Allan Toews
Thu. February 29th 2024 - Sat. March 23rd 2024 Wednesday 12:00pm - 4:00pm
Thursday 12:00pm - 4:00pm
Saturday 12:00pm - 4:00pm
I am a multidisciplinary artist based in Lekuwgen speaking territory.
My art practice over the years has been prolific, resulting in a substantial and varied body of work. My artistic life began after graduating from the Lionel Fitzgerald School of Art, University of Manitoba in 1972. Winnipeg was where I maintained studios and nurtured my art making until moving to Victoria in 2004. During my time there I was a board member of CARFAC Manitoba, who’s mandate was to improve the lot of the working professional artist. I taught drawing at the Winnipeg Art Gallery Studio Programs and benefited from several Manitoba Arts Council grants, as well as having work in their Art Bank Collection. I must add that I did spend two years in Victoria, 1987-88, as a member of Xchanges Gallery & Studios, curating shows and maintaining a studio before returning to Winnipeg. My work was exhibited in both cities, solo and group.
My work in Victoria has fluctuated between painting, drawing and collage. More recently I have persisted with collage which has satisfied my need
for more spontaneity and speed in making art. Despite collage having had longevity in art history it still has the power startle the viewer and see things in a new context. The newspaper print collages reflect my summer residency at the Wallace Stegner House in Eastend Saskatchewan in 2016, located in the Cypress Hills. The more recent collages have become sharper, jagged and spontaneous. They are of necessity created in one long session, so as not to “ lose the thread “, one long action, the end result being one that could not have happened in steps. There is a structural and architectural core in all of these, containing within portals and entrances that lead in inner places of living well or not living well. A loop process is happening here, from observation , taking a photograph, printing it, cutting it up, and reassembling it in a new way. This has actually contributed to how I see things, photographed, developed, cut up , and rearranged . “ Life on the cutting edge “
My art practice over the years has been prolific, resulting in a substantial and varied body of work. My artistic life began after graduating from the Lionel Fitzgerald School of Art, University of Manitoba in 1972. Winnipeg was where I maintained studios and nurtured my art making until moving to Victoria in 2004. During my time there I was a board member of CARFAC Manitoba, who’s mandate was to improve the lot of the working professional artist. I taught drawing at the Winnipeg Art Gallery Studio Programs and benefited from several Manitoba Arts Council grants, as well as having work in their Art Bank Collection. I must add that I did spend two years in Victoria, 1987-88, as a member of Xchanges Gallery & Studios, curating shows and maintaining a studio before returning to Winnipeg. My work was exhibited in both cities, solo and group.
My work in Victoria has fluctuated between painting, drawing and collage. More recently I have persisted with collage which has satisfied my need
for more spontaneity and speed in making art. Despite collage having had longevity in art history it still has the power startle the viewer and see things in a new context. The newspaper print collages reflect my summer residency at the Wallace Stegner House in Eastend Saskatchewan in 2016, located in the Cypress Hills. The more recent collages have become sharper, jagged and spontaneous. They are of necessity created in one long session, so as not to “ lose the thread “, one long action, the end result being one that could not have happened in steps. There is a structural and architectural core in all of these, containing within portals and entrances that lead in inner places of living well or not living well. A loop process is happening here, from observation , taking a photograph, printing it, cutting it up, and reassembling it in a new way. This has actually contributed to how I see things, photographed, developed, cut up , and rearranged . “ Life on the cutting edge “