Review
CELEBRATING WOMEN
Larisa Sembaliuk Cheladyn
Runs until June 25
Art Central
Women are supposed to be the focus of a touring exhibition now open at Art Central. Celebrating Women features 25 watercolours from Edmonton-based artist Larisa Sembaliuk Cheladyn.
The National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC) is hosting the exhibition, and the show’s organizers write in a press release that each of the images tells a story "inspired by historic recollections, Canadian firsts, unique experiences, and current events." Yet on closer inspection, this exhibition in my mind has less to do with celebrating women and more to do with the artist’s success in marketing herself.
Cheladyn, a children’s book illustrator, understands that self-promotion is often the key to survival in the world of art. To this end she has been behind other touring exhibitions of her own paintings, including one of flowers that travelled across Canada from 1999 to 2001.
She was also the artist who, in 1996, sent a letter to Prince Philip in his role as the head of the World Wildlife Fund International. It eventually resulted in the Prince opening an exhibition of Cheladyn’s paintings at the Botanical Garden in Geneva, Switzerland in 1997. In an interview at the time for The Ukrainian Weekly, the artist said, "You can’t be afraid to ask for things."
And it was Cheladyn who also approached the NCWC about mounting a touring exhibition intended to celebrate the "passion, pride and perseverance of Canadian women."
Not that there is anything inherently wrong with an artist actively promoting herself. In fact, many talented artists remain unknown because they are too shy to get out of their studios and into the public eye. But in this case the work fails to match the gravitas of the exhibition’s theme. Perhaps a more accurate title for this selection of paintings would have been "Celebrating Cheladyn."
Even for those who enjoy the breezy stylistics of this watercolour artist, it will be a superficial experience. Adorning the walls of Gallery 105 (on the main floor of Art Central), her 25 works are cute, contrived and lacking in any real substance. The subjects range from homelessness, with a painting of the same name depicting a dandelion with its seeds cast aloft, to The Famous Five, who were apparently the inspiration for a work entitled Thinking Hats. Ostensibly marking the accomplishments of the five women who changed the course of Canada’s political and social history, it seems not so much a tribute as an excuse to paint a picture of pretty hats.
Homelessness, too, is a pale work when stacked up against the reality it claims to metaphorically represent. With so many women (and men) forced to survive on Canada’s streets, a watercolour of a dandelion in seed somehow doesn’t cut it.
It’s not that Cheladyn is without talent, but in my opinion, pretty pictures of flowers and hats are not the most effective way to communicate some of the most important issues relating to women in Canada.
All the proceeds of prints sold are in support of the work of the NCWC. |
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