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Current and Upcoming Exhibitions

Copper Thunderbird - Thirty Years
A Selection of Paintings and Drawings by Norval Morrisseau (1958 - 1988), from the Permanent Collection of the Thunder Bay Art Gallery

June 4 - September 5
Organized by the Thunder Bay Art Gallery

The Thunder Bay Art Gallery is fortunate to hold in trust in its permanent collection ninety pieces by Norval Morrisseau created during the first thirty years of his career. Many private collectors in the city and region knew Morrisseau when he lived here and during that time, collected his early work. ... 

The selection of work in this exhibition, albeit just a fraction of what the Gallery holds, allows the viewer to follow the development of Morrisseau’s personal style and to see a good range of his subject
matter. ...

The earliest piece held by the Gallery is a small painting on birchbark from 1958 depicting a fish in an early attempt at the now familiar ‘x-ray style’ invented by Norval Morrisseau. This piece, as well as a
number of acrylic paintings on kraft paper and millboard introduce viewers to the early works of Morrisseau.


The Artist’s Ojibway name, Copper Thunderbird, was given to him by a Medicine Woman when, at the age of 19, Morrisseau suffered a severe illness. The power of this new name is said to have cured him, and became his artist identity which he rendered in Cree syllabics on his paintings from then on.

Sharon Godwin, Director

Norval Morrisseau, In Honour to our Grandchildren, 1994, acrylic on canvas, 121 x 121 cm, purchased with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program.

DRAWINGS BY FRANK BIG BEAR: June 4 - September 5. Organized by the Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota Duluth.

"I believe that I have paid my dues as a parent, as a survivor and as a human being; that I've earned the right to believe what I want to. No one can tell me "that is not the Native way," because I've lived through it. I've earned my Ph.D (piled, higher and deeper) the hard way, not vicariously."

Frank Big Bear, 2008

Drawings by Frank Big Bear, a travelling exhibition organized by the Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, introduces the vibrant, colour pencil drawings of Frank Big Bear. Largely autobiographical in nature, the drawings are informed by the artist’s Ojibway roots, on Minnesota’s White Earth Reservation, and by his subsequent observations and experiences of life lived “on the edge,” in the urban environment of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
A comprehensive survey of the artist’s work, the exhibition includes examples of early drawings, from the 1980s, when the Big Bear favored modest formats for his work, to increasingly complex compositions, executed on a much grander scale, during the past decade. Characteristic of the artist’s oeuvre, drawings in this exhibition teem with energy and with forms that run the gamut between easily recognizable figures and abstract patterns that fill voids, or fracture and consume the familiar with the pulsating colours of fantasy.
Big Bear’s themes range from images derived from dreams and childhood traumas to politically-charged messages filtered through the lenses of introspection and reconciliation. While his earlier works focus on memories and on Native American issues and grievances, the artist’s later works are more visceral and personal in nature, inviting viewers to delve into and unravel his densely packed imagery and to decipher his meanings, both elegant and disturbing in their tendency to dissect flesh and esteemed icons equally.
Viewers will be drawn back into the artist‘s work repeatedly, attracted by a previously concealed image or, perhaps, a previously unrecognized allusion to an idea eliciting a response not yet fully formed. There is much here to ponder and admire. While some will enjoy the Big Bear’s complex compositions and riotous use of colour purely for their aesthetic appeal, others will appreciate his provocative statements about a life lived to the fullest.

Sharon Godwin, Director

Frank Big Bear, I'm But a Dream in God's Eye, 2008, colour pencil on paper, 44" x 30 1/4", Collection of the Artist

ALOFT: RAVENS AND OTHER FLYERS from the Permanent Collection.

June 4 - September 5

Artist Michele Coslet Goodman of Dryden spent the winter of 2009-10 creating eleven over life-size ravens from wood, wire, fiberfill, and rubber inner tubes. Entitled An Unkindness of Ravens, the piece is currently under consideration for acquisition by the Gallery and is on loan from the artist for this permanent collection exhibition. This piece has spurred the organization of this exhibition concentrating on ravens and other birds represented in the Gallery’s holdings.

In Northwestern Ontario, and indeed in many parts of Canada, crows and ravens figure prominently, both in the natural environment, where they often outnumber and overwhelm other avian species, and in Aboriginal legends and stories. In many Aboriginal traditions ravens are tricksters, creatures possessing spiritual powers, which permit them to traverse boundaries that confine lesser creatures. Images of the raven and of other birds – owls, geese, thunderbirds, eagles, loons and even hummingbirds are important subjects in the Gallery’s permanent collection which is largely comprised of work by contemporary Aboriginal artists.

Organizing an exhibition around specific subject matter has allowed a concise, if small, survey of the collection (which numbers over 1500 pieces)  featuring artists from across Canada, working with all manner of media, and addressing both traditional and contemporary ideas, methods, and subjects.

Sharon Godwin, Director

 

PATRICK DOYLE: September 10 - October 31

CHRIS STONES: September 10 - October 31

KASIA PIECH: September 10 - October 17

CHRISTIAN CHAPMAN: November 5 - January 9