Frank Shebageget exhibition

Happy new year everyone! With the start of 2013, Gallery 1C03 at The University of Winnipeg is excited to open our next exhibition:

Frank Shebageget
January 17 – February 16, 2013

Artist talk: Thursday, January 17 at 1:00 p.m. in Room 2C13 (2nd floor of Centennial Hall), University of Winnipeg
Opening reception at Gallery 1C03: Thursday, January 17, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
 
Gallery 1C03 is proud to present Frank Shebageget, a self-titled solo exhibition of two new sculptural installations by this respected Ottawa-based Anishinabe artist.

Shebageget uses modernist forms and repetition to critically investigate symbols of cross-cultural contact that have personal historical resonance. This show includes a new iteration of his acclaimed large-scale work Cell, originally produced in 2010 for a solo exhibition at Carleton University Art Gallery, as well as a series of smaller works titled Castor’s Castoreum.

Constructed from gillnets arranged into a cube formation and suspended in the gallery to create an effervescent structure, Cell references the importance of fishing to Aboriginal communities such as the one in which Shebageget grew up. Castor’s Castoreum, presented in one of the University of Winnipeg Anthropology Museum window vitrines, is a series of cast glass perfume bottles rendered in the shape of beaver castors. Alluding to the effects of European ideas of beauty on First Nations people, these pieces were inspired by the artist’s childhood memories where hunting and trapping were integral parts of family life.

Born and raised in the small community of Upsala in Northwestern Ontario, Frank Shebageget (Ojibway) now lives and works in Ottawa. Shebageget graduated with his A.O.C.A. from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1996, and received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Victoria in 2000. He has had solo shows at Carleton University Art Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, TRIBE and Gallery 101, among others. Shebageget’s art has been presented recently in group exhibitions at the Museum of Art and Design in New York, the Institute of American Indian Arts in Sante Fe, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Museum London, the University of Lethbridge and at Urban Shaman Gallery. His work can be found in the collections of the Ottawa Art Gallery, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Dorothy Hoover Library of the Ontario College of Art and Design, the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, as well as several private collections. Shebageget has been the recipient of numerous awards for his art from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation.

Gallery 1C03 will produce a publication related to this exhibition featuring a critical essay by contemporary art curator and writer Jenny Western.

Gallery 1C03 gratefully acknowledges financial assistance for this project from The University of Winnipeg, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts. We are also grateful for the partnership of The University of Winnipeg Anthropology Museum.

Gallery 1C03 is located on the first floor of Centennial Hall at The University of Winnipeg and is open Monday – Friday from 12:00 – 4:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. The University's Anthropology Museum is on the fourth floor of Centennial Hall and is open during regular University hours. Both venues offer free admission.


Image: Frank Shebageget, Cell (detail), 2010, aluminum, nylon fishing net, steel fishing hooks, string, airline cable. Photo: David Barbour.