Celebrating Storytelling Through Art in Manitoba

By: ArtBank / 02 April 2024

On the left is a drawing of a person with a bow and arrow, another person and a dog with their heads in water and a third person on a two-headed dog. On the right is white text on a brown background with the name of the exhibition and the dates.
Victoria Mamnguqsualuk, Legend of the Two-Headed Dog (1994)

A new exhibition featuring 16 engaging works of art from the Canada Council Art Bank collection has started its 10-month tour across Manitoba.

Stories We Tell approaches storytelling as a part of our everyday lives—the stories created when we listen to, learn from and share our history and culture, both personal and collective, with friends and relatives.  

The exhibition also explores the human desire to share stories and the different ways artists—whether from ancestors or through myths—experience and create stories, either by re-telling history or recounting new stories from their own experience.  

Featured artists include Pitseolak Ashoona, Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge, Carolina Hernandez-Hernandez, Jonathan Hobin, Robert Houle, Pedro Isztin, Nomi Kaplan, Herzl Kashetsky, Victoria Mamnguqsualuk, Shawna McLeod, Kim Moodie, William Noah, Pudlo Pudlat, Jana Sasaki, Noboru Sawai and Diana Thorneycroft.  

Among the works of art featured is Mother Goose by Jonathan Hobin, which evokes childhood imagery and fables with a dark twist as a commentary on standards ingrained in societal norms since childhood.

A child holding a goose on their lap with their gloved hand around the bird's neck. There are books everywhere and a mannequin in the background.Jonathan Hobin, Mother Goose (2009)

In LFU 1, by Shawna McLeod, tattoo imagery and decorative elements are visible, along with self-portraiture, cut-outs, and erased lines. McLeod shows the story of the creation of the artwork, imagining and re-thinking her doodles as she creates them.

A drawing with tattoo imagery and decorative elements, along with self-portraiture, cut-outs, and erased lines. Shawna McLeod, LFU 1 (2005)

Coordinated in collaboration with the Manitoba Arts Network, the exhibit looks to give rural communities across the province greater access to contemporary visual art and will make stops in:

1. Killarney, at the Killarney Turtle Mountain Arts Council, in April 2024

2. Gimli, at the New Iceland Heritage Museum, in May / June 2024

3. Boissevain, at the International Peace Garden, in July 2024

4. McCreary, at the McCreary District Library, in August / September 2024

5. St. Andrews, at the St. Andrews Heritage Centre, in October 2024

6. The Pas, at the Pas Campus of the University College of the North in November and December 2024

7. Thompson, at the Thompson Campus of the University College of the North in January and February 2025

Can’t attend in person? Be sure to check out the other works of art included in Stories We Tell online at artbank.ca

 

A woman with long brown hair, bangs and glasses wearing a black buttoned up sweater and grey plaid pants. 

About the Curator: Taylor Simard
Taylor Simard is an Ottawa-based researcher and interpreter currently completing her Master of Art and Architectural History at Carleton University, on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation. She is interested in the use of narrative within visual culture, and her current research explores visual storytelling alongside theories of Critical Fabulation and Artistic Historiography. Taylor was invited to guest curate as a practicum placement toward the completion of her undergraduate degree.

back to top