Showing 36 results

David was born in Holdfast, Saskatchewan in 1948 and studied with David Gilhooly in ceramics at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus, where “funk” artist David Gilhooly served as an early mentor to him as well as other artists of the region.

David Thauberger received a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in 1971 from the California State University at Sacramento and a Masters degree in Art in 1972.

He earned a Masters degree in Fine Arts at the University of Montana in 1973, and then returned to Saskatchewan where his importance as an Canadian artist grew.

Thauberger worked primarily with ceramics until 1975 when he switched to painting. He took instruction from “untutored artists” or "folk artists" and through his work as a consultant with the Saskatchewan Arts Board from 1974 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985 he became aware of the work of many of these artists in the province. He was able to research them and purchased their work, he began curating exhibitions and contributing to documentaries and art books about them.

He admires community life, and the values that folk art often represents, believing that through perceptions of place and tradition truly authentic art work is created.

Thauberger’s work is found in numerous public, private and corporate collections, he has exhibited his work throughout North America and is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts. Thauberger’s many awards and grants include his appointment as a member of the Order of Canada in 2008 and in 2009 being awarded the Lieutenant Governors award for Saskatchewan Artist Award. David Thauberger has also served on the board of the Canada Council for the Arts.

He currently lives and works in Regina, Saskatchewan

Anthony Thorn is the pseudonym of Arthur Goldman, the son of Leon and Dorothy Goldman, born in Regina in 1927. He is a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan (BA, 1947) and pursued graduate studies in English literature at the University of Chicago.

Thorn began to paint in 1948. His first studies in painting were in Regina with Kenneth Lochhead followed by studies in figure drawing at the Chicago Art Institute, studies in oil painting techniques with Frederic Taubes at the Banff Centre, studies in stained glass design at the Centre d’Art Sacré, Paris, and drawing at the Academie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris. In 1955 Thorn was apprentice to the muralist David Alfaro Siquéiros in Mexico and studied in acrylic technique with Jose Gutierrez. In later years he studied watercolor and sumi painting with Mataichiro Isoda in Kyoto, Japan, and metal-smithing in Corfu, Greece.

His work has been exhibited with galleries across Canada but also in France, Mexico, the Canary Islands and the United States. About 40 of his works are in corporate and public collections in Canada. Notably in the collections of the Saskatchewan Arts Board and the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and the Greater Victoria Public Library; they consist of paintings and carved works in gold leaf, ivory and other precious materials. Eight of his works in public collections have been honored with the designation “of outstanding significance and national importance” by the Canadian Cultural Review Board.

As an educator, along with various teaching in Toronto, Thunder Bay and Victoria art classes, his main academic teaching was as a Lecturer in Fine Arts at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay (1977 to 1979) and an Instructor in painting for the Department of Extension of the University of Victoria (1981 to 1984) He wrote as an art reviewer and critic for the publication Toronto Citizen (1971 to 1972)

Anthony Thorn lived in Victoria, British Columbia until his death in July 2014.

Clifford Donald Wiens was born into a Mennonite family in April 1926 on their farm near Glen Kerr, Saskatchewan where self-reliance was largely encouraged and growing up he became skillful in general construction principles metalwork and mechanics.

Interested in art and design, Wiens studied painting at the Banff Centre for Continuing Education with A.Y. Jackson; he studied agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon under a Wheat Pool Sponsorship Program for young farmers and machine tooling at the Moose Jaw Technical School. In 1949 Wiens was accepted into the Rhode Island School of Design on a full scholarship, graduating in 1954 and in 1957 started his own architectural firm in Regina. In 1958, he began work on his first important project, namely St. Joseph’s Church at Whitewood, Saskatchewan. In 1965 Wiens started what was to be a major project, the renovation and restoration of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building, taking some fourteen years to complete.

With a career spanning over 40 years, Wiens is considered one of Canada’s best architects. His diverse body of architectural work can be found throughout Saskatchewan and includes designs for the construction of schools and hospitals, chapels and churches, motel and apartment buildings, private residences, buildings for corporations and health spas, dairy creameries in Regina and Saskatoon, a Trans-Canada Highway campground near Maple Creek, an artist’s studio in Lumsden, and on the campus of the University of Regina, the award winning heating and cooling plant which, in 2011, also won the Prix du XXe siècle from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

Wiens belonged to several professional organizations,including: the Saskatchewan Association of Architects, serving as president in 1970; the Regina Chapter of Architects from 1960 to 1969; the Canadian Department of Public Works' Advisory Committee on Art for Public Buildings from 1974 to 1981. Wiens was an associate member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

In 2005, Wiens was celebrated with a 40 year retrospective of his work ranging in date from 1955 to 1995. The Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon organized and circulated this exhibition that travelled nation-wide. Entitled “Telling Details: The Architecture of Clifford Wiens” was curated by Trevor Boddy. The exhibition included more than 170 examples of Wiens’ work including architectural models, drawings and photographs. Exhibition events also included a one-day symposium entitled “Homemade Modernism: Prairie Architecture Since 1955,” and a performance piece by Wiens’ daughter Robin Poitras of New Dance Horizons (Regina).

