Marvel in the Ordinary

Major Retrospective Exhibition of Audain Prize Recipient Gathie Falk Enchants Visitors at Whistler’s Audain Art Museum

01.03.24

In 2013, renowned multidisciplinary artist Gathie Falk was awarded the Audain Prize for her significant contributions to the Canadian art landscape. Now, ten years later, a selection of the artist’s extensive oeuvre is travelling the nation as part of Gathie Falk: Revelations, a major exhibition organized and circulated by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and curated by the institution’s Executive Director and Chief Curator, Sarah Milroy.

Revelations, which recently opened at the Audain Art Museum in Whistler, BC, presents an exceptional opportunity for the the administering organization of the Audain Prize to reflect on showcasing an exhibition dedicated to a past prize recipient.

“We have facilitated the Audain Prize for a number of years, and anytime we can link the importance of that prize, which is now one of the most prestigious prizes in Canada, with the art that is displayed at the Audain Art Museum, it is beneficial for both the Prize and the Museum,” describes Director & Chief Curator, Dr. Curtis Collins. “It really substantiates the Audain Prize in a visual way.”

Gathie Falk’s Arsenal, Collins explains, is “one of the signature works in the Museum’s Permanent Collection and has been used in several advertising campaigns. It is a sculpture of snowballs,” he describes, fondly, “so it is very apropos for Whistler.” Through the presentation of an exhibition that dives deeply into the repertoire of such an artist, the Museum is able to leverage its year-round holdings by contextualizing that work within a broader art historical context.

Now in her nineties, Gathie Falk has been a part of the Canadian art scene for more than 70 years. She was born in 1928 of Russian Mennonite heritage in Brandon, Manitoba, and later settled in Vancouver where she established herself as one of the country’s prominent experimental multidisciplinary artists. In addition to the Audain Prize, she has been the recipient of numerous visual arts honours, including the Order of Canada, the Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts, and the Gershon Iskowitz Prize.

“Embedded in this exhibition is very much the art history of Vancouver,” continues Collins. “For example, the Red Angel performance piece that was filmed at the Western Front is radical performance art, and it still holds its edge many years later. That is very telling.” A window into the 1970s Vancouver art scene, works such as Red Angel underline the experimental nature of Falk’s practice for which she is widely celebrated today.

Solidifying Gathie Falk’s art historical significance, particularly from a BC perspective, is the 200-page full-colour catalogue that accompanies the exhibition, including contributions by influential figures within the Vancouver art scene, Sarah Milroy, Daina Augaitis, Hank Bull, Liz Magor, and Landon Mackenzie, among others. Notably, Falk’s impact on artists Liz Magor and Landon Mackenzie, whose works are also included in the Audain Art Museum’s holdings, further emphasizes the importance of providing context to the Permanent Collection through the presentation of special exhibitions.

Both Liz Magor and Landon Mackenzie were “heavily influenced by Gathie Falk,” explains Collins. “You can see that influence in their works within the Permanent Collection, particularly in Mackenzie’s large-scale, abstract works and in Magor’s celebration of the ordinary through sculpture. When you look at Liz Magor’s work, you can see how it emerged out of Gathie Falk’s experiments and risk taking.”

In addition to Magor and Mackenzie, generations of artists have looked up to Gathie Falk throughout her decades-long career. For many young and emerging artists, Collins explains, Falk’s influence “reinforced their drive to become professional artists and to carve out their own identity in the Vancouver scene, the national scene, and the international scene.”

It is, in part, this exceptional influence of Gathie Falk that made her a natural candidate for the Audain Prize, which was developed to recognize outstanding contributions to Canadian art. Described by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection as “a trailblazer on all fronts,” her achievements span many

disciplines, including painting, performance art, ceramics, and installation art. Gathie Falk: Revelations, the organizers explain, “explores the boundless imagination of one of Canada’s most beloved and esteemed artists.”

“This exhibition,” further emphasizes Collins, “really reflects the arc of her career. This is a person who investigated so many media, but in ways that were very unexpected for their time. A lot of artists move from medium to medium, but not in such a pronounced fashion. You can’t really pin down Gathie’s work by saying she’s a painter, a sculptor, or a performance artist: she’s all of those things.”

The exhibition truly exemplifies that arc by offering visitors the opportunity to experience an incredible variety of colour, media, and subject matter. “There’s something there for everyone and it is very playful work,” says Collins. “The strength of this show in terms of accessibility is the fact that she raises very ordinary subject matter to the level of art. Everybody can identify with things like flowers, apples, sidewalks, and shoes. But she makes them special, in a way that’s unexpected.”

“This is an artist who injects a sense of play, joyfulness, and zest for life into everything she does,” concludes Collins. “The general reaction of visitors as they move through the show is one of smiling and being enchanted.”

Gathie Falk: Revelations will be on display in the Audain Art Museum’s Tom and Teresa Gautreau Galleries until May 6, 2024. Focused on the art of British Columbia, the Museum’s Permanent Collection exemplifies the richness of cultural difference in Canada, including an exceptional collection of historical and contemporary Indigenous art, a comprehensive selection of paintings by Emily Carr and a brilliant range of works by Vancouver’s photo-conceptualists. For more information on visiting the special exhibition, explore audainartmuseum.com.