My Winnipeg IX - University of Manitoba

My Winnipeg IX - University of Manitoba, Linocut, 24"x36" image size, 30"x42" paper size, 2026

I am excited to finally be able to share the print I was commissioned to create for the University of Manitoba last winter for gifts for donors. The print depicts both the Fort Garry and the Bannatyne campus, connected to the City through a network of roads and neighbourhoods. I really enjoyed making this print, revisiting years of my connections with the University and the neighbourhoods I lived in while attending classes. On campus, I included the Art Barn along with the Robert Harrison arch, the Fitzgerald Building where I had most of my art classes, the new ArtLab where I taught in 2019, and a number of other buildings I had classes in (Tier Building Fletcher Argue, St. John's College, St. Paul's College, the Education Building, and of course a number of other buildings that form part of the campus).

Last week, the first print was unveiled publicly at the naming of the Cholakis School of Dental Hygiene. My print was presented to Dr. Ernest Cholakis who donated 2 million dollars to the School of Dental Hygiene. I am deeply honoured to see my work in this context.

For more information about the event feel free to visit this article in UMToday: https://umtoday.ca/stories/brighter-future-dental-hygiene

This print is not available for purchase.

Left to right: Michael Benarroch - President UofM, Dr. Ernest Cholakis, Peter Nickerson - Dean of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
Photo Credit: David Lipnowski

Mary Bertone, Director of the Cholakis School of Dental Hygiene
Photo Credit: David Lipnowski

Wab Kinew, Premier of Manitoba
Photo Credit: David Lipnowski

University of Manitoba - My Work as Gift

After a print leaves my studio, I often don't know where exactly it will end up. What an honour to find out that My Winnipeg VIII has been given as a thank you to Drs. Wayne and Eleanor Chiu.

University of Manitoba is proud to announce a transformative $5.4 million gift from Drs. Wayne [BSc(ME)/80, LLD/23] and Eleanor Chiu to establish the Chiu Centre for Business Serving Community, a visionary initiative housed in the Asper School of Business.

The Centre will empower students and future leaders to approach business with compassion, drive innovation with purpose, and create meaningful impact. Read more on UM Today: https://news.umanitoba.ca/business-that-cares/...

(Image copied from UManitoba Instagram).

ArtAlive in the Winnipeg Free Press

There is a great article in the Winnipeg Free Press from October 27 about ArtAlive, a new online art education resource created by MAWA (Mentoring Artists for Women's Art). Thank you for including me and my work in this resource! (More information about it in my previous post).

ArtAlive is live!

ArtAlive is live! MAWA (Mentoring Artists for Women's Art) has created a new art education resource for teachers about living, contemporary, Manitoba artists. I am excited and honoured to have been included in the artist selection among a number of amazing Manitoba artists, which means that there is a teaching resource about my work available now. Check out the new web resource here https://artalive.mawa.ca/teaching-guides/my-winnipeg-vi

The fun part is that the work can be used in different teaching areas besides art classes, like social studies, geography, history, and language arts.

 

MTYP Poster

My print as part of the MTYP poster design and social media ads. I think it turned out beautifully!

Print for the MTYP

I'm finally sharing my little print that was commissioned by the Manitoba Theatre for Young People for the promotion of the upcoming play 'Gather' and the inauguration of the new MTYP Richardson Studio Theatre. Opening Oct. 3.

I played a bit with the title 'Gather' and chose The Forks as the central image in my print. The Forks have been a gathering place for millennia and the MTYP is also located at The Forks. The circle also stands for bringing people together, or a kind of gathering circle, connected with bridges. In the play, there is a post office, a dr. office, a school, and a library, represented in my print by the historic post office on Provencher, St. Boniface hospital, a playground, and the Cornish library.

Printing plate for MTYP

This summer I worked on a little commission for the Manitoba Theatre for Young People for the promotion of the upcoming play 'Gather' opening on Oct. 3, and the inauguration of the new MTYP Richardson Studio Theatre. Here is a little preview of me inking up the plate of a small linocut.

