Discover the Winnipeg Art Gallery and Qaumajuq

The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) is one of the country’s leading visual art museums, with a permanent collection of 24,000 works in a dramatic, arrowhead-shape modernist building downtown. Next year will be particularly buzzy, as the WAG opens Qaumajuq (pronounced “HOW-ma-yourq” and meaning “It is bright, it is lit”), a first-of-its-kind centre devoted to Inuit arts and culture. You’ll find the world’s largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art here, when the 40,000-square-foot space opens in February 2021.

Meet the curator: Riva Symko, Head of Collections & Exhibitions and Curator of Canadian Art. As a newcomer to Manitoba when she joined the WAG about a year ago, Symko got to know her new home by curating an exhibition called “In Place: Reflections from Manitoba,” drawn from the permanent collection.

“It celebrates 42 Manitoban artists over the past 50 years,” says Symko. “There are some pieces in there that haven’t been shown in a really long time.” A study of the many ways that identity, culture and material are set in place, the show features a rich mix of photography, figurative and abstract artwork, including “The Thin Edge of the Wedge,” a large canvas by Betty Dimock, which is bisected with joyful pops of colour.

Shop and support WAG: Gift an individual membership, from $35 ( wag.ca/ product/gift-membership), or a gift card (redeemable for online store only), from $25 ( shop.wag.ca/gift-cards).

GIFT PICK

Until you can explore the new Qaumajuq Centre in person, you can find works by Inuit artists in the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s online gift shop. “Travelling by Nightfall” (pictured left) was created by Ulukhaktok-born printmaker Susie Malgokak, known for her exquisite eye for detail. “TRAVELLING BY NIGHTFALL” BY SUSIE MALGOKAK, $250, SHOP.WAG.CA