Curatorial Statement

Time is a construction of memories; an artwork is a compilation of time. One memory intertwines with another and they come to form our inner world, the structure of our personal perspective. An individual artwork consists of memories where information comes together: some parts of a memory hold weight in our minds, while other parts remain tenuous. Within the contemplative, wondrous, and even futile pursuit of making art, memories that are immediate or distant, fragile or full, take their place in the realization of a work. 

Just as memories morph over time, there are constant shifts in the meanings of artworks and the ways we experience them. How do images stay in our minds? How do they fall away? What happens to them over time? 

In 1975, George Glenn rode the bus from Regina to Prince Albert. Fresh from his graduate studies in Cincinnati and a year in France, he was about to embark on an artist residency in north-central Saskatchewan. The residency was supported by the Saskatchewan Arts Board and was to be one year in length. After a warm welcome to Prince Albert by artist Margreet van Walsem, George grew to become a formative presence in the fine arts community. His one-year residency has stretched to five decades. In this time he has developed a distinct visual language, steeped in a contemplation of meaning created by the relationships between the objects, landscapes, and spaces in his life.

This exhibition brings together paintings, drawings, and installation pieces that George has created over a span of 50 years. It shows not only the development in his thinking, but what has persisted in his practice: his inner sensitivity to beauty, space for the unseen, the nuanced conditions that affect ways of seeing, and the link between personal and global narratives. These considerations occur within the realm of experimentation, reflection, and observation in George’s studio.

Although he has lived, worked, and received his art training in the prairie provinces, his practice has remained rather distinct from dominant traditions in prairie regions, such as formalism and high abstraction. Rather, George’s works are rooted in familiar representational imagery, drawn from both his personal memories and experiences, that encourage narrative and identifiable references. There is subtlety to George’s approach: his pieces do not outrightly state or define a position to viewers, but instead they provide a point for locating ourselves and our daily lives, habits, surroundings, and routines within broader social and political contexts. 

Examining artworks made over a span of 50 years brings forth illuminating realizations. In some ways, nothing changes: the quality of a line, the assertion of a composition, or the presence of an object are constant. In other ways, it is evident that consistent, truthful absorption in one’s practice brings endless room for growth, variety, and possibility. In Looking Through Time, the bits of memories that have forged a presence in George’s mind are expanded, arranged in the gallery space to show relationships over 5 decades - all marked by the context of north-central Saskatchewan.  

Jesse Campbell - Curator