Janvier, Week One

Extremely successful and productive week one for Alex Janvier's artist residency at TRU. He has stapled severak canvasses to gallery walls and has begun work on three of them, pictured above. Every day, every hour, the studio/gallery changes as this amazing artist adds brushstrokes and intensity. Volunteers have dropped in to help him gesso the canvasses and take him out to lunch or just plain chat, and the work grows within that spirit. Only five days into the residency, and the gallery has already taken on a whole new aura.

Today, Alex went to collect lava rocks for a sweat lodge back in Cold Lake, but will be back at work in the studio tomorrow.

And yesterday, the Edmonton Journal ran a substantial two-page spread on Alex Janvier and his work, focussing on the construction of his new gallery in Cold Lake, designed by Douglas Cardinal.

To see how work has progressed in the first week, take a look at this video walkthrough of Alex's studio/gallery here at TRU.

Art+Reconciliation

As part of an ongoing discussion regarding art+reconciliation, a number of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists, writers, curators, and researchers are gathering this week in Kamloops to investigate possibilities. Those attending include Jonathan Dewar, Peter Morin, Tania Willard, Richard Wagamese, Sophie McCall, Dave Gaertner, Ashok Mathur, Kevin Loring, Jaime Black, Jaimie Isaac, Alex Janvier, Gabe Archie, Gabe Hill, and a few others who will participate in various ways. This is functioning more as a think-tank than as a rehearsed public presentation, so the agenda is unfixed, other than to explore ways of looking at the intersections of the notions of art and reconciliation in their myriad identities. As part of this project, however, and in sync with the connectivity of art and research, there are several creative projects at play during the same time: Alex Janvier, renowned for his painting and founding member of the Aboriginal Group of Seven, will be converting the Thompson Rivers University art gallery into a studio for the next three weeks; Jaime Black is producing the site-specific REDdress project that acknowledges the 600 missing and murdered Aboriginal women; and curator Jaimie Isaac in conjunction with artist Leah Decter is hosting a two-day interactive work (at TRU and the Kamloops Art Gallery) "official denial" which uses Hudson's Bay blankets and the suturing/stitching of words to address a lack of awareness of colonization in Canada.

During this time, our collected group will be thinking through future possibilities for exhibition, publication, and activity/activism to both complicate and articulate the difficult intersections proposed. The ongoing thoughts and reflections will be posted and compiled as we determine the most useful ways to proceed.

Alex Janvier, artist in residence

Alex Janvier, one of the most renowned painters in contemporary Canadian art, officially started his three-week residency at Thompson Rivers University today. Hosted by CiCAC, Janvier will be converting the TRU Art Gallery in Old Main into a visiting studio. The video above shows Janvier working beside research assistant Gabe Archie in preparing the site for his painting activity. The white walls of the gallery will soon be converted into an amazing array of colour, thanks to this senior artist and one of the founding members of the Aboriginal Group of Seven. Check back to see the transformations as they occur. Janvier was welcomed to the space by visual arts students and the Dean of Arts, Michael Mehta (welcoming address), and will be participating in numerous activities over the course of the next three weeks. Here is more information on Alex Janvier's painting and history as an artist.