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Issue Thirty, July 2008 3 www.artscapemagazine.ca contents Editor Visual Art Beth Stewart Susan Scott – Innuit Gallery . 4 [email protected] Profiles Cover Image Beth Stewart – Boland & Benedict . 8 Here comes Sunfest! – Kane . .9 See article page 20. Visual Art Advertising Sales Tess de Hann – Connecting Threads . 10 Ashleigh Barney [email protected] Theatre Robyn Israel – Verve . 12 Publisher Christopher Ballard Theatre [email protected] Robyn Israel – Port Stanley . 14 Website July Calendar . 16 www.artscapemagazine.ca Courtesy of Londonsource.com Nicole’s Notes Nicole Laidler – Sunfest & Stratford . 20 Graphic Design Christopher Ballard Music Mushroom Studios Creative Inc. Richard Young – Home County . 24 Printing Pegg’s World Phibbs Printing Robert Pegg – Sweet . 26 Photography Heather Lynch – Miszczyk . 28 ArtSCAPE Muse - ‘Dog’ Copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, Mushroom Studios Creative Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any material published in ArtSCAPE is strictly prohibited without the written permission of the Publisher. ArtSCAPE has a circulation of 10,000 magazines published monthly. The views or opinions expressed in the information, content and/or advertisements published in ArtSCAPE are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Publisher. PO Box 52033, RPO Commissioners Road East, N6C 0A1 ArtSCAPE is published by Mushroom Studios Creative Inc. Tel: 519 432-1813 4 visual art Susan.Scott The Innuit Gallery: A passion for primitive gallery is holding its first estate sale from June 25 to July 19. The sale includes rare ivory Tupilaks (small carvings said to ward off evil spirits), sculptures, and whalebone carvings from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. And on July 23, Waddington’s, a major Toronto auction house, will conduct a one- day “road show” at the gallery. For a small fee, people will be able to have their Inuit art appraised by experts. “The fees will be donated to the Children’s Museum’s new Arctic Adventure exhibit,” says Evans. Also on tap is an exhibit of Pangnirtung Community prints that runs until July 12 and, in October, the gallery’s annual Cape Dorset show featuring prints by well-known artists from that region. These prints are sought-after because of their sophistication, and because each Faces by Adamie Ashevak, Cape Dorset, 2008, image is hand inked and limited to 50 polished black serpentine, H26 x W12 x D7. worldwide. It must be karma that this year, when This flurry of activity is not unusual for The Innuit Gallery is celebrating its 25th the gallery, which has basically carved out anniversary, it received the largest order in the market for Inuit art in London with its its history. But filling the order also needed passionate dedication to the oeuvre. The a lot of work and a little luck. Innuit Gallery was opened by Isaacs at the In just over two weeks, the gallery had suggestion of his uncle, Avrom Isaacs, who to purchase and package 400 Inukshuks owned an Inuit gallery in Toronto. Isaacs (stone structures with a vaguely human look, also used his uncle’s award-winning logo now the logo for the 2010 Olympics), with its atypical but dictionary-correct which were to be distributed at a corporate spelling of Innuit, in which the double “n” conference to global representatives. All the resembles an igloo. sculptures had to be the same size and From the start Isaacs, a fulltime teacher, price, no mean feat when they are crafted has relied on a staff of four to run the across the Arctic by different artists using gallery day-to-day. Evans and Jenkins were different stones. But with long hours and the among the original employees and when help of family on packing day, the gallery their boss, who was raising a young family met its deadline. at the time, considered selling the business “Longevity helps,” says Janet Evans, in 1993, the two bought into it. “Ann and I co-owner of The Innuit Gallery, along with convinced Howard to stay on as a third Ann Jenkins and founder Harold Isaacs. partner,” says Evans. “We said ‘You can be “The gentleman that placed the order had a silent partner’ but he knew he would at one time lived in London. He never remain silent. And we knew it too.” remembered The Innuit Gallery, googled About 90 per cent of the gallery’s art – our website, and then contacted us.” prints, paintings, sculpture, boxes, and Two other milestones are also marking jewellery – is created by Inuit in the Eastern the gallery’s anniversary. While it has sold Arctic and 10 per cent by First Nations Inuit art collections for private collectors, the artists, mainly from the Six Nations Reserve 6 visual art Susan.Scott near Brantford. The three owners purchase While some artists, especially those in the latter’s art directly from the artists, but remote communities, still