MICHEL BOUTIN - Afterglow
Reception: Artist Talk with coffee reception: Wednesday, February 21, 3PM - 4PM
January 27 - February 22
Art Placement is pleased to host an exhibition of paintings by interdisciplinary artist Michel Boutin, presented by Regina's Sâkêwêwak Artist Collective as part of their annual Storyteller's Festival. Click the image to learn more.

Afterglow

The tradition of Western Landscape painting can be traced to late 17th century Britain. This "Age of Enlightenment" initiated science and rational thought as the governors of the "New Society." The Royal Society of London described nature as a machine and man as its engineer. Landscape paintings became a way for patron landowners to exhibit their dominion over land and nature.

During the romantic period of the 19th century the landscape became allegory. Early modernist painters began to utilize landscape painting as an armature for abstraction.

The works in this exhibition also utilize landscape as an armature for abstraction. Not of light but of place. Not of image but of essence.

Each work attempts to capture the essence of landscape painting overlaid with an echo of what has come before...of what could be again. They reference past, present and future simultaneously. Like a graffiti artist would mark a wall, or a cartographer a map, the skies become the ground for images left as trace, a sense of being beyond and without the human.

They are part of a series of works investigating the relationship between real and constructed ideas of time and place. They are meant to stimulate our subconscious understanding of the infinite as the afterglow of the finite.

-Michel Boutin

Michel Boutin "Frog" 2015 enamel on canvas 38 x 33 in.	Michel Boutin "Owl" 2015 enamel on canvas 39 x 36 in.
Michel Boutin "Whole Earth" 2009 enamel on canvas 36 x 30 in.

Artist Biography and Curriculum Vitae

Michel Boutin is an interdisciplinary artists, arts educator and cultural animateur living and working in Prince Albert Sask. He received his B.F.A. from the University of Regina in 1995. He is the Artistic Director for IPAC, The Indigenous Peoples Artist Collective of Prince Albert.

Michel is a staunch supporter of Contemporary Aboriginal art and Artist Run Culture. He has been a board member for Neutral Ground Artist Run Centre, Regina Sk. Red Shift Gallery, Saskatoon Sk. Paved Arts, Saskatoon Sk. and for ARCA, the Artist Run Centres and Collectives Conference of Canada, representing Aboriginal artist run centers nationally.

Michel has been exhibiting his work publicly since 1990. In 2004, at the Art Gallery of Regina, and in 2006 at the Kenderdine Gallery in Saskatoon, he was featured in a two person exhibition with the artist Manwoman entitled “Sophisticated Folk”, curated by David Garneau. Also in 2006, David Garneau curated Michel’s work into the exhibition “Contested Histories”, a response by indigenous artists to Saskatchewan’s Centennial. In 2011 his solo exhibition “the Great King Rabbit” was presented at AKA Gallery, Saskatoon. 2012 saw his work included in “Metissage”, an exhibition investigating the connections between Metis and Francophone culture organized by the Institute Francais, U of R and the First Nations University of Canada in conjunction with the year of the Fransaskois celebrations. His work was recently included in the exhibition CANADIAN INDIGENOUS CONTEMPORARY ART From Saskatchewan “the prairie province”, London, England curated by Adrian Stimson, presented by Creative Saskatchewan. Michel was the 2017 recipient of the Saskatchewan Arts Arward for Individual Leadership

Education:

B.F.A. University of Regina, Regina, Sask. 1995.

Selected Solo and Two Person Exhibitions:

2014 - Oksun, two person exhibition with Adrian Stimson. Curated by Felicia Gay, Wanuskewin Heritage Park, Saskatoon, Sask.
2012 - Performance, Finding City: Whose Town is this Anyway, The Snelgrove Gallery, Saskatoon, Sask.
2011 -The Great King Rabbit, AKA Gallery, Saskatoon, Sask.
2011-13 - Embodied Presence, two person touring exhibition with Holly Fay. Curated by Jennifer McRoire. OSAC, Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils.
2011-10 - Performance, Pour Tout Temps, Curated by Elwood Jimmy, Open Sky Creative Society, Fort Simpson N.W.T. Cabaret Oscana, Sakewewak, Regina, Sask.
2010-11 - Coming to Presence II, two person exhibition with Leah Dorion. Curated by Adrian Stimson. The Mann Art Gallery, Prince Albert, Sask.
2008, 2005 - My Assimilation, Red Shift Gallery, Saskatoon, Sask. The Mann Art Gallery, Prince Albert, Sask.
2008 - Tout en Ronde: Artists by Artists Series, mentor to Tim Moore, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Sask.
2007 - Time, multi media performance/installation with John McDonald, The Two Story Cafe, Commonweal Community Arts Inc. and IPAC, (the Indigenous Peoples Artist Collective, Prince Albert Arts Centre, Prince Albert, Sask.
2006, 2004 - Sophisticated Folk, a two-person exhibition with artist Manwoman. Curated by David Garneau, Kenderdine Art Gallery, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Sask. Art Gallery of Regina, Regina, Sask.

