The latest exhibition at the Soul Gallery in the Exchange District is a study in stark contrasts.
On the northern wall of the gallery, abstract paintings with an almost-metallic veneer reflect a grounded, immovable faith held by artist Sue Gordon in a collection appropriately titled Steadfast. On the opposite wall, softer colours share Aliana Au’s view of the landscapes outside of Winnipeg, particularly those along the banks of the Red River.
Au’s inspiration for these works (collected under the title Changing Light) came almost immediately after arriving in Winnipeg after growing up in mainland China outside of Guangzhou and in Hong Kong. “When I first got off the plane, I was in shock,” she recalls. “I looked at that vast openness of sky and the horizon, and I said, ‘I have never seen anything like that.’”
With that flatness comes a feeling Manitobans know on a visceral level: the harsh winds that blow especially hard in the winter. Most of Au’s landscapes are situated in the winter, with the open whiteness of the fields marked with the greens of the shelterbelt trees.
“The force of the wind, I mean, everybody can feel it,” says Au. “Not that you physically feel it, you can see it – the bending of the trees, the sun and everything. But those evergreens are so striking – it’s like a protection.”
Another colour that Manitobans will recognize in Au’s work is that telltale pink of the horizon. The colours of the sun coming through the harsh winter air are the reason that Au dubbed her half of the dual exhibition Changing Light in the first place. “I’m sensitive to pick up all those pink, orange, [and] yellow,” she explains, “and because you have so much sky, you are much more aware of it. My sense of the light and how important it is to me… it’s just survival in the wintertime.”
The dual exhibition of Changing Light and Steadfast will be on display at the Soul Gallery on Albert Street until March 7. Hours and more information are available at the gallery’s website.