Images clockwise from left: Nahed Mansour. Photo: Preety Sivakumar; a rendering of the Polygon Gallery building; Adrian Stimson’s Event II (2015), now in the collection of the British Museum.
Our editors’ weekly roundup of Canadian art news.
Abstract painter Rita Letendre has been appointed to the Order of Ontario by the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. Letendre, who was profiled by art historian Adam Lauder in the Winter 2016 issue of Canadian Art, is closely linked with the Automatistes in Quebec, and especially known for her influential mural projects in the 1960s and ’70s.
After it was shown in an exhibition dedicated to Indigenous contemporary art from Saskatchewan produced by Creative Saskatchewan and art broker C.S. Redlick this past summer, a painting by Adrian Stimson was purchased by officials from the British Museum, making Stimson the first contemporary Saskatchewan artist to be included in the museum’s collection. The painting, Event II, depicts bison and an oil pump.
The South Asian Visual Arts Centre (SAVAC) has appointed Nahed Mansour to the position of programming coordinator. Mansour joins the organization after the departure of artistic director Sharlene Bamboat. Mansour previously directed the Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts in Toronto.
The new Polygon Gallery’s official ground-breaking ceremony will take place in North Vancouver on Monday morning. A major gift will be revealed at the ceremony. The new gallery, which gives a new name and waterfront building to Vancouver’s long-established photography and media-arts centre Presentation House Gallery, is slated to open at the beginning of 2017.
