Prince Albert artist and writer John Brady McDonald has finally brought his show “Omentum” home to his hometown.
The John V. Hicks Gallery at the Margo Fournier Arts Centre hosted an opening Artist Talk and Reception for the new exhibition on Saturday.
The show has been on tour with the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils (OSAC) since 2023. McDonald said Saturday’s reception was a long time coming.
“This exhibition was originally completed prior to the pandemic, and it was actually scheduled to be a joint exhibition with Donna Langhorne at the Mann Art Gallery. That was supposed to be exhibited in 2020 but COVID killed us,” McDonald explained.
“This is the first time it’s had a chance to be actually exhibited in Prince Albert It’s been through OSAC’s Artists on the Move program. This exhibit has had the opportunity to go across Saskatchewan.”
McDonald said the OSAC shows brought his art to a wider audience, and created more awareness.
“It’s very nice that my work is able to get out there to all these different communities and not only be it exposure of my work to communities, but provide an opportunity for some arts community or some artists in different communities who may not have the opportunity to see artwork outside of the traditional still life with flowers or landscape artwork,” McDonald said.
“(It’s) to see a different way of artwork being shown and see a different form of artwork being created, particularly in these smaller communities.”
McDonald said he was very fortunate that something with the theme of Omentum could travel across Saskatchewan.
He said the exhibit is based on the experience Indigenous people have and have had in the 21st century.
“We deal with a lot of themes that we, as Indigenous people in this country, have been dealing with for decades, but within the 21st century with the rise of social media, with the rise of more activism, both the positives and the negatives of our experience,” he said
This includes the victories and defeats of Indigenous people.
“What this show does is shines a light on my interpretation. I kind of viewed what’s been happening.”
The title “Omentum” comes from the lacy membrane of fat that covers the internal organs of all mammals.
“It’s a beautiful lacy membrane, however, in order to appreciate the beauty, you have to be butchering,” McDonald said. “Something has to die. You have to viscerally cut open and see the gore to find something that you can try to find beauty in.”
McDonald said that he is not trying to say what has happened is beautiful or that he wants to bring beauty to these experiences, but rather the intricacy.
“If you get a chance to actually look at a piece of Omentum, it is unbelievably intricate. It’s like lace work, it’s like embroidery. It is finite and minute and gossamer,” McDonald said.
“But at the same time, it is strong enough to contain within a living thing,” he added.
Another important thing he wanted to showcase is that the ties that connect everything can be strained, can be tenuous, and can break. At the same time, they are holding everything together.
He also hoped, with it being shown in smaller communities by OSAC, it could also be an act of reconciliation.
“As an artist, our role is always to make our audience feel something. Be it anger, love, hate, disgust, revulsion. If we’ve caused an emotional response in someone with our art, then we have done our job,” he said.
“However, there’s that fine line of doing that, and doing it for shock value, for trauma-born, or to make an actual statement.”
What he hopes the exhibition does is make a meaningful statement and create a meaningful dialogue in a way that impacts people who may not be familiar with what Indigenous people went through.
“Even though we are an internet world where the world is at our fingertips at all times, many communities are still very insulated, very isolated, and do not have the experience of the wider world or don’t have access to that beyond what they see on Facebook,” he said.
“This gives an opportunity for those individuals to kind of get a visual representation of that (experience).”
McDonald is a Nehiyawak-Métis writer, artist, historian, musician, playwright, actor and activist born and raised in Prince Albert. He is from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation and the Mistawasis Nehiyawak.
He is the great-great-great grandson of Chief Mistawasis of the Plains Cree, as well as the grandson of famed Métis leader Jim Brady. John’s writings and artwork have been displayed in various publications, private and permanent collections and galleries around the world, including the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
McDonald said that he is happy that the exhibition is finally in his hometown.
“My deepest appreciation to OSAC for putting this on for the City of Prince Albert and the Mann Art Gallery for finally bringing the show,” he said.
The show had a long journey and now it is finally in Prince Albert he explained.
“We’ve overcome so many obstacles to get here at this point. We had COVID, we had scheduling issues, we had the paintings being sent to the wrong place So it’s been, it’s been an effort to get the show here in PA. And it’s here,” McDonald said.
“We’re coming to the end of its run through OSAC so my ultimate goal is to find a permanent home for it. One of the pieces has been purchased by the Saskatchewan Arts Board for the permanent collection, so I’ve got nine I’ve got to find a home for now,” he said.
The show is at the John Vicks Hicks Gallery in the Margo Fournier Arts Centre from Dec. 1 to Jan. 23.
Michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
