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Living Pictures from the Land explores connections between tableau vivants and the idyllic watercolour paintings of Walter J. Phillips, drawing further parallels with works by contemporary artists Edward Burtynsky, Simon Hughes, Sarah Anne Johnson, Holly King, and Shelley Niro.

“Pure landscapes are weather pictures, pictures of light, records of the day,” wrote Phillips in his unpublished manuscript.

Tableau characteristics are embodied by the artist in the careful and seemingly innocent depiction of landscapes through the placement of a canoe on a lake, a totem among the trees, or a young child gazing upon a picturesque scene. Ingrained in our national consciousness, these views reinforce white settler colonial aspirations of a Canadian utopia. Like tableau vivants, Phillips’ works straddle the space between the real and the imaginary.   

Presented alongside contemporary photography, print, and painting, the exhibition investigates the artistic desire for a true and real image, highlighting instead the tensions that surface between constructed binaries of fact and fiction, document and myth, past and future. In this way, the exhibition questions constructions of truth on a land rife with intertwined histories.   

Participating Artists: Walter J. Phillips, Edward Burtynsky, Simon Hughes, Sarah Anne Johnson, Holly King, and Shelley Niro

Plan Your Visit
WAG-Qaumajuq recognizes that land acknowledgements are part of an ongoing dialogue with Indigenous Nations, and we are grateful to live and work on these lands and waters. Institutionally, WAG-Qaumajuq is committed to acknowledging our colonial history and we are actively working to interrogate the Gallery’s colonial ways of being.

WAG-Qaumajuq is LEED certified.

WAG - Winnipeg Art Gallery Outline
Winnipeg Art Gallery—Qaumajuq
300 Memorial Blvd
Winnipeg, MB
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