18/150: Alex Janvier -The Retrospective

Contemporary artist Alex Janvier was influenced by painters Wassily Kandinsky (Russian) and Paul Klee (Swiss) but his ultimate style is a unique Canadian combination of Indigenous and modern art. A retrospective of his career is on exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada. (Above: Untitled, 1986, acrylic on canvas, 165.1 × 266.7 cm)

Janvier is also a master of circle art, in his paintings and most recently in this remarkable mosaic called Tsa Tsa Ke K’e (Iron Foot Place). Installed in the floor of Edmonton’s Rogers Place, it is 45 feet in diameter and made of nearly one million glass tiles. (Below: Unveiling ceremony)

Of Denesuline and Saulteaux descent, Alexandre Simeon Janvier was born in 1935 on the Le Goff Reserve in Alberta, where he had a traditional upbringing in the Dene language. At 8, he went to Blue Quills Indian Residential School, where he was given art materials for the first time. He is often referred to as the first Aboriginal modernist artist in Canada.



Read the full article here: https://canadianartjunkie.com/2017/04/06/18150-alex-janvier-the-retrospective/