Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada — Friday, 28 May 2021: With the lifting of the temporary closure mandate for art museums in Regina, the MacKenzie Art Gallery will reopen to the public on June 12th. Continuing to offer a safe environment that fosters creativity and transformative experiences with the community. On Saturday, June 12th, the Gallery will host a Rawlco Radio and MacKenzie Art Gallery Free Admission Day, offering on–the–hour tours, and a 1 PM panel discussion about disability art between artists Carmen Papalia and jes sachse. Moderated by Sook-Yin Lee, the discussion will be broadcast live to the Shumiatcher Theatre and online to the MacKenzie Facebook page.  

“I am thrilled to once again welcome everyone back through our doors to the healing power of art,” says Executive Director & CEO John G. Hampton. “We have four incredible new exhibitions that explore diverse relationships with our senses, culture, language, and communities. Audiences can expect an architectural and sensory transformation of our largest gallery, an interactive computerized rock that speaks Lakota, a portrait of the 1993 Roughriders, a life-sized figure cast in sugar, and much more.” 

 

WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO 

12 June 2021–8 May 2022:  The Permanent Collection: Community Watch  

Curated by Timothy Long, Tak Pham, and Nicolle Nugent 

Community Watch is the second in a series of year-long exhibitions which explore the depths of our Permanent Collection and the roles it plays in society. Since the 1960s, the idea of community has evolved significantly as a result of urbanization and mass media. The experience of knowing your neighbours has been replaced, in many cases, by apathy, isolation, and even paranoia. It is not too much to say that the idea of community itself has been under a kind of surveillance. 

Throughout the exhibition, artists provide reflections on current challenges to community, whether rooted in war, racism, sexism, ageism, environmental change, or economic oppression. In many works, a hopeful image emerges of the possibilities of collective action, and visitors are encouraged to join these artists in watching community—to celebrate its beauty, acknowledge its darker corners, and consider what positive contributions they can make. 

FEATURING WORKS BY: Mark Alikaswa, Eva Tarlooki Aliktiluk, Mary Ayak Anowtalik, George Arluk, Shuvinai Ashoona, Mary Atatsiak, Michael Belmore, Martha Cole, Alex Colville, Caroline Dukes, Jenn Hamilton, Roger Ing, Kiakshuk, Molly Lenhardt, Kenneth Lochhead, Jahan Maka, John Pangnark, Wilf Perreault, Napatchie Pootoogook, Frances Robson, David Thauberger, Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok, and Jin-me Yoon. 

 

12 June – 13 October: Kiskisiyâpiyawin ‘threads of memory’ 

Curated by Janine Windolph 

Complementing Community Watch, a program of short films curated by Janine Windolph, Associate Director of Indigenous Arts, Banff Centre, Alberta, will be on view in the MacKenzie Art Gallery’s Shumiatcher Theatre. This screening weaves Indigenous stories with diverse perspectives from across Canada, both pre and post pandemic, highlighting the resilience and recovery drawn from the memories and experiences of featured filmmakers.  

FEATURING WORKS BY: Candy Fox, Janine Windolph, Weiye Su, The Windolph Family, Valerie Bah, Tatiana Zinga Botao, Allan Code, Peter Lynch, Xstine Cook 

 

12 June 2021–19 September 2021: Pasapkedjinawong —la rivière qui passe entre les rochers—the river that passes through the rocks 

Curated by John G. Hampton and Léuli Eshrāghi 

Pasapkedjinawong examines how languages survive, adapt to, exceed, or resist frameworks of colonial violence and repression. Considering languages and cultures as living systems in the manner of rivers and other bodies of water, this exhibition looks closely at what happens when the customary flow of a language is interrupted, diverted, or impeded by an outside force.  

The artists in Pasapkedjinawong represent this continuing lifeforce, articulating renewed architectures of language and thought fed by new and ancestral ways of knowing and viewing the world. Employing sound, silence, image, body, fibre, and tactility, they each map the multiple currents that flow past the seemingly monolithic domains of colonial languages, to expand our imagination and understanding of unfurling histories and futures of culture and communication on this planet. 

FEATURING WORKS BY: Joi T. Arcand, Patrick Cruz, Nikau Hindin, Cathy Mattes, Caroline Monnet, Faye Mullen, Rashaad Newsome, Kite and Devin Ronneberg, Carl Trahan, and Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu. 

“I am excited by the perspectives articulated by the artists in these five new exhibitions,” says Head Curator Timothy Long. “Their works place us in a new relationship to community and helps us hear its diverse voices.” 

Starting Saturday, June 12th the MacKenzie Art Gallery will once again be open 10 AM to 5:30 PM from Wednesday to Saturday, and 12 PM to 5:30 PM on Sundays. The Gallery will continue to remain closed Mondays and Tuesdays in order to facilitate heightened cleaning measures. 

For more information about the MacKenzie Art Gallery’s safety measures, please visit: mackenzie.art 

 

ABOUT THE MACKENZIE 

The MacKenzie Art Gallery is reinventing the role of the public art gallery, using art and experiences to shed new light on the world. 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, we bring fresh perspectives that transform how people experience history, themselves, and each other.  

The MacKenzie is located in Wascana Park, Canada’s largest urban park, and rests within Treaty Four territory, the traditional territory of the Cree, Saulteaux, Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people, and the homeland of the Métis Nation. We are generously supported by the South Saskatchewan Community Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, SaskCulture, City of Regina, University of Regina, and the Saskatchewan Arts Board. 

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