Years after her death, a trailblazing transgender P.E.I. artist will be part of prestigious Venice show

Erica Rutherford - a groundbreaking transgen‐ der painter, filmmaker and writer - is the first Prince Edward Island artist to ever be selected for the presti‐ gious Venice Biennale art show.

Rutherford died in 2008. Now five of her paintings from the late 1960s and early 1970s will be part of the main Biennale exhibit, titled Foreigners Everywhere, which opens April 20. She is the only Canadian artist in this year's exhibit.

"This is an artist that I'm really, really glad to see get‐ ting recognized," said Pan Wendt, curator at the Con‐ federation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown, who has spent years studying and cat‐ aloguing Rutherford's work.

"To have someone like Er‐ ica, who certainly has to be one of the most important artists in P.E.I. in the past 50 years, get this kind of recog‐ nition is a kind of validation of what we [at the gallery] do," Wendt said.

Rutherford was born in Scotland in 1923 and spent the first part of her life in England, then moved to the U.S. before settling to P.E.I. in 1985.

In recent years, her work has been gaining internation‐ al recognition, including being part of a current exhib‐ it at London's Tate Britain museum.

The artist's daughter, Su‐ sana Rutherford, says the in‐ terest has been validating.

"The curators … that we've dealt with, they're real‐ ly excited to discover her," Rutherford told Mainstreet P.E.I. host Matt Rainnie.

She was an artist who was kind of a restless explorer of herself, really. She used her work as a way of working through her own issues and her relationship to the world. - Curator Pan Wendt

The Venice Biennale, which features artists from around the globe, is widely considered to be one of the most important art exhibi‐ tions in the world.

The five paintings chosen for the Biennale - self-por‐ traits of a sort - reflect her mother's struggle with gen‐ der identity, Susana Ruther‐ ford said.

"It was a lifetime preoccu‐ pation for her, feeling that she was not living the right gender," she said.

Wendt also sees that struggle in the Biennale paintings.

"I think they're her imag‐ ining herself becoming a woman. And she's posing of‐ ten in sort of very glamorous outfits," Wendt said.

Seeing those gender iden‐ tity issues reflected in Rutherford's work is not a surprise, said Erika Warren, a transgender artist living in Charlottetown.

"A lot of trans art is about that struggle," said Warren. "Sometimes that's the only way you can imagine yourself that way is to just put it out there through art, because actually saying it is such a heavy thing to deal with."

Warren said she has chan‐ neled a lot of her own feel‐ ings about gender identity in‐ to her art.

"A lot of my art deals with themes of that: themes of otherness or not feeling con‐ nected to your body. It's a re‐ ally difficult thing," she said.

Warren said she is happy to see Erica Rutherford re‐ ceiving this type of recogni‐ tion, noting that trans people often get attention for nega‐ tive reasons.

"It doesn't do us justice as people," said Warren. "To have the discussion be about the art she did and the im‐ pact she had, instead of just the fact that she's trans, is heartening."

An evolving artist

Rutherford went through many phases as an artist, said Wendt. Earlier in her ca‐ reer, she worked in theatre and film and made abstract paintings and collages.

The paintings in the Bien‐ nale are done in a pop art style, he said, and feature hard edges and saturated colours.

After she started visiting P.E.I. in the 1970s and then moved there permanently, her art continued to evolve.

"There's a ton of imagery of Prince Edward Island in her work from then on, and she really celebrates the kind of comfortable domesticity she finds here," Wendt said.

"She was an artist who was kind of a restless ex‐ plorer of herself, really. She used her work as a way of working through her own is‐ sues and her relationship to the world."

Susana Rutherford and Wendt are travelling to Venice to see the Biennale show. They both say the re‐ cent attention comes out of a desire by galleries and cura‐ tors to uncover the work of marginalized artists.

"All of these artists who have been overlooked are starting to be recognized," said Wendt.

Erica Rutherford faced discrimination in the art wor‐ ld and academia, said Wendt, and that was part of the rea‐ son she ended up moving to P.E.I.

Rutherford's neighbours and friends in Pinette, a rural area in the Island's south‐ east, were understanding of her gender identity but it was still difficult, her daughter said.

"Being a trans parent in the 1970s wasn't always an easy road," said Susana Rutherford.

"There was a lot of love and support and under‐ standing inside of our family and amongst my parents' close friends. But in the wider community, we didn't always deal with the most understanding reactions."

Retrospective exhibit

Wendt is curating a retro‐ spective exhibit of Ruther‐ ford's work that will open at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery this June before tour‐ ing nationally.

He hopes it will be a chance for Islanders and visi‐ tors to discover Rutherford's art.

"There's a lot of people here who will remember Er‐ ica, but I think there's a whole new audience for her work," said Wendt.

"I think it's going to blow people away."