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Janvier set to be featured at National Gallery of Canada

Alex Janvier, one of Canada's most acclaimed contemporary painters, is set to have a massive collection of his artwork displayed at the National Gallery of Canada. The exhibition, which will run from Nov.
Cold Lake First Nations artist Alex Janvier will have his work featured in the National Gallery of Canada later this year.
Cold Lake First Nations artist Alex Janvier will have his work featured in the National Gallery of Canada later this year.

Alex Janvier, one of Canada's most acclaimed contemporary painters, is set to have a massive collection of his artwork displayed at the National Gallery of Canada.

The exhibition, which will run from Nov. 10, 2016 to March 26, 2017, will showcase more than 75 of Janvier's most impressive works from the early years of his career in the 1960s all the way up to present day.

“I'm surprised that I would get a show in my lifetime, especially at the National Gallery of Canada,” said Janvier. “A lot of artists don't ever make it there. It is an honour.”

Curator Greg Hill came and collected the artwork from Janvier in February, acquiring a variety of pieces for the exhibit including Big Fish Waters (L'ohwa 'chok Touwah '), painted in 1982.

“It was all there choice. The selection was wide spread. They had so many to chose from,” said Janvier, noting he had no influence on the paintings selected.

Artwork featured in the presentation will be used to “celebrate Janvier's unique approach,” according to the National Gallery. Works on paper, canvas and linen all represent a style that was formed by Janvier's diverse background.

“His work is informed by his cultural and spiritual heritage as well as the history of modernist abstract painting,” states the biography on the National Gallery of Canada site.

Janvier was born in 1935 on the Le Goff Reserve of the Cold Lake First Nations. When he was eight-years-old he was sent to the Blue Quills Residential School. By the time he had hit the age of 14 his artistic abilities had been noticed and he was sent to Edmonton for private tutoring sessions with Karl Altenberg, a professor at the University of Alberta. Janvier spent four summers working under Altenberg and credits the teacher as being a major influence in his career.

“I got it straight from this man; what art should be and what I should know about it. It turned out to be the real blessing in my life,” said Janvier. “He taught me a lot of things about the art in Europe. They were very advanced in Europe at that time.

According to Janvier, in the early 1950s, while everyone in Alberta was busy painting prairie landscapes and mountain rages, he was crafting his unique, abstract style.

“I saw another world. Real art,” said Janvier. “I could see how designs go out of the picture and come back. Everything would flow through the picture.”

His First Nations background, which saw art created in a variety of ways, such as porcupine quill work, is something he also credits to help him develop his one-of-a-kind style of painting.

“I have been an artist all of my life, right from Indian residential school to now,” said Janvier.

The accolades have been steady for the Cold Lake native. In 1992 he was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts. In 2007 he was made a member of the Order of Canada and one year later received the Governor General's Award for Visual and Media Arts.

This past year a piece of his work titled Iron Foot Place (Tsa Tsa Ke K'e) was chosen to be a major piece of an installation at the Rogers Arena in Edmonton. Work is underway on manufacturing a 45-foot diameter circle mosaic of the piece, which is set to be unveiled to the public this August.

“They are going to walk all over my art,” said Janvier, with a chuckle. “I am going in March to check out how it is coming along.”

While many honours have come his way over the course of his career, Janvier seems most proud of the exhibit he will soon have at the National Gallery.

“I have been very active all of my life in art. This kind of caps it. It is a long time coming,” said Janvier.

“I was lucky. I just happened to be standing in the right place at the right time.”

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