Rethinking the Rural in Contemporary Newfoundland Art

The Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador, which used to be the Art Gallery, Memorial University of Newfoundland (I will refer to it henceforth by its present initialism), produced the comprehensive survey exhibition Twenty-Five Years of Art in Newfoundland in 1986. Other AGNL exhibitions have looked at Newfoundland art with a narrower focus over the years. Joan Borsa's 1991 Maskunow: A Trail A Path addressed the land art of artists such as Marlene Creates and Pam Hall. Helen Parsons Shepherd and Reginald Shepherd: Four Decades featured the work of two locally important senior artists: it included an essay by Newfoundland's foremost visual arts critic, Peter Gard. Don Wright 1931-1981, a retrospective was curated by Creates for the AGNL. St. Michael's Printshop has also been given a retrospective exhibition at this venue, curated by artist Christine Koch. Regular attention continues to be given by the gallery to senior artists Christopher Pratt, Mary Pratt, Gerald Squires and David Blackwood. (p.5)