The summer edition of Artist in the Window is in full swing at YA@W
The official summer version of the Artist in the Window is now in full swing. You can interact with demonstrating artists behind the window at Yukon Artists at Work (YA@W) Wednesday to Friday, 11-2, and see their work in the window almost anytime.
When COVID-19 struck and galleries in Whitehorse closed their doors, the YA@W followed suit. However, the self-supporting organization still had to pay their rent and fixed costs. They began demonstrating their artwork in the gallery’s front windows, so as to continue bringing their artistic visions to the Yukon public, drawing on their members’ volunteer efforts to do so. At least, they figured, people could call the artist on the window, and they could talk on the phone.
The group also drew on this newly adaptive practice to put together an Arts Fund application for supported window residencies, joining forces with Music Yukon to provide the visual arts component of Arts in the Park. The gallery tunes in to the Arts in the Park performances, which are broadcast over radio station CJUC, and plays it over a speaker outside.
Marie-Hélène Comeau started the summer off with her paintings of houses that have disappeared from downtown Whitehorse, printing pictures of them from Google Maps to elicit memories visitors might want to share, to inform her paintings. This work will be part of a show called Stories, postponed by COVID-19, which Comeau will present at the YA@W gallery this November.
Leslie Leong followed her, building a dress out of milk jugs in the tent in YA@W’s yard, with an exhibit of her creations in upcycled computer parts and other materials, including plastics. Leong champions the use of recycled materials in her ingenious creations, and co-coordinates the annual re:design fair.
July 17 is your last day to see Lillian Loponen working on a series of digital portrait studies in the window. Loponen is best known for her landscapes in watercolour and acrylic, but this is a chance to see some of her 20-year experience in technologically-based image making. You will see some of the works in the window over the weekend.
Dennis Shorty will come in from Ross River, beginning his demonstration of copper and antler jewelry making on July 22.
Amber Church, a previous YA@W member, draws on science and policy to make works that both celebrate Canada’s natural beauty and express concern for the imminent risks facing its ecosystems through ink, acrylic and other media on canvas, July 29-31.
After her, Dee Bailey will be drawing from the work she began when the pandemic started, working with whimsical imagery in air dry, modelling, and polymer clay, starting August 5. She plans to set up a GoPro camera to create time lapse video of her pieces.
Martha Jane Ritchie will join us from Haines Junction August 12-14, demonstrating block printing. She often uses her prints in experimental ways, folding them into birds in flight, for example. It will be interesting to see the project she brings to the window.
For each artist, their work is installed by the Tuesday, and comes down on the following Monday, so if you’d like to see it over the weekend, you can peek in the window
The Arts Fund-supported Artist in the Window project will continue with a new artist each week until September 4.
The Yukon Artists @ Work Gallery is open through the summer Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.. We are grateful for the support of Arts Fund and Music Yukon in presenting this program.
In addition to Wednesday to Friday on-site demonstration, at 6:30 p.m. each Thursday the window artist offers an artist talk, broadcast over Zoom. Sign up in person at YA@W, call 393 4848, or email [email protected]. Provide a question for the artist, and five minutes before the artist talk, you will be sent the link to join. You can chill at home, listen and work on your own art, treating it as an entertaining podcast. You can also find the interviews in video form posted via Youtube on Facebook.
