Brandon, MB – The Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba is honoured to be opening an exhibition of work by Elvis Antoine on Thursday, September 5th. This is the first solo exhibition of the prolific artist, who worked extensively in Winnipeg and Southwestern Manitoba in the city of Brandon and Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, where he was a citizen. It is titled Sunkė Sapa Hdeṡhka, a.k.a. Elvis Antoine, as the artist often signed his work using both his English and Dakota name, which translates to “Black Spotted Horse.”
Antoine worked primarily in acrylics, painting dynamic vistas that glow with saturated colour and make symbolic references to his cultural heritage and his kin. Within the formula that he established over the years as a street artist to make high-quality, sellable work quickly, the exhibition, which spans 35 years, brings artistic experimentation to fore, from direct references to the visual language of his mentor, the seminal Cree artist Jackson Beardy (1944-1984), to readymade collage techniques and elements of fractal design.
The work is on loan from several private collections, including Naomi and Jon Gerrard, Bill Taylor, Linda Eastman-Hall, and Sioux Valley Medical Centre. Lucie Lederhendler began curating the show in 2023 after she was approached by the Gerrards about their collection, and shortly before Antoine’s passing on May 31. She says that the number of sources she had to draw from is just one part of what makes the show so interesting. “Initially, I started this project because I thought it was such a compelling question: what will happen if an artist, who’s spent his career selling work on the steps of the Manitoba Legislature, at the kitchen table, or at the walk-in clinic, is invited to a whitecube gallery?” It was ultimately the collectors, though, that made the greatest impression. “When people brought in their Antoines for me to look at, literally from over their televisions or behind their couches, they told stories about Elvis–quirky, funny stories about this man who, through it all, was compelled to paint. Listening to those stories made me realize that I was working in a cultural ecosystem that didn’t worry about putting ‘art’ in some over-there corner, separated from ‘life.’”
The public is invited to a reception on Friday, September 27 to celebrate the life of Elvis Antoine in the presence of his friends and family, with refreshments and entertainment by the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation. The AGSM is profoundly grateful to SVDN who, in addition to providing their guidance and loans of artwork, are the official sponsors of Sunkė Sapa Hdeṡhka, a.k.a. Elvis Antoine.
For more information:
Aly Wowchuk, Gallery Services Coordinator
info@agsm.ca
204-727-1036 #111
agsm.ca
