Watrous and Area Arts Council

Propagation explores the connections between plants, food, land, and people. Madeleine Greenway deftly combines drawing and printmaking to create lush portraits and still lives; each work treated with the same attention to detail manifesting as a character study for plants, family, and food. Madeleine states: "This series expresses gratitude to the matriarchal knowledge that has enabled me to provide for my family, as well as connect to plants, food, land, and people. While my inner dialogue is full of anxiety and sadness, the garden, the kitchen, and the studio give me reprieve from these thoughts. Most of the women in my family experience chronic mental or physical illness. But they were not joyless, or weak. Images of them in the garden show strong, happy, and proud women. This is the part of my family history I want to celebrate... The aim is this: to generate longing for a more intimate relationship with food, to invite the audience to the garden as a source of joy and respite, and to share a simple message of gratitude and the difference that care can make."

These series of works are an excerpt from a previous exhibition 'TADHANA'. These works explore the views as newcomer’s common concept that "fate brought us here" and the most common Filipino outlook of "bahala na" / "come what may" attitude which is prevalent to anyone. However, this attitude is not only a visible trait for newcomer alone, but these are also actually a day-to-day outlook of everyone just varying on expression and terms. The exhibition aims to finds parallels within culture to create better understanding of each and everyone’s' disposition in life. These bodies of work centres on the ideas of 'fate' while relating it to the quest for hierarchy of the modern society. As we live in a time that is always hungry for accomplishment, results and evidence of success, Patrick wants to elaborate the significance of fate thru commentaries using characters of reimagined folklore of his culture, patterns and juxtaposed imagery in order to give new meaning on how fate will lead us to one’s self discovery and freedom. Patrick Fernandez is a contemporary visual artist who lives and works in Regina, Saskatchewan. A native of Pangasinan, Philippines, his colourful paintings use symbolism and reimagined folklore imagery as a means of storytelling. His works are based on personal experiences that deal with displacement and adaptation, using circumstances as turning points for growth.

Labours of Love, Under Lamplight is an exhibition featuring art from Indigenous artists in Saskatchewan, showcasing a diverse array of experiences and interpretations of Indigenous Art. The exhibition celebrates the various practices in Indigenous art, ranging from contemporary aesthetics and materials to those rooted in familial traditions. In today's fast-paced world, the dedication and labour of love invested in art can be easily overlooked. The concept of "Labour of love" in art emphasises the extensive labour involved in the creation process, often infused with familial stories, teachings, and practices passed down through generations. These expressions of love for the practice and culture are condensed into the final artworks, representing hours of devotion and labour. We invite viewers to turn the lamplight on, consider the time and knowledge behind each piece as the artists skilfully worked with familiar and lesser-known materials, revived from their cultural heritage or passed down through mentorship within the art community. For many Indigenous artists, their love for their culture serves as a significant motivation in their artistic journey, enriching the contemporary art scene with an inherent connection to their roots. This exhibition is curated by Holly Aubichon from recent acquisitions to the SK Arts Permanent collection and features the following artists: Stacey Fayant, Marcy Friesen, Sally Milne, Brandon Roy, Cherelle Williams, Audra Blais-Boulianne, Maureen Ledoux, Russel Iron, Elaine McArthur, and Jordy Ironstar.

Omentum is a series of 10 paintings that touch on several of the major experiences faced by Indigenous people in this country within recent memory. These paintings, influenced by the works of both Norval Morrisseau and also Pablo Picasso, speak to some of the major struggles and triumphs that are part of our everyday life as Indigenous people, such as the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Cultural Appropriation, the legacy of Residential Schools, the Rise and Honour of the Two-Spirited in the LGBTQ, the Return of Traditional Indigenous Tattooing, the Rise in Systemic Racism Online, and, of course, the Murder of Colten Boushie. John Brady McDonald is a Nehiyawak-Métis writer, artist, historian, musician, playwright, actor and activist born and raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. He is from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation and the Mistawasis Nehiyawak. The great-great-great grandson of Chief Mistawasis of the Plains Cree, as well as the grandson of famed Métis leader Jim Brady, John’s writings and artwork have been displayed in various publications, private and permanent collections and galleries around the world, including the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

The Burden of Street brings together paintings that depict contradictory compositions to provide distinct visual experiences while exploring the complexities of our surrounding built environment. The element of the wall plays a significant role in this body of work as public sites for dwellers to engage with the political and social fabric of society. These paintings aim to explore the dichotomy of walls as both tools of control and platforms for resistance. They delve into how authorities use these walls to impose their ideologies and values upon the people, while also emphasizing the agency of dissidents who transform these spaces into channels of protest and expression. A diverse range of artistic techniques and mediums, including collage, painting, drawing, and graffiti, are used to create satirical and ironic situations that reference the deep dualities, disparities, and hypocrisies inherent in ruling systems. Iranian born visual artist, Mohadese Movahed focuses on painting in her studio practice. She graduated with a Bachelor of painting degree from the University of Science and Culture (USC) in Tehran and an MFA from the University of Regina, SK, Canada in 2020. Currently based in Vancouver, Movahed has exhibited her work nationally, internationally and is a recipient of Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation.

This body of work highlights the diversity, beauty, importance and plight of northern Saskatchewan muskegs, land that is being threatened with strip mining. Peat mining involves draining the water out of the muskeg then mulch the cover vegetation (sundews, pitcher plants, Labrador tea, black spruce, birch, willows, alders, cranberries, bunchberries, cloudberries, bog laurel, leatherleaf, and dozens of species of mosses). Muskegs/peatlands are very old landscapes, it takes 10 years for one centimeter of peat to form. It is important to Vanessa’s culture, and to the survival of traditions and knowledge to keep wild areas intact and undisturbed by resource extraction. Many people are unfamiliar with these areas, and this is Vanessa’s way of bringing the muskeg to the public. Vanessa is a Canadian artist of Woodlands Cree and Norwegian ancestry. She is a member of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band and her community is nemepith sipihk (Sucker River). She holds her Bachelor of Arts with distinction from the University of Saskatchewan. Vanessa is interested in utilizing memory, tradition and themes of nature in her work. Land conservation and land sovereignty are at the heart of her work, with her painting and beadwork focusing on the richness of the land, and in turn, the threats to the land.