Prairie Center hosts exhibit of folk artist Dmytro Stryjek

SASKATOON - This winter season, the Prairie Center for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage (PCUH) at St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan, in association with Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Kenderdine Art Gallery at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, and the Ukrainian community will present a series of cultural events devoted to the artistic legacy of the renowned Saskatchewan-based Canadian folk artist of Ukrainian background Dmytro Stryjek.

According to Dr. Bohdan Kordan, director of the PCUH, "uniquely positioned as a 'translational' and 'transnational' figure, with one foot in the past (Ukraine) and one in the present (Canada), Stryjek (1899-1991) produced highly original and highly acclaimed art."

Whether labeled as "folk art," "outsider art," "art brut," or naïve art, Mr. Stryjek's work speaks of the artist's great imagination and acute nostalgia, unique talent and liberating artistic expressiveness. Intensity of color and the fluidity of imagery characterize Mr. Stryjek's work, illuminating and bringing together numerous worlds - the world of Ukraine, of Canada, and the author's imagined lifeworld.

The series starts with a retrospective of Mr. Stryjek's works from the extensive private collection of Peter Millard. The exhibition will run from December 14 though February 10, 2002. The opening reception was scheduled for Friday, December 14, 2001.

The same exhibition will travel later to Saskatoon and will be available for public viewing in Kenderdine Art Gallery, University of Saskatchewan, on February 22-April 7, 2002.

In conjunction with this exhibition, a national symposium "Identity and Poetic Vision: Dmytro Stryjek," will convene at the University of Saskatchewan on February 22-23, 2002. Several specialists in the areas of visual arts, psychology, anthropology, Ukrainian Canadian folklore, ethnicity and cultural studies are invited to participate in the symposium to examine the relationship between the art and identity through the exploration of the art of Dmytro Stryjek.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 6, 2002, No. 1, Vol. LXX

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