Alberta artist Alex Janvier has died, age 89.
His death was announced on Wednesday at the Assembly of First Nations annual general meeting. A moment of silence was held for the artist, who was from Cold Lake First Nations in Northern Alberta.
A pioneer in contemporary Canadian Indigenous art, Janvier was known for his colourful paintings, which combined influences ranging from Dene Suline beadwork and abstract modernists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Joan Miro. A founding member of Professional Native Indian Artists Inc., also known by some as the Indian Group of Seven, Janvier was of Dene Suline and Saulteaux heritage.
“No one paints like Alex Janvier. His abstractions have an aesthetic that is completely unique. They’re amazing – so luminous and inspiring,” said MacKenzie Art Gallery Curator Michelle LaVallee, MacKenzie Art Gallery curator, in a Galleries West story in 2017. “He has been at the forefront of contemporary Indigenous art since the 1960s.”
Born on Feb. 28, 1935, Janvier graduated with a fine arts diploma from the Alberta College of Art (now Alberta University of the Arts) in Calgary in 1960, and he taught art for a time at the University of Alberta. His work is found in public and private collections around the world, including the Art Gallery of Alberta, the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of History. His 14-foot tiled mural, Iron Foot Place, is on view at Rogers Place in Edmonton. He was a Member of the Order of Canada and a recipient of the Governor General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts.
In addition to representation by major galleries across Canada, Janvier also had his own gallery, Janvier Gallery, in Cold Lake, Alta.
Source: Toronto Star, Galleries West, CTV, Alberta Views
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