Norval Morrisseau artwork to be featured in two exhibitions this fall in Manitoba
By Rick Garrick
WINNIPEG — Norval Morrisseau’s artwork will be featured this fall in two separate exhibitions, at the Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery and the Buhler Gallery, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery, located at 203-290 McDermot Ave., is holding its exhibition from Sept. 11-Oct. 31 while the Buhler Gallery, located in the St. Boniface Hospital at 409 Tache Ave., is holding its exhibition from Oct. 1-Dec 13.
“There is a huge array of works they are touring right now,” says Daina Warren, director of the Urban Shaman: Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery. “I tried to be a bit more edgier with it so I picked some of the ones that were really kind of more sexualized or eroticized as well as really kind of fun, kind of goofy pieces, but also some really great ones from his past as well that people really know him for.”
Warren says the exhibition also includes some of Morrisseau’s personal effects, including a headdress, leather jacket and little drum.
“So we are probably going to try to put those three items together,” Warren says. “But they are mostly paintings; there’s a couple of drawings and there’s a letter he wrote to his sister. There are also some of the paintings done on buckskin or leatherwork, so we’re trying to find a way to show a wide spectrum of his work.”
Warren says people are “really excited” about the exhibitions.
“I never met the artist but I’ve heard so many amazing stories about him,” Warren says. “I’m really excited to be able to do this and it feels like a really monumental show for me.”
Warren says Special Miskwaabik Animiiki/Copper Thunderbird tea gatherings are scheduled for the first three Saturdays of the exhibition from 2-4 p.m.
“There will be a 20-person sign up list so people are going to have to contact us ahead of time,” Warren says.
Leona Herzog, director/curator of the Buhler Gallery, says there were more than 135 pieces for the two galleries to choose from in the tour, which was organized by Westerkirk Works of Art in Toronto.
“We both went through and selected our wish list and there were only a couple of conflicts, so we just agreed amongst us which would be better to go where,” Herzog says, noting she selected pieces featuring spirits and shamanism, cultures, environment and ecosystems, friends and family, and the animal world. “I tried to get quite a large cross-section of work he did to kind of paint a full portrait. People are very excited — we have a lot of people here who are looking forward to seeing his work and having that much on display in one place.”
Herzog says she plans to feature an unfinished portrait along with one of Morrisseau’s paintbrushes in the exhibition.
“I personally find it very interesting to see how artists work, how they apply paint to canvas,” Herzog says. “I’m going to place the paintbrush quite close to where the unfinished piece is so people can see an object he’s actually handled.”
Herzog says it is “very important” to exhibit Morrisseau’s artwork in the Buhler Gallery, noting the St. Boniface Hospital is a tertiary care facility with patients from across Manitoba, northwestern Ontario, and parts of Saskatchewan.
“It’s important to bring work that has application to everybody,” Herzog says. “It’s good for our staff, our patients, our visitors.”
Morrisseau was born and raised in Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek on the east side of Lake Nipigon.