My son helped me set up the camera for this video and he loves being a narrator for how stuff is made.

Exhibition Installation at the Gallery in the Park, Altona

Yesterday we installed two exhibitions at the Gallery in the Park in Altona. It was one of the most satisfying and efficient exhibition installations I've ever done. It only took five hours to instal both exhibitions. Thanks to detailed measurements provided by the gallery I had already done the whole layout and the math regarding the spacing of the prints prior to our Paraguay trip. Thanks to Terry Hildebrand and gallery curator Susie Fisher for all the work you did! It was a team effort! And you gotta love laser levels!

This is such a beautiful exhibition space and park, I highly recommend you check it out some time. It's in an old, beautifully maintained farm house that is situated in a gorgeous park and extensive sculpture garden.

Gallery in the Park, Altona - Exhibition Openin

Exhibition invitation: tomorrow evening (June 5) is my exhibition opening at the Gallery in the Park in Altona, Manitoba at 7pm! I will show two exhibits - 'Layered Histories' and 'Storied Land'. If you missed these shows in Winnipeg in 2023, this might be your last chance to see them in person in Manitoba. If you can't make it to the opening, the exhibition is up until May 31. Please check the gallery website for hours.

Mark your calendars: I will give an artist talk about 'Layered Histories' on Thursday, June 19 and one about 'Storied Land' on Thursday, July 24 (I believe both will be at 7pm).

Legados coloniales - resonancias contemporáneas

I would like to share the invitation for the exhibition adjacent to mine by the Indigenous artist collective artes vivas at the Museo del Barro. 

 

Legados coloniales - resonancias contemporáneas

I am currently in Paraguay to instal an exhibition of my work Layered Histories: Perspectives on Colonization from the Chaco, which deals with the colonization history of the Chaco region in Paraguay where I grew up as a descendant of German-Canadian Mennonites. The opening reception is on Saturday, May 24, at 7pm at the Museo del Barro in Asunción, along with three other exhibitions of all the artists who were part of the (long-distance) artist residency with the British Museum in 2022: Indigenous artist collective artes vivas, Indigenous photographer Lanto'oy' Unruh and the work of linguist and author Hannes Kalisch († 2023). Those of you who receive my newsletter in Paraguay, I would love to see you at the opening! It's been seven years since I was here last and it is a pleasure to bring this body of work to its intended audience. I have given two public presentations in German about my work here since I can't bring the show to my home community, which is five hours from the capital. I will give one more public presentation in Spanish at the Instituto Cultural Paraguayo-Alemán Goethe-Zentrum in Asunción on May 21 at 7pm together with my collaborator and fellow exhibition organizer Ursula Regehr, curator at the Museum der Kulturen in Basel, Switzerland. I look forward to seeing some of you there!

Presentation at the Instituto Cultural Paraguayo-Alemán Goethe-Zentrum

I would like to invite you to a public presentation about my work at the Instituto Cultural Paraguayo-Alemán Goethe-Zentrum in Asunción on Wednesday, May 21 at 7pm.

Radio Interview ZP-30 Paraguay about Exhibition in Asunción

I'm currently in Paraguay for an exhibition that will open on May 24 at the Museo del Barro. I've spent the past few days in my home town Loma Plata. I did a radio interview (in German) with the local radio station ZP-30 about the exhibition, which I am sharing here. 

Presentation in Loma Plata

I did a presentation about my work "Layered Histories: Perspectives on Colonization from the Chaco" yesterday in Loma Plata, my hometown where I grew up. I saw a lot of familiar faces after all these years. Thank you for your interest in my work and for the lively discussion that followed!

My work will be exhibited at the Museo del Barro in Asunción from May 24 - July 17. The opening reception is on May 24 at 7pm.

Thank you Canada! Thank you Manitoba! Thank you MLA Renée Cable for nominating me for the prestigious King Charles III Coronation Medal, which I was awarded on April 9, 2025. The medal was presented by the Honourable Lieutenant Governor Anita R. Neville and Deputy Premier Uzoma Asagwara at the Manitoba Legislative building. I am deeply honoured and humbled by this recognition, delighted and encouraged to keep creating, sharing, and contributing to my community.