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2016 - Kingdom, Organized by the Dunlop Art Gallery, curated by Wendy Peart, Dunlop Art Gallery - Sherwood Village Branch, Regina Sask.
2015 - CANADIAN INDIGENOUS CONTEMPORARY ART - From Saskatchewan “the prairie province” - Organized by Creative Saskatchewan, curated by Adrian Stimson for C S Redlick of London, Darren Baker Gallery, London UK.
2015 - IPAC Group Show - Curated by Felicia Gay, Wanuskewin Heritage Park, Saskatoon, Sask.
2014 - Saskatchewan - Organized by Creative Saskatchewan, curated by Adrian Stimson. Blackall Studios - London, UK and Sala Rakalde - Bilbao, Spain
2012 - Metissage - First Nations University Gallery, organized by the Institute Francais, U of R in conjunction with the year of the Fransaskois celebrations.
2010 - Roped - Red Shift Gallery, Saskatoon Sask.
2005 - Contested Histories, Sakewewak, Art Gallery of Regina, Curated by David Garneau, Regina, Sask., a group exhibition of Contemporary Aboriginal Artists.

Selected Curatorial Activity:

2017 - IPAC Presents A Metis Kitchen Party - Flotilla, national gathering of Artist Run Centres and Collectives hosted by the Association of Artist-Run Centres from the Atlantic, Charlottetown, P.E.I.
2016 - 10/10: Ten Years of the Two Story Cafe - The Mann Art Gallery, Prince Albert Sk.
2016 - IPAC: An Archival History - The John V. Hicks Gallery, Prince Albert Arts Centre, Prince Albert, Sk.
2014 - Terrence Houle's The National Indian Leg Wrestling League of North America - The Mann Art Gallery, Prince Albert, Sk.
2014 - Where River Meets Sky - curated exhibition of aboriginal artists from the Mann Art Gallery Permanent Collection, Prince Albert, for the Saskatchewan Craft Council, Affinity Gallery, Saskatoon, Sk.
2012 - Finding City - Aboriginal Cultural leader and artist/curator, the Red Ribbon Project, a collaboration between the Snelgrove Gallery, UofS and SCYAP, Saskatoon, Sk.
2011 - Urbanisms ll: Uber Gurlz, Co-curated with Judy McNaughton, the Mann Art Gallery, Prince Albert, Sask.
2008 - “Urbanisms”, Co-curated with Judy McNaughton, The Mann Art Gallery, Prince Albert, Sask.
2006 - ongoing - “The Two Story Cafe, Indigenous Peoples Artist Collective, Prince Albert, Sask.

Related Activities:

2014 - Ongoing - Member of Sans Antelier, Francophone artist collective, Saskatoon, Sask.
2009 - 2014 - National Aboriginal Representative for ARCA, (Artist Run Centres and Collectives Conference), Head Office, Montreal, Quebec. ARCA membership ongoing.
2009 - 2013 - Board Member, Paved Arts, Saskatoon, Sask.
2008 - Ongoing - Member of the A.C.C. Aboriginal Curatorial Collective
2006 - Ongoing - Artistic Director, Indigenous Peoples Artist Collective, Prince Albert, Sask.

Publications:

2011 - Great King Rabbit, exhibition publication, AKA Gallery, Saskatoon, Sask.
2005 - Contested Histories, exhibition publication, Art Gallery of Regina, Regina, Sask. Sakewewak Artist Collective Inc. Regina, Sask.
2005 - Sophisticated Folk, exhibition publication, Art Gallery of Regina, Regina, Sask. Kenderdine Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Sask.

Collections and Awards:

2017 - Sask. Arts Board, Saskatchewan Arts Award for Individual leadership
2012, 2006 - The Mann Art Gallery, permanent collection, Prince Albert, Sask.
2008 - CARFAC SASK. Bi-annual Mentorship Award.
2007 - Sask. Arts Board, permanent collection.