Person
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19-
Person
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1946-
Canadian artist John Taylor was born on Vancouver Island, BC on July 2, 1946. Taylor majored in media studies photography at Ryerson University, Toronto, ON. John Taylor’s “photographic focus is architecture – spaces of people and human interaction. Taylor divides his work into two main categories, conceptual images which describe new ways of perceiving existing spaces and auto-biographical work which places personal experience into symbolic context”. Taylor’s artwork has appeared in numerous exhibitions within Canada and internationally and he has been the recipient of various awards, including being inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2015.
Taylor was involved in the creation of Mount Allison University’s accredited BFA photography program. Taylor has also taught and been a guest artist at post-secondary institutions and organizations within both Canada and the United States during the span of his career, including, but not limited to, Rice University (Houston, TX), Texas School for the Deaf (Austin, TX), University of Texas at Austin, Western Academy of Photography (Victoria, BC), and Victoria College of Art (Victoria, BC).
John and his wife Vijaya co-founded Eclectic Gallery in Victoria, BC, which they ran from 2008 until they sold the business in 2017. Eclectic Gallery focused on contemporary art and represented over 100 individual artists. John and Vijaya’s association with artist Anthony Thorn resulted in several exhibitions of his work at Eclectic Gallery during their time operating the gallery.
Person
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1926-2006
Antonio (Tony) Tascona was born in Saint Boniface, Manitoba in 1926. He studied at the Winnipeg School of Art (1948-50) and the School of Fine Art at the University of Manitoba (1950-53).
Tascona struggled to establish himself financially and to support his family by working as an electroplating technician. He managed to develop his artistic abilities and use work-day experiences to launch a unique series of artwork in aluminum and, after 1971 he was successful enough to devote himself to art full time.
His first one man show was in 1958 at the University of Winnipeg. Since then his work has been exhibited at art galleries all across Canada. Tascona was honored many times for his contributions to the visual arts. In 1970, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada awarded him an Arts Medal. There were numerous monetary grants from the Canada Council and the Manitoba Arts Council, a Canadian Silver Jubilee Medal was granted in 1977, and the Academia Italia Del Arti e Del Lavoro awarded him a Gold Medal in 1980. The University of Winnipeg gave him an LLD. (Honorary) in 1994 and in 1996 he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
Tascona was not dependant on commercial art galleries to promote his work. Rather, Tascona was at once both an artist and a businessman and his archival collections comprehensively document this aspect of his career.
Tascona won many commissions for his work. They include: murals, stabiles, sculptures, prints and paintings for buildings across Canada. Some of his major works can be seen at the Manitoba Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg, Saint Boniface Hospital (painting and stabiles), the Winnipeg Centennial Library, the Manitoba Law Courts Building, and the Windsor Public Library.
In 2000 and 2001, he sponsored the Tony Tascona Bursary at the University of Winnipeg to a student studying Canadian Art History.
Tascona died in Winnipeg in May 2006. His work is collected throughout Canada, the United States and Japan by private collectors, corporations and private and public galleries
Person
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1922–1999
Anne Howard Szumigalski (nee Davis) was born to parents Mary Winder Allen and Herbert Edward Davis on January 3, 1922 in London, England. She had four sisters and two brothers. During the war Anne served as an interpreter and welfare officer with the British Red Cross Civilian Relief organization and in 1951 Anne and her husband, Jan Waclaw Szumigalski, moved to Canada and to Saskatoon in 1956, where they raised four children.
In Saskatoon Anne was instrumental in the founding of both the Saskatchewan Writer's Guild and the literary journal Grain but also found time to mentor many young poets.
Szumigalski won awards for her writing including: The Saskatchewan Poetry Prize, Saskatchewan Senior Arts Award, the Okanagan Short Story Award, and in 1995 Szumigalski was awarded the Governor General's Award for Poetry for Voice which featured paintings by Marie Elyse St George. In 1989 she was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit and the Lifetime Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1990.
Szumigalski wrote fifteen books of poetry and a memoir, The Voice, the Word, the Text (1990) as well as Z, a play about the Holocaust. Her poetry collections include Woman Reading in Bath (1974), A Game of Angels (1980) and Rapture of the Deep (1991). She also produced four voice poems for the CBC.
Anne Szumigalski died in 1999 and a final posthumous book, A Woman Clothed in Words, edited by her literary executor Mark Abley, appeared in 2012.Grain has also established the annual Anne Szumigalski Editor's Prize which is awarded in her memory.
Person
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19-
Person
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19-
Person
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1917-1990
Frank G. Swanson was born on April 11th, 1917 in Edmonton, Alberta. Frank Swanson was a correspondent for Southam News Service beginning 1955. He was also Associate Editor for the Ottawa Citizen in 1975. Frank Swanson passed away March 6th, 1990 at the age of 72.
Corporate body
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1979-2005
The Susan Whitney Gallery opened its doors in November 1979. In addition to Susan Whitney, at the time of its founding there were four other shareholders: Victor Cicansky, Joe Fafard, Jill Rawlinson, and Richard Spafford. Whitney became the sole shareholder in the late 1980s.
The mandate of this commercial art gallery was to exhibit and sell contemporary art, including painting, sculpture, tapestry, photography, and furniture, as well as Canadian folk art. A primary strength of the gallery was Saskatchewan artists.
In 1980 Whitney mounted the first of the Made in Saskatchewan exhibitions. The show was an unusual undertaking for a commercial gallery at the time. The show “included Doukhobor, Mennonite, Hutterite, Ukrainian, and French-Canadian furniture, rugs, quilts, carvings, clothing, paintings, samplers and ceramics. For most of its viewers, it was a first introduction to the vibrant material culture of the province’s ethnic heritage”.
This vibrant and nationally acclaimed commercial gallery participated in a number of international art fairs. Many of Saskatchewan’s most notable artists - Joe Fafard, David Thauberger, Victor Cicansky, Donna Kriekle and Wilf Perreault were represented by this gallery over the course of its twenty-six year history.
The Susan Whitney Gallery changed hands in 2005 and became the Nouveau Gallery.