The Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery (MJMAG) opened three new exhibitions on Feb. 2, including work by Dana Claxton from the MJMAG's Permanent Collection, Prairie Dreaming: Folk, Funk, and Their Connections, and Illuminated Collapse by Jude Griebel.
Griebel was in Moose Jaw for the occasion, chatting with gallery-goers about his artist's journey and the thought process behind his provocative, doomsdayish, anthropomorphized landscape sculptures. He gave an Artist's Talk with an accompanying slide show in the MJMAG Theatre for the evening.
Jennifer McRorie, the MJMAG's director and curator, welcomed guests to the opening and introduced each exhibition.
"Illuminated Collapse by Jude Griebel presents a series of detailed dioramas merging figure and ground to highlight human connection to the surrounding world," McRorie said. "In these sculptures, unsettling scenes unfold on the surface of circular bases. Anthropomorphic landscapes are engaged in dramatic acts of self-consumption and destruction, projecting a metaphorical end-of-times narrative."
Griebel explained that he is influenced by historical art integrating the human body into owned or possessed landscapes, such as the works of Athanasius Kircher and Wenceslas Hollar. However, those reflections are more flattering than what Griebel sees: He collects inspirations from factory farms and abattoirs, heaps of detritus and waste accumulated in city and countryside alike, and the extraordinary transformations that modern machinery and engineering can effect on the very form of the planet's surface.
"When I moved away from the Prairies and began living in New York City, I started looking at the landscape in a much broader scale, in terms of vast consumption and products being moved in from various parts of the world and looking at the tides of trash going onto the street," Griebel said. "Then, digging back into the history of humans relating to the landscape in various imaginative ways, as well."
Griebel is an internationally acclaimed sculptures whose exhibitions have been shown across North America. Illuminated Collapse is on display at the MJMAG until May 5.
More information on Griebel's many inspirations, collections, and exhibitions is available from his website at www.judegriebel.com.
Dana Claxton exhibition
"The exhibition 'Dana Claxton' features two works by the artist from the (MJMAG) Permanent Collection," McRorie said. "A video installation titled Sitting Bull and the Moose Jaw Sioux, and a new acquisition to the collection — a photographic triptych called Cabri Lake 1, 2, 3. The work of Hunkpapa Lakota artist Dana Claxton is critically acclaimed, being based in film, video, photography, single-, multi-channel video installation, and performance art. Her practice is known for its investigation of Indigenous beauty, the body, the sociopolitical, and the spiritual."
The Dana Claxton exhibition is sponsored by Temple Gardens Hotel & Spa and Sparrow Hawk Developments. The sponsorship will also support an upcoming Artist's Talk featuring Dana Claxton and Dr. Claire Thomson, the Lakota historian who guest curated MJMAG exhibition Wakšúpi: Lakota Beadwork.
Wakšúpi: Lakota Beadwork remains on display in the Norma Lang Gallery until May 5.
Prairie Dreaming: Folk, Funk, and Their Connections
"The exhibition Prairie Dreaming features works by Prairie artists in our Permanent Collection to explore the shared motivations and inspiration of folk artists and artists such as Vic Cicansky, Joe Fafard, Russ Yuristy, and David Thauberger," McRorie explained. "Featured in our lobby exhibition space, this exhibit showcases many new acquisitions to the Collection, thanks to donations from collectors."
Prairie Dreaming also features artists like David Gilhooly, Richard Gorenko, Ann Harbuz, Jerry Kaiser, Molly Lenhardt, Jahan Maka, and more. It will be on display at the MJMAG until May 5.
Stay tuned to www.MJMAG.ca and to the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery's social media channels for information on upcoming exhibitions and for the announcement of the date of the Artist's Talk with Dana Claxton and Dr. Claire Thomson.
