SASKATOON.- Remai Modern’s summer season is full of energy, colour and radical ways of seeing the world. Spanning emerging to established artists, the museum’s exhibitions provide dynamic and surprising explorations of contemporary experience from diverse viewpoints.
Remai Modern strives to lead the way with important firsts. This season, the museum hosts senior artist Dorothy Iannone’s first exhibition in Canada. The season also marks a significant moment in the career of late Kwakwaka’wakw artist Beau Dick. Devoured by Consumerism is the last exhibition he conceived prior to his death in 2017.
“Remai Modern’s team has created a summer program with a diversity of backgrounds and artistic approaches,” said Lynn McMaster, Remai Modern’s interim CEO. “From the beginning, Remai Modern has focused on being an artist-led institution, supporting them to advance new ideas and challenge the status quo. The artists brought together this summer at the museum invite us to question our assumptions and appreciate different perspectives, while celebrating life and the transformative potential of art.”
The new season kicked off on May 31 with the opening of If I have a body, presenting new and recent work by six Canadian artists. The exhibition features a range of media, including painting, drawing, photography, text, video and sculpture. The exhibition’s opening night celebration will include a live discussion between the artists and curators.
If I have a body
May 31-September 2
If I have a body presents new and recent work by six Canadian artists: Shuvinai Ashoona, Steven Beckly, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Laurie Kang, Veronika Pausova and Dominique Rey. The title, drawn from a poem by Belcourt, presents the body as a proposition, an unstable form shaped by imagination, desire, vulnerability and exchange. The artists are brought together in dynamic pairings, creating dialogue between their works.
Curated by Rose Bouthillier, Curator (Exhibitions); Sandra Fraser, Curator (Collections), and Troy Gronsdahl, Associate Curator (Live Programs).
Dorothy Iannone
Liberties
June 7-September 8
For over 60 years, Dorothy Iannone has created colourful, unabashed, boundary-breaking works that celebrate ideas of freedom. She is known for her deeply personal and autobiographical narratives exploring love, spirituality and ecstatic unity. Throughout her career, Iannone has been subject to frequent censorship, which has contributed to her life’s work being under-recognized. Dorothy Iannone: Liberties is the artist’s first exhibition in Canada and features work from the 1960s up until today.
Curated by Rose Bouthillier, Curator (Exhibitions).
Beau Dick
Devoured by Consumerism
June 21-September 2
Devoured by Consumerism is the last exhibition conceived by the late Kwakwaka’wakw artist, activist and hereditary chief, Beau Dick (1955–2017). By sharing works inspired by the Kwakwaka'wakw Winter Ceremonies, Dick hoped to spark change in a world he saw devouring itself under the ravenous pressures of capitalism. A host of compelling figures inhabit the exhibition, such as the supernatural cannibal birds, shape-shifter Otter Woman, and wild man and woman of the woods Bookwus and Tsonoqua. Through masks and sculptures inspired by his culture’s potlatch traditions, Dick argues that these stories and practices contain profound understandings of balance, community responsibility and personal transformation.
Beau Dick: Devoured by Consumerism was conceived by Beau Dick and LaTiesha Fazakas, and is organized by Fazakas Gallery. The exhibition debuted at White Columns, New York, March 15 – May 4, 2019. Remai Modern’s presentation is organized by Rose Bouthillier, Curator (Exhibitions).
Pablo Picasso Anatomy of a Still Life
On view June 28
In art history, the still life has often been considered less important than portraiture or history painting due to its lack of human subject matter. Material pleasures such as food, wine and cut flowers are frequently represented in these artworks. They can also be rich with symbolism, at times warning of the brevity of human life. Since the early 20th century, the still life has been used as a relatively neutral basis for formal experimentation.
Pablo Picasso explored the still life throughout his long career—in painting, collage, sculpture and various forms of printmaking. Remai Modern’s collection of Picasso’s linocuts includes a large number of working proofs that have rarely been exhibited, offering intimate insight into the artist’s creative process. One extraordinary example, Nature Morte a la Pasteque (Still Life with Watermelon), includes 14 different working states to create an eight-colour linocut. This exhibition presents a tantalizing selection of still lifes, known in French as nature morte, created by Picasso in 1962.
Curated by Sandra Fraser, Curator (Collections).
Artist in Focus: Eli Bornstein
On view July 27
Eli Bornstein is best known for his structurist reliefs, rooted in a tradition of early 20th century geometric abstraction. Bornstein encourages viewers to slow down to experience the subtle nuances of colour as it responds to the light around it, and how individual forms shift as the viewer’s position changes. This exhibition looks at Eli Bornstein’s early works on paper, tracing his development through several key works in the collection.
Curated by Sandra Fraser, Curator (Collections).
Recent Acquisitions (Part Two)
On view July 20
This second in a series of exhibitions of new acquisitions features artists exploring the formal and perceptual qualities of light and colour, and includes Victoria-based Robert Youds and Saskatchewan artists Jonathan Forrest and Marie Lannoo.
Curated by Sandra Fraser, Curator (Collections).
