The MacKenzie Art Gallery will soon be hosting the final stop of the touring exhibition Prairie Interlace: Weaving, Modernisms and the Expanded Frame, 1960-–2000 completing a journey across Western Canada. With art ranging from the monumental to the minute, this exhibition will feature the largest works in the MacKenzie’s permanent collection. Prairie Interlace examines the explosion of innovative textile-based art on the Canadian Prairies during the second half of the twentieth century. Although largely overlooked in histories of Prairie art and craft, this was a period of intense energy and creativity.

Prairie Interlace is the result of a collaboration between Nickle Galleries, University of Calgary and the MacKenzie Art Gallery of Regina and is curated by Michele Hardy (Nickle Galleries), Timothy Long (MacKenzie Art Gallery), and Julia Krueger (an independent curator). The tour visited the Nickle Galleries in Calgary, Alberta (Fall 2022), Mann Art Gallery in Prince Albert, Sask. (Spring 2023), Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon, Man. (Summer 2023), and makes its final stop at the MacKenzie (Winter 2023-2024).

Drawing on public and private collections from across Canada, the exhibition includes 61 artworks by 48 artists including settlers, immigrants, and Indigenous artists, as well as influential visitors to the prairies. Among the latter are Mariette Rousseau Vermette, the noted Québec weaver best known for her large-scale commissions, who taught at the Banff Centre, and American artist Ann Hamilton, who studied at Banff following her undergraduate degree. Influential Saskatchewan artists include Ann Newdigate, who moved from South Africa to Saskatoon where she became known for fine, painterly tapestries that explore identity and relationships; and Margaret Harrison, a Saskatchewan-based Métis artist who has transformed rug hooking into a vehicle for personal expression, historical memory, and advocacy. Artists working across the Prairies—from Banff to Prince Albert, from the Qu’Appelle Valley to Winnipeg—challenged traditional approaches to weaving and embraced new techniques, materials, forms, and scale. A special feature of the exhibition is a number of monumental works created for architectural settings. Among these is Kaija Sanelma Harris’ Sun Ascending, 1985, a massive 60-foot piece created for the Mies van der Rohe designed TD Bank Tower in Toronto that has not been fully displayed since it was decommissioned. Another large-scale piece is Marjorie Yuzicappi’s Untitled Tapestry, 1970, created for the Dr. John Archer Library at the University of Regina along with other works from the Sioux Handcraft Co-operative of Standing Buffalo Dakota First Nation. Other featured textiles include a life-sized woven tree stump, textiles shown at Expo 67, a series of hooked rugs by Indigenous artists, and an iconic crocheted feminist sculpture that challenged the representation of women in art.

“Looking back a generation, the transformation of weaving, crochet, and rug hooking into contemporary forms of artistic expression is nothing short of breathtaking,” says exhibition Co-Curator Timothy Long. “What we value about land, culture, history, art, and politics is woven beautifully into the every fibre of these works.”

The exhibition examines four main themes: soft power, body politics, elemental landscapes, and working on and off the grid. The featured works chartered new directions in weaving, including experiments with and beyond the loom, the relationship between textiles and architecture, the influence of the Prairie landscape, as well as the relationship between gender and textiles and the impact of feminism.

“One of the most important contributions of this project—beyond the striking exhibition and important scholarship—is the community we are building,” notes Co-Curator Michele Hardy. “We are grateful to be connecting generations of artists, artists groups and guilds, scholars, and collectors and sharing their inspiring stories.”

An exhibition catalogue, featuring an introduction by the Curators and essays by Dr. Jennifer Salahub, Mackenzie Kelly-Frère; Dr. Sherry Farrell Racette, Dr. Cheryl Troupe, Dr. Susan Surette, Dr. Alison Calder, Mireille Perron, and Mary-Beth Laviolette is expected Fall 2023.

The exhibition will be on view from 4 November 2023 to 18 February 2024 at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.

For full details visit the exhibition website: www.prairieinterlace.ca

CURATOR TOUR AND OPENING RECEPTION

On Friday 3 November we will be hosting a curator conversation about the exhibition with Julia Krueger, Timothy Long, and Michele Hardy in the Shumiatcher Theatre at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, starting at 7 PM, followed by a reception in Craft Services Café by Crave.

On Saturday 4 November visitors are welcome to join us in celebrating the opening of Prairie Interlace: Weaving, Modernisms and the Expanded Frame, 1960–2000 paired with a Rawlco Radio and MacKenzie Art Gallery free admission day from 11 AM to 5:30 PM. While at the Gallery, visitors are welcome to attend a roundtable discussion starting at 2 PM in the Shumiatcher Theatre. The discussion will explore the legacies of Indigenous textiles in Saskatchewan, with a focus on Métis textiles featuring Dr. Sherry Farrell Racette, Dr. Cheryl Troupe, and Artist Margaret Harrison, moderated by Curator Bailey Randell-Montsebroten.

ABOUT THE MACKENZIE

The MacKenzie Art Gallery is Saskatchewan’s oldest public art gallery, currently celebrating 70 years creating transformative experiences of the world through art. With a permanent collection that spans 5,000 years and nearly 5,000 works of art, we encompass both the University of Regina’s vast collection and one of Canada’s largest collections of Indigenous art, the Kampelmacher Memorial Collection. Through art, education, and immersive programming, the MacKenzie brings fresh perspectives that transform how people experience history, themselves, and each other.

The MacKenzie is located in Wascana Park, Oskana Kâ’asastêki/Regina in Treaty Four territory, the traditional—and contemporary—territory of the Nehiyawak, Saulteaux, Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people, and the homeland of the Métis Nation. We are grateful for the support of the Mackenzie Art Gallery Operating Endowment Fund at the South Saskatchewan Community Foundation, as well as the support of our core funders: the Canada Council for the Arts; SaskCulture; the City of Regina; the University of Regina; and the Saskatchewan Arts Board.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

UCalgary is Canada’s entrepreneurial university, located in Canada’s most enterprising city. It is a top-five research university and one of the highest-ranked universities of its age. Founded in 1966, its 35,000 students experience an innovative learning environment, made rich by research, hands-on experiences and entrepreneurial thinking. It is Canada’s leader in the creation of start-ups. Start something today at the University of Calgary.

ABOUT NICKLE GALLERIES

Nickle Galleries is a creative hub at the heart of the University of Calgary campus. Founded in 1979 to contribute to the education and the overall benefit of both students and community at large, the Nickle’s permanent collection has grown to about 30,000 artifacts, organized across three collections: art, numismatics, and textiles. Exhibitions, publications, and programs draw on and critically expand upon these collections. Championing art, in all its richness and diversity, the Nickle strives to inspire, foster and support creative research on campus and beyond.

MEDIA CONTACT

Mackenzy Vida

Communications Coordinator

MacKenzie Art Gallery

mvida@mackenzie.art

(306) 584-4250 ext. 4271

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