Congratulations to all fellow medal recipients! It was a pleasure to meet Reverend Wilson Akinwale who was also nominated by minister Renée Cable.

The nomination criteria were as follows: [The recipient] made a significant contribution to Canada or to a particular province, territory, region or community of Canada, or [has] made an outstanding achievement abroad that brings credit to Canada.

Thank you to Terry Hildebrand and Max for always being there for me. You are my life!

The nomination criteria were as follows: [The recipient] made a significant contribution to Canada or to a particular province, territory, region or community of Canada, or [has] made an outstanding achievement abroad that brings credit to Canada.

Photo credit for first photo: Douglas Little Photography

My Winnipeg VIII

My Winnipeg VIII, Linocut, 24"x24" (60x60cm) image size, 30"x31" (76x78.5cm) paper size, 2025. 

My Winnipeg VIII is finally finished and I'm happy with the print! I tend to fiddle with little details at the end before committing to being finished carving, which always drags on the final days before printing. My Winnipeg VIII depicts parts of downtown including Winnipeg's very inconspicuous City Hall, the Concert Hall, the Planetarium and the Manitoba Museum, also McDermot Avenue with its Chicago style warehouses (where I used to have my beloved studio in the Silpit building), Old Market Square, King Street and William Avenue. 

A particular challenge was the Market Lands development, which is currently under construction and won't be finished until 2026. It covers an entire city block between Red River College and City Hall on the site of the former Public Safety building. I didn't want to leave it blank and in the end I opted to take inspiration from architectural drawings. However, since the designs have changed somewhat throughout different planning phases, I'm not entirely sure I have the latest version. I'll wait and see how the building looks in two years, and if I'm too far off I might decide to cut out that section from my printing plate and insert an updated version. 

I wrestled with what to do with The Volunteer Monument located between the Concert Hall and the Manitoba Museum, which commemorates the men of the 90th Winnipeg Battalion (Canadian troops) killed in several battles in 1885 against First Nations and Métis people. Monuments that commemorate these colonial acts have become increasingly controversial in recent years. To acknowledge this colonial history, I chose to depict The Volunteer Monument in a moment of time when it was wrapped up by Métis artist Éric Plamondon as a temporary art installation and intervention in 2024. You can read more about his art installation here. 

Printing 'My Winnipeg VIII'

Printing 'My Winnipeg VIII'! It's finally done and I'll post an image of the finished print in a separate post!

Reworking the linoleum plate

I've been re-working my linoleum plate for the My Winnipeg VIII print intermittently over the past few weeks. I've mostly just cleaned up the overall plate, but I've also changed one section a bit more. I'm sharing some of the behind the scenes edits: working with a flooring linoleum allows me to cut out sections that didn't work out well and insert a new piece with a packing tape backing. Since I was out of grey linoleum, I used some orange linoleum scraps I had lying around, which makes this process quite visible. I'm happy with the changes. Images of final print coming soon!

(Progress has been slow since it's grant writing season and deadlines are piling up for some community projects I'm involved in, so I've been mainly busy with computer work.)

My Winnipeg VIII - First Inking

December 30, 2024

First inking of the new linocut plate - My Winnipeg VIII! Seeing the image appear in black for the first time is always such an exciting and nerve wracking moment, because it shows if all the time carving the plate will work out. The first proof turned out well, but as expected the plate needs more work. I'll post an image of the finished print once the plate is reworked and edited to my satisfaction.

(Note: The video is sped up and I'm not showing the whole inking process; it takes much longer to ink the whole plate since I work on many of the details with a smaller softer brayer and I clean up some white areas with a cloth).

Carving 'My Winnipeg VIII'

December 17, 2024

For the past few weeks I've been carving this new Winnipeg print. My Winnipeg VIII should be finished and available early in the new year. It is taking me much longer to carve than anticipated, but I should have known with all the little details I'm working with. I love my micro carving tools that allow me to get lost in the details of each building!