The Saskatchewan Communication Network (SCN) also highlighted the architects' creative problem-solving skills articulated in and by his clever building designs in a television documentary series called “Edifice and Us”, Wiens' portion included background for the University of Regina Heating and Cooling Plant, the Silton Valley Chapel and a personal residence located in Regina.

Buildings designed by Clifford Wiens include John Nugent’s Studio (St. Mark’s Shop) in Lumsden (1960); the University of Regina's Heating and Cooling Plant (1968), the Qu’Appelle Silton Summer Chapel (1967); the Regina CBC Broadcast Centre (1983); the Prince Albert City Hall (1984) and many, many others.

Wiens was a visiting professor or lecturer at several post secondary schools in both Canada and the United States, including: the University of Arizona and the Arizona State University; the University of Manitoba; the University of Calgary; the University of British Columbia; the University of Saskatchewan; and, the North Dakota State University.

Wiens closed his practice in Regina in 1994 and moved to Vancouver where he continued to practice, completing an important project for family in Denver, Colorado.

Wiens has written several books regarding growing up in Saskatchewan, his work and his family. Of this Clifford penned:
"When I started writing needs clarification, as the record can be misleading. In my Architectural Memoirs I quote Abe Rogatnick, where he defines me as Canada’s Poet Architect. I took this as a complement, understanding that Abe meant that my architectural work was poetic. Indeed I was most pleased that he should think so. It is true that very early in my life I was given to writing limericks but I did not start writing more seriously until the end of my architectural career. My career as an Architect required clarity in communication. A long life communicating with clients, authorities and contractors developed skill and ease in saying what I meant. It was the cancer that assailed me that put an end to an active practice that moved me to write my memoirs that in the end turned my focus to philosophy and poetry. Patricia, with her dementia, slowly left me leaving me alone with my writing"

Mark Wihak was born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan. He made his first short film The Ballad of Don Quinn, which was cited by Cinemascope Magazine as one of the top-ten Canadian short films of the 1990s. His experimental documentary, (stories from) The Land of Cain won the short film prize at the Vancouver International Film Festival and he has gone on to make films in a variety of approaches: Dramatic, broadcast documentaries and film-based installation. He is a faculty member in the Department of Media Production and Studies at the University of Regina.

Jan Gerrit was the second son of farmer, Harmen Otto Wijers and Johanna Kets, he was born on July 20, 1888 at Emmer, a community within the Municipality of Steenderen, 16 kilometers northeast of Arnhem, in the Netherlands.

At the age of 12 Jan had to quit school to work on the family farm. In 1913, Jan and three friends left home for the United States. Working through North and South Dakota threshing on various farms, he got the idea to rent a farm but discovered that would be too expensive. Wyers came to Canada with a thousand other immigrants as the Canadian government was actively promoting settling western Canada.

He acquired 1/4 section of land near Windthorst in 1916. During the 1930’s Wyers became the area bootlegger and “did time” in the Correctional Centre in Regina for defaulting on a $200.00 fine for being in violation of the liquor act. Wyers was an inventor of sorts, - on March 11 Wyers filed an application for a patent on an animal trap “particularly adapted to catching gophers and other rodents” when there was a bounty of one-half cent for each gopher tail.

Jan started painting while convalescing after surgery on a ruptured appendix in 1937/38, in the winters he would paint and in the summer he would farm – until 1960, when he quite farming at the age of 72.

In 1969 Windthorst’s new library named a portion of the building the Jan Wyers Arts Centre and in October 1970 Jan Wyers moved to the Willowdale Lodge in Kipling and continued to paint in watercolor despite being crippled from arthritis, in 1973 he moved to a nursing home in Regina where he died on July 4, 1973.

Russell Yuristy was born in Goodeve, Saskatchewan in 1936. In 1959 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon and a Master of Science in Art from the University of Wisconsin in 1967 with a major in painting and a minor in graphics.

He taught drawing and painting at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus from 1967 to 1971 and was an administrator of the Emma Lake Artists’ Workshops from 1968 to 1970. From 1971 to 1981 Yuristy was known for his large animal playground sculptures which he built in Ottawa, Spokane (Washington), Churchill (Manitoba), Vancouver (for Expo ’86) Swift Current, Saskatoon and Regina. He was also painting, drawing, making prints and ceramic work during this time as well.

In 1984 Yuristy created Saskatchewan Rain for the CBC Building in Regina, in 1992 Fish was created for the new City Hall in Ottawa and in 1994 Switch Hitter was created for the Ottawa baseball stadium (now Jetform Park). Since then Yuristy has concentrated on painting, large woodcuts, drawings and print mediums. He has shown in many public and commercial galleries. In 1986 he moved to Ottawa and taught classes at the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa School of Art. He moved to Montreal in 1993 and back to Ottawa in 1998.