'And if this is a relationship based on transactions, the instinctive Canadian habit of trying to show itself as a good partner … may be a little bit out of date.' Frum later offered what he called a 'consoling thought.' People who grew up in North America after the Second World War have generally lived under safe and prosperous conditions their parents and grandparents fought for, he said. It's this generation's turn to do the same, the 64-year-old suggested. 'It's an awesome responsibility and kind of an inspiring one. So we have to do our part in the way that our parents and grandparents (did) theirs.' Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. While introducing Frum, Winnipeg chamber chairman Kevin Selch described the Toronto-born commentator as 'one of the most influential political analysts of our time' and someone who 'brings a rational conscience to the mainstream.' Global trade, national resilience and Canada's shifting relationship with the U.S. are topics that can feel 'abstract and even daunting,' Selch said later, but he encouraged attendees to be courageous. 'As we face the road ahead, I'd like to leave you with the message that we shouldn't fear change,' Selch said. 'We should expect it and when it comes we need to face it prepared together.' Around 150 people attended the event. Aaron EppReporter Aaron Epp reports on business for the Free Press. After freelancing for the paper for a decade, he joined the staff full-time in 2024. He was previously the associate editor at Canadian Mennonite. Read more about Aaron. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
First solo show in Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq's flagship Qilak gallery
Since his last gallery show in Winnipeg, Abraham Anghik Ruben's focus has shifted from introspection to cross-cultural exploration. That personal and artistic arc is currently on display at WAG-Qaumajuq in a sprawling retrospective of the master Inuit sculptor's 50-year career. It's a fitting full-circle reunion. The Winnipeg Art Gallery hosted Ruben's first solo show at a major institution in 2001 and now, nearly 25 years later, the artist's work is featured in the first solo exhibit in Qaumajuq's main Qilak gallery. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Inuit artist Abraham Anghik Ruben, talking about his work in the new retrospective show at WAG-Qaumajuq. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Inuit artist Abraham Anghik Ruben, talking about his work in the new retrospective show at WAG-Qaumajuq. 'It's marvellous. This is a grand hall; I think this is going to be an incredible showcase for years to come,' Ruben says while standing in the vast Inuit art centre, which opened in 2021. He's surrounded by a flock of mythical Inuit figures and Norse gods etched in soapstone and bone, bronze and wood. The luminous, lifelike sculptures make up the bulk of an exhibit containing more than 100 pieces that tell an abridged version of the artist's fascinating life. A soft-spoken storyteller, Ruben, 73, was born in a camp near Paulatuk, N.W.T, and spent his early years with family, living off the land and migrating with the seasons. Abraham Anghik Ruben WAG-Qaumajuq, 300 Memorial Blvd. To spring 2026 Admission free to $18 As children, he and his siblings were taken from their parents, Billy and Bertha Ruben, and made to attend residential school — a traumatic experience that later led him to artmaking. Ruben returned north to study art at the University of Alaska and began sculpting in 1975 as a way to reclaim his Inuvialuit culture. Today, he's a member of the Order of Canada and a world-renowned contemporary artist whose work has been exhibited at the Louvre and Smithsonian. 'I also do prospecting as much as I do sculpting,' says the resident of Salt Spring Island, adding he has mining claims for outcroppings of jade and rare metals in British Columbia's interior. 'The artwork has helped me continue prospecting. Now we're now getting to the point where prospecting can take the artwork to a different level.' Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Abraham Anghik Ruben's 2001 sculpture Things We Share. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Abraham Anghik Ruben's 2001 sculpture Things We Share. Looking at the complex, large-scale work he's created thus far, it's hard to fathom what the next level might entail. Ruben's first show at the WAG, curated by Darlene Coward Wight, was largely autobiographical, with paintings, prints and smaller sculptures depicting personal and ancestral history. The Abraham Anghik Ruben exhibit starts in a similar place and highlights the mystical seafaring journey his art practice has taken since 2004, when a cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment — which he refers to as 'getting nuked' — inspired him to investigate the overlap between Inuit and Viking history. 'There's very little written about it. I realized the Inuit and the Viking people must have had extensive contact, so I started developing works that were based on this,' Ruben says. 'It's my interpretation of what may have happened: contact between two very different Arctic people, but there are a lot of common elements.' As examples, he points to the similarities in spiritual beliefs, legendary storytelling and shamanistic traditions of both groups. There are documented interactions on Greenland during the 13th century, but Ruben believes the relationship runs deeper than described in the written record. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Abraham Anghik Ruben's 1975 artwork, Angatko Manifest of Inuit Soul. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Abraham Anghik Ruben's 1975 artwork, Angatko Manifest of Inuit Soul. Sculptures of the Inuit sea goddess Senda mingle with imagery of the Norse sea goddess Rán — both feared and revered female archetypes. Odin and Loki appear beside creatures from Inuit creation stories. Umiak vessels traverse the high seas alongside Viking longships. A carved wooden pillar entitled The Beginning — the working model for a future bronze sculpture — is one of the newest pieces in the gallery and contains nearly all the elements above in a tall, twisting vignette. Ruben calls this body of work 'the consequences of contact'; it also features commentary on colonization and modern day climate change. Guest curator Heather Campbell, an Inuit artist from Nunatsiavut (Northern Labrador), got goosebumps when she saw the finished exhibition for the first time after working on it virtually for the last year. 