utilize traditional buy Inuit work in Toronto from community materials and subjects featuring animals, co-operatives. hunting, and myths, others are The co-operatives stem from a program incorporating modern goods, technology, initiated by the Canadian government in the media, subjects, and styles into their work. late-1940s to boost the economy of the One large sculpture, Faces, by Adamie Inuit, then a nomadic, hunting people who Ashevak epitomizes this dichotomy. The were being paid “peanuts” for Artic furs. piece is carved from black stone polished to Artist James Houston, who was travelling in a fine sheen. On one side is a traditionally the North, recognized that the small, hand- simplified, flat Inuit face with the suggestion held carvings the Inuit used to tell legends of a fur hood. On the other are two three- and objectify their oral history would dimensional, abstract faces that are worthy appeal to “southern” Canadians, who were of any modern artist. starting to appreciate their cultural history. First Nations artists have also been “Houston took the carvings to Quebec and affected by contemporary influences. R. they sold like hotcakes,” explains Jenkins. Gary Miller, for example, was born on the “So the government said back you go and Six Nations Reserve. After surviving several perhaps they could be a little larger.” years in a residential school, he graduated In the late-1950s Houston launched the from the Ontario College of Art and first Inuit print show in Quebec and prints obtained a BFA from the University of proved popular too. By the 1960s the Toronto. He now lives in Peterborough and government had set up co-operatives in paints portraits and textured landscapes most Inuit communities to build on the Inuit’s using rich colours with little stylistic hint of artistic tradition. The co-ops helped train the his heritage. artists, gave them workspace, marketed The gallery reflects the changing face their art, and handled sales. While the of Inuit and First Nations art, featuring both government initially ran the co-ops, the Inuit traditional and modern works. It is this that now do so. keeps it vibrant and attracts long-term Today Inuit art has worldwide appeal. customers, whether they are collectors, There are Inuit galleries across Canada, the corporations, or everyday people U.S., and Europe. In 1970, the 1960 print purchasing something unique to celebrate The Enchanted Owl by Kenojuak Ashevak an occasion or to give when they are appeared on a Canada Post stamp and it travelling. “People don’t want to turn over a later garnered the highest price paid for gift they have given someone in another any Canadian print auctioned by country and see Made in China,” says Waddington’s. In 2006, Annie Pootoogook Jenkins. won the Sobey Award in competition with All the owners believe one role of the Place Phibbs ad here all Canadian artists. gallery is to help people appreciate Inuit This appeal has turned art into the and First Nations art. “We encourage Inuit’s major source of income, but it has people, whether they are buying or not, to also changed the very art that created it. come into the gallery just to look around Small carvings have given way to the more and learn,” says Evans. Jenkins agrees. popular large sculptures. Soapstone is often “We all love the art,” she says. “That’s why replaced by Serpentine, which has greater you’ll find we’re so enthusiastic about it.” colour variation and is more easily The Innuit Gallery is located at 201 polished. And many prints have gone from Queens Avenue. The gallery website is flat, bold, basically black, naive images to www.innuitgallery.com. ones with lots of colour, 3D modelling, and subtle shading. Susan Scott is a writer and visual artist. 8 profiles Beth.Stewart Wayne Boland Ben Benedict Sarah Kane “Blue Honeywort” by Wayne Boland, original “Missing My Dad” by Ben Benedict, oil on “Queen of Diamonds” (detail) by Sarah Kane, design, 669 pieces, 16 inches in diameter. canvas, 48 x 48 inches, 2005. acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches, 2008. Wayne Boland has 25 years of Ben Benedict is well known as a feature Sarah Kane draws with graphite and experience as a stained glass artist. During writer and arts columnist for The Londoner. paints with acrylic. She enjoys both equally this time he has produced windows, He is also a tireless arts advocate and a and for different reasons: graphite for its transoms, doors, and panels for homes and visual artist in his own right. precision and its ability to “bring attention to churches. As a painter, Benedict works in oils and detail,” and acrylic paint for its freedom. “I Over the past 14 years he has mixed media. He also sculpts using found couldn’t work in just one medium,” says narrowed his focus to lamps, each of which objects.

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