Anishinaabek art show opens this Friday at Manitoulin Hotel and Conference Centre
LITTLE CURRENT— An outstanding survey of contemporary art from artists living on or form Manitoulin Island will open at open at the Manitoulin Hotel and Conference Centre in Little Current on Friday, August 7 at 10 am. The exhibition is a collaborative curated project which received valuable assistance from the Wallace and Fielding Families, Fisher Wavy Inc., Pioneer Construction, Ojibwe Cultural Foundation, Wiikwemkoong Art Gallery, Wikwemikong Development Commission; Wikwemikong Board of Education and the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives in Brampton.
“It’s going to be a great show,” Wiikwemikoong Art Gallery Curator Mike Cywink told The Expositor. “We have put the show together pretty quickly, which has been challenging, but we have some amazing artists lined up. This is a first (art show) for the hotel, but we are hoping that it will become an annual event.”
The exhibition’s curatorial team comprises of Nikki Manitowabi, Mike Cywink, Mark Seabrook, Anne Benness (former board member of The Art Gallery of Sudbury) and Tom Smart. It features the work of 30 artists, almost all of whom are still living and working. Other artists who have recently passed are also included in the exhibition to show some of the stylistic and thematic roots of the contemporary art.
The exhibition comprises of paintings, drawings, prints and other forms of art made by artists who currently live and work on Manitoulin Island, or were born on the Island or on the mainland surrounding it.
“The purpose of the exhibition is to show and interpret the range of artistic expression by these artists. The work deals with the land and people associated with Manitoulin Island,” states a press release. “Other themes relate to recent history, and to the distant past, the time before contact was made with Europeans, and to the ancient time described in the creation legend.”
The exhibition will be on display at the Manitoulin Hotel and Conference Centre from Friday, August 7 through Monday, August 17. It will then tour to venues in Northern Ontario and to the Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives in Brampton where it will be on view from January through April 2016.
