The Ken Segal Gallery has the honour of presenting renowned Canadian artist Sheila Butler’s solo exhibition New Drawings. This exhibition is her first at our gallery, featuring 11 drawings from selected series of works. The show opens with an artist reception at our gallery, located at 4–433 River Ave., on Saturday, October 13, 2007, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm and runs until November 3.

Butler has taught, written, curated and mentored for years in the art community in Winnipeg and throughout Canada. A professor at the University of Western Ontario, she had taught undergraduate and graduate courses in studio production and contemporary theory and criticism. From helping start MAWA (Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art) to co-creating the Art and Cold Cash collective, she has a long history of involvement in community development. She has been working to re-establish the Printmaking Cooperative up in Baker Lake, Nunavut, which she helped found in the 1970s. Over the years her work ranged from videos and installations to paintings and drawings, tackling issues concerning media, violence, oppression, feminism and popular culture, among others. Her art has been described as a battleground of opposing forces. Now retired from teaching at the UWO and living in Toronto, this is the first opportunity for Winnipeggers to see this important artist’s work.

Drawings are just the depiction of shapes and forms usually on paper by means of lines. In this exhibition you will find drawings that create compelling subject matters based on the human figure, from imagery of swimmers to dreamlike imagery which deals with Butler’s ideas of our world. Imagery blends together so cleverly that you have to look very closely to decipher its content. Butler shows how art, in this case drawings, can express the artist’s ideas, concerns and feelings, and how the role of the medium has changed. This exhibition highlights some of the drawings that show why Butler is a household name. For our gallery this is a tribute to an artist who has made a major contribution to the visual arts in Canada.

For more information, an interview with the artist or press-ready images, please contact the gallery.