2021 Fall Exhibit

26 August - 26 September 2021

Manitoba Society of Artists

CHRYSALIS: A CELEBRATION OF 120 YEARS

CHRYSALIS: MSA 120

Chry.sa.lis: “a state of being or growth”

The timeless Chrysalis process evokes many botanical, philosophical and life meanings. The most well-known meaning is the process of the butterfly materializing from the caterpillar cocoon. For the Manitoba Society of Artists (MSA), Chrysalis is a symbol of a “state of being” undergoing growth 1 consistently over time. From its illustrious and prestigious beginnings in 1902 and many transitions throughout its history, MSA has proudly evolved over the last 120 years to become a long standing transformative and timeless art organization which has adapted and embraced the unique circumstances and challenges of today’s world. Importantly, it has remained committed to recognizing, encouraging and showing work by its members, both emerging and established.

Leo Mol, Walter J.Phillips, LL Fitzgerald, Clarence Tillenius, Eva Stubbs and Tony Tascona among others, as founding members, would most certainly have approved of MSA current initiatives to respond to societal, technological and virtual changes such as the online Open Juried Competition Exhibition, artists’ talks, e-tours, community outreach, e-networking and e-business.

During this shifting time, MSA artists have felt that we are a part of history, of something bigger than ourselves while anchored in the sense of place and home. Members have had the hope and potential to become greater as artists and to make a difference in the flux of growth. For MSA artists, it has been a year of cocooning and we are emerging from the chrysalis of creativity to exhibit beautiful art in Chrysalis: MSA 120.

Let the celebration begin.

“The art Culture can be a protective chrysalis that values the Creativity of art. It is nurturing, enlightening and transformative.” -Randall Robinson

2021 Spring + Summer Exhibit

20 July - 20 August 2021

Danielle Fontaine Koslowsky’s work explores the nebulous subject of the interior life. Her practice, rooted in the contemplative path and the study of the mystics, explores her own inner landscape; a fractal of the human experience. Her work, like a mirror, reflects back to the self, its journey inwards towards the center. She uses painting as a medium through which to make the invisible, visible. Colour, mark, texture, line and form give expression to ideas, paradoxes, metaphors and concepts where language fails. Through abstraction, disorder gives way to order and invites the viewer towards new perceptions and insights. By surrendering to the creative process, her artistic discipline allows her to be used as a vessel guided by the work. This intuitive approach enables her to circumvent the intellect in order to access a naked intent towards the authentic self, coaxing the viewer on their own journey into the interior life. 

Danielle Fontaine Koslowsky is a visual artist from Winnipeg, working and living on Treaty 1 Territory. Danielle is currently in her first year, of a two-year program studying the mystics and the contemplative path through The Center for Action and Contemplation in New Mexico, US. You can find her works in the Canadian Mennonite University, and in private collections across   Canada and the US.

Phil Brake is a Manitoba artist who paints big, bold, beautiful images with dye on silk. He attributes growing up in California near the Sierra Nevadas to a lifelong love of clear mountain streams and splashes of wildflowers. His paintings are often of flowers from the back garden or a summer morning on the lake but just as often they are of a Tuscan village or a stream in the Andes. His paintings are represented in private, corporate and government collections in Canada, the US and abroad. Phil continues to live and paint from his studio in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Treaty 1 Territory. 

“My first art exhibition was in grade three when my teacher picked my painting to be displayed at the school division office. At that time I was just learning to play the piano and I loved sports and outdoor activities. All these years later I am still enjoying those same things. Growing up in California, I remember the excitement of fishing trips with my dad to streams in the nearby Sierra Nevada Mountains. Reflective pools of clean, cold water surrounded by mossy rocks, turning leaves, tree roots, overhanging plants and flowers that I so loved as a child are often reflected in my paintings themes today. Creating art is just a way to restate and release the beauty I have encountered on this journey through life. All my painting's themes, from flowers in my back garden to morning light on a lake in the Canadian Shield, rise from moments on my journey with friends and family. I imagine those who are drawn to my art share similar memories of beauty from their journeys as well.” 

Phil paints with dye on silk which is an uncommon, or perhaps developing, artistic medium in the West but has ancient Asian roots. He feels the shimmering intensity of the colours obtained warrants the struggle to control, restrain and force the dye to do his bidding.

Winnipeg and Victoria Beach are the places Jane calls home, each for six months of the year. She has studios in each location, one on the Assiniboine River and one by Lake Winnipeg. 

After completing her B.Sc.HEc., Jane came to her senses and took as many art courses as possible to complete her B.Ed. She has been painting for 30 years and has participated in solo and juried group shows in Canada and the U.S. Her work is in private and public collections in Canada and Europe. Jane’s art is both large and small, and eclectic, as is the media she uses: oil and cold wax, acrylics, resists, fabric and collage done on paper, canvas, or wood panels.

This exhibition represents a dedicated daily practice. Over the course of a year, every time Jane was in her studio, she painted a nature diary of what she saw, heard and experienced around her. One of her studios is on the Assiniboine River and the other is on Lake Winnipeg. The result of that year is approximately 1,300 small paintings, each titled and dated, each on a piece of 7"x 6" oil paper.

Rain, snow, flowers, frogs, sunrises, deer, racoons, dead leaves, ice, clouds, beetles and more become "snapshots" of life by the water as the seasons pass. Death, birth, humour, monotony, wonder, joy, sacredness, sorrow, and even cabin fever are all represented too, as the rhythm of life unfolds each day.

Anneli App Photographic Artist living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Treaty 1 Territory. Her photographs are professionally printed and mounted on fine art textured paper.

Anneli Epp’s photographic art is the outward expression of her inner contemplative life. As an observer, Anneli is drawn to reflections, detail, patterns, lines, layers, textures, landscapes, and architecture. From the orange leather Mary Jane shoes and soft velvet bell bottoms of childhood, the sage-scented Pembina Hills, grassland wildflowers and dense woodlands of the Boreal Forest, the view is intimate and sensory. “Stop the car!” For Anneli, the passing landscape elicits a powerful response from within. As a Spiritual Healthcare Specialist in dementia, trauma, and critical care, Anneli was often witness to longings and hopes intertwined with suffering and loss. One man with dementia pointed towards the large windows overlooking a tree canopy and said, “I need to get back to the farm, it’s just over there, my parents are waiting for me.” He could see it. The landscape within. One piece of the whole.