'It can't prepare you for seeing it in person. They're all facing you, welcoming you,' she says of the crowd of human and animal sentinels greeting visitors at the entrance of the Qilak gallery. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Abraham Anghik Ruben's Global Warming: The Apocalypse (from the last century after first contact). Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Abraham Anghik Ruben's Global Warming: The Apocalypse (from the last century after first contact). The pieces for the show were sourced from private, public and corporate collections, as well as from 30 Ruben originals in the WAG's permanent collection, which includes the soft limestone sculpture of a mother bear and her cubs, titled Time to Play, that sits in front of Qaumajuq. Campbell hopes gallery-goers appreciate the boundary-pushing qualities of Ruben's work. 'Inuit art is very diverse and Abraham is one of those key examples of what's possible. He strikes the perfect balance between abstract and realism,' she says. Stephen Borys, the WAG's director and CEO, agrees. 'One of the things I really appreciate and respect about Abraham and his art, is his curiosity and the way he's never been afraid to experiment, to try new mediums, to try new techniques,' he says. Visitors will be able to hear Ruben's storytelling first-hand via audio recordings throughout the gallery. 'He's able to bridge that gap between telling a story with an artwork and telling it in his own voice,' Campbell says. 'Most of the pieces are intriguing on their own, but once you read about them and learn about them, it truly enhances what's there.' Abraham Anghik Ruben opens tonight with a free public celebration from 7 to 10 p.m. in the gallery's main hall. Eva WasneyReporter Eva Wasney has been a reporter with the Free Press Arts & Life department since 2019. Read more about Eva. Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CTV News
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
One Inuit artist takes over 8,000 square feet of the WAG
A glimpse at the Abraham Anghik Ruben exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery on May 22, 2025. (Ken Gabel/CTV News)
CBC
15-02-2025
- CBC
'You are warriors tonight': loved ones honour missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls at Memorial March
There isn't a day that passes when Nikki Komaksiutiksak doesn't think of Jessica Michaels. She remembers the 17-year old as a "beautiful human being," who shared a passion for the arts and was gifted with a talented voice to become a throat singer. Michaels was found dead in a boarding house in 2001. On Friday Komaksiutiksak held her relative's memory close to her heart as she participated in the annual Memorial March of Manitoba in honour of missing and murder Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit individuals (MMIWG2S+). "February 14th is a day of love … but for a lot of our families, we don't get the ability to do that in human form," Komaksiutiksak said. "What better way to do that to honour our missing and murdered loved ones with events, where we can come together in solidarity," she said. Dozens walked downtown Friday night, braving the frigid temperature that felt close to -28 with the windchill, for the march. Among the crowd, families held banners in the shape of purple butterflies that displayed the handwritten name of their loved one who had been murdered or gone missing. The overall silence from the crowd was filled with the sound of drums and chants that lead at the front of the march along Memorial Boulevard, St. Mary Avenue, Balmoral Street and Portage Avenue, before returning to the doorstep of the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The first memorial march was held in Vancouver in 1992 after Cheryl Ann Joe, a 26-year-old Shíshálh woman, was murdered in the city's Downtown Eastside. To Komaksiutiksak the march, which is now held every Feb.14 across Canada and the United States, is a display of community strength and a testament to the enduring relationships built from shared trauma. But it is also "a powerful reminder that there is a genocide that is happening every single day of our lives here in this country," she said. "We are not going to stay silent about this." Before the march on Friday, families and loved ones of MMIWG2S+ individuals gathered inside the art gallery for a ceremony. Photos of some of the women and girls who never came back home, along with a purple parchment with at least 215 of their names, were displayed. Quilts with red dress designs embroidered in them were handed to 15 families mourning a missing or lost one, among them was Bernice Catcheway The mother came out for her 17th memorial march on Friday to honour her daughter Jennifer Catcheway, who hasn't been found since she went missing in 2008. "That sadness and that feeling of hurt and pain, you could feel that as you walk," Catcheway told the audience inside the gallery. "It's an honour to stand before the families … I know that a lot of you are heartbroken, a lot of us miss our loved ones," she said. "But as long as there's breath on us, we'll go on searching." Catcheway holds onto the hope that one day the answer to what happened to her daughter will come her way and bring Jessica back home. But as the crowd prepared to go in the march, she invited them to hold their heads up high. "You are warriors tonight," Catcheway said. "I won't give them an inch to see me cry and to be hurt." A report from Stats Canada shows Indigenous women and girls experienced violence rates higher than their non-indigenous counterparts. Between 2009 and 2021, 490 of Canada's homicide victims were Indigenous women and girls. To Sandra DeLaronde, team lead for Giganawenimaanaanig, Manitoba's MMIWG2S+ implementation committee, the memorial march is a critical show of community solidarity, important to help lower the numbers of MMIWG2S+ people over time. "When we can create a stronger community, and not just the Indigenous community… we are creating safer spaces and places," she said.
