2 June to 10 September, 2006

Untitled #1

Lori Blondeau

Digital Print, 2006

Lori Blondeau
Grace

Lori Blondeau is a Saskatoon–based performance artist, curator, and director of the innovative aboriginal arts organization, TRIBE. In her work, Blondeau examines the influence of popular media and culture on aboriginal self–identity through the creation of irreverent personas such as COSMOSQUAW and Belle Sauvage.

In this exhibition, Blondeau presents a new performance that draws upon her interest in memory, home, displacement, and decolonization. The installation in the gallery space will consist of the remnants of the performance, along with a series of black and white photographs of hands that refer to the impact of colonization on aboriginal women and culture, and are also personal representations of grief and loss.

Curated by Dan Ring. Presented by the Mendel Art Gallery.

Pierre Karlik

Woman

Soapstone, 1972

In Public Trust
Artwork from the Permanent Collection

In Public Trust presents an overview of the depth and breadth of the Gallery’s holdings of local, regional, and national art.

Through a multidisciplinary approach, it embraces a wide range of media including painting, collage, sculpture, photography, and video. Woven through the fabric of the exhibition are a number of themes, among them: the human figure, the landscape—from rural to urban, abstraction, and myth.

These works reflect the diverse narratives of our culture. Entrusted with this extraordinary resource, the Gallery takes seriously its obligations to preserve, protect, and provide access. As a public gallery, The Mendel is a partner in a collaborative endeavor—along with other such galleries across the country—whose aim it is to not only to collect, preserve, and interpret but also to share these works of art with other regions through their inclusion in exhibitions, many of which are circulated across the country. It is this commitment that is the driving force behind the Gallery’s expansion campaign.

Curated by George Moppett. Presented by the Mendel Art Gallery.

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LIVE / LIVE

Adrian Stimson

Mixed Media, 2006

LIVE / LIVE

LIVE/LIVE is a collaboration between Mendel Art Gallery Artist–in–Residence Adrian A. Stimson, City Park Collegiate students, and citizens of Saskatoon. It grew out of the Mendel’s Living Artfully program, which explores the connections between art, ecology, community, activism, and indigenous knowledge.

LIVE/LIVE is an organic collaboration between artist and community. It is a space to contemplate our evolution as human beings and what this means for our environment.

By being on this planet, do we jeopardize our existence by ignoring our relationships and contracts with the natural world? Are we creating the illusion of security through surveillance, watching rather than acting on global environmental change. Or can we, through careful thought and action, create sustainable communities by walking gently on the planet?

Curated by Adrian Stimson. Presented by the Mendel Art Gallery.

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Cyborg Collars

Donna Barrett

Mixed Media, 2006

artistsbyartists
Donna White / Bart Gazzola
Beautiful as well as Brutal

Beautiful as well as Brutal brings together Donna White’s Cyborg Collars, futuristic adornments based on the Elizabethan ruff, with images from digital photographer Bart Gazzola’s kisses series.

In both, the bodies challenge and confront each other in a manner both seductive and menacing. White’s collars are objects of constriction and control, playing against the notion of attraction and intimacy. Sculptures that combine construction materials such as steel with the intricate delicacy of photographed lace, they beckon the viewer closer at their own peril.

Gazzola’s kisses, cryptically titled digital photographs of cow tongues that have been dissected and pieced together into carnally suggestive compositions, speak of “love, longing, lust, and loss.” Says Gazzola, “My tendency to kiss those I should not would perhaps suggest I need one of these collars made specifically for me.”

Organized by the Programming Plexus.

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George Adilman

Courtesy of the Local History Room

Naked City
Notorious and Notable Saskatoon Personalities

The most intriguing and intrinsic element in any successful community is its people, and Saskatoon is no exception. This installation of the Mendel Art Gallery’s centenary initiative, Naked City, assembles a collection of characters who exemplify the spirit of Saskatonians.

Opting out of celebrating the usual notable historic personalities such as politicians and bureaucrats, the characters featured in this installation are at once courageous and resourceful, quirky and kindhearted. It is individuals like those highlighted in this exhibition that have made up the fabric of Saskatoon and shaped it into the city we know today.

The steamier side of Saskatoon is also explored because it provides a richer and certainly more intriguing picture of Saskatoon’s past that has come a long way from its Temperance beginnings.

Organized by the Programming Plexus.

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