Nicolas Baier, Player One, 2023, LED Light Box
Each of the eight Canadian galleries were selected by a jury of top art professionals from both Canada and the US; they include Gaëtane Verna (Executive Director of Wexner Center for the Arts and Curator of the Canadian Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale), Mary-Dailey Desmarais (Chief Curator, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts), Ebony L. Haynes (David Zwirner), Jessica Warren (White Cube), Jean-François Bélisle (CEO & Director of the National Gallery of Canada), as well as local art world professionals including Anthony Cran (Wilding Cran Gallery), Davida Nemeroff (Night Gallery), and Elisabeth Forney (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions).
The selected galleries and accompanying artists include: Blouin Division with Nicolas Baier, Marie-Claire Blais, Simon Hughes, and Scott McFarland; Bradley Ertaskiran with Preston Pavlis, and Joseph Tisiga; Feheley Fine Arts with George Arluk, Elizabeth Angrnaqquaq Qiayuq, and Shuvinai Ashoona, Killiktee Killiktee, and Idris Moss-Davies; Franz Kaka with Jennifer Carvalho, and Karice Mitchell; Olga Korper Gallery with Melanie Authier, Sandra Brewster, and Katherine Takpannie; Pangée with Grace Kalyta, and Darby Milbrath; Patel Brown with Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, and Celia Perrin Sidarous; and Stephen Bulger Gallery with Nina Levitt, Sanaz Mazinani, and Deanna Pizzitelli. Northern Exposure is organized by LA-based curators Margot Ross and Michael Slenske.
The works in Northern Exposure include light box landscapes from Toronto-based photographer Scott McFarland (Blouin Division); two-sided artworks, created by California-born, Halifax-based artist Preston Pavlis (Bradley Ertaskiran) that comprise of tender figurative paintings on one side and intricate hand-crafted quilts on the other; hand-embroidered felt tapestries depicting native landscapes and the animals that inhabit them, by the late Inuit artist Elizabeth Angrnaqquaq Qiayuq (Feheley Fine Arts); digitally manipulated found images engaging with the representation of the Black female body in erotic and popular culture magazines from Karice Mitchell (Franz Kaka); lyrical abstractions mapping the terrain of natural environments and imaginary spaces by Montreal-based painter Melanie Authier (Olga Korper Gallery); sculptural works on paper from the Toronto-based Japanese-Canadian artist Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka (Patel Brown); paintings with denim, rhinestones, and rivets by Montreal-based Grace Kalyta (Pangée) explore adornment and spectacle; and a poetic photographic travelog of a multi-year sojourn in Slovakia, Europe, Canada, and parts of Latin America by Toronto-born artist Deanna Pizzitelli (Stephen Bulger Gallery).
About the Canadian Creative Accelerator
Launched by the Consulate General of Canada in Los Angeles in September 2020, the Canadian Creative Accelerator (CCA) was established to promote Canada’s creative industries in Southern California. Since its inception the CCA has seen success as a platform for Canada’s TV, Film & Music companies to show, sell, and distribute their work while helping to expand their business in the United States. As part of L.A. Art Week, the CCA will open Northern Exposure, its inaugural Visual Arts program focused on contemporary Canadian artists and galleries.
“After many years of success with the CCA programming in television, film, and music, we felt it was a natural next step to extend the program to visual arts,” says Zaib Shaikh, Consul General of Canada in Los Angeles. “Los Angeles is considered, by many around the world, as the epicenter of the global art market and we could not imagine a better time to have this version of the CCA in LA.”
Jean-François Bélisle, CEO & Director of the National Gallery of Canada, will be joining Consul General Shaikh in welcoming the Canadian galleries in Los Angeles. “Canadian contemporary art galleries, together with Canadian artists, are doing incredible work and gaining recognition in the global art scene. I am pleased that I can help bring more attention to these luminaries by way of our collaboration with the Consulate General of Canada in LA. Being able to highlight these works during the LA Art Week, the most jam-packed stretch of the year in the city's arts calendar, is genuinely valuable.”
