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This exhibition runs January 24 - March 25, 2026, at Dunlop Art Gallery (Central Library)
This exhibition brings together artworks from the permanent collections of Regina Public Library and SK Arts. The exhibition presents works by 18 artists from Saskatchewan or Prairie region, paired as diptychs to spark conversation, inviting viewers to uncover connections, contrasts, and new meanings. Take your time to look closely and discover what ideas, relationships, and interplay emerge between the works. Think about how your history and perspectives shape your understanding of the artwork.
Artworks by Holly Aubichon, Christi Belcourt, Katherine Boyer, Jerry Didur, Leah Marie Dorion, Brenda Dowedoff, Gabriela García-Luna, Grace Holyer, Marsha Kennedy, Ronald Kostyniuk, Zachari Logan, Mahdi Mahdian, Brenda Francis Pelkey, Laura St. Pierre, Leesa Streifler, Ulrike Veith, Nic Wilson, and Hanna Yokozawa Farquharson.
Special thanks to SK Arts for the loan of artworks for this exhibition.
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Dunlop Art Gallery Exhibitions |
TAGS: | Dunlop Art Gallery | Current | Artist and Author Talks | Art |
Christina Battle, William “Billy” Beal, Anna Binta Diallo, Cheryl Foggo, Judah Iyunade, Richard Allan Thomas, Chukwudubem Ukaigwe, NASRA, Frank B. Jamerson fonds
BLACK PRAIRIES honours more than one hundred years of Black/African-Canadian cultural production in the Prairies, spanning the 1920s to the present, with a focus on lens-based media. The exhibition includes newly commissioned contemporary artwork, original glass plate negatives by early 1900s Black Manitoban photographer William “Billy” Beal, and archival photographs from the City of Edmonton’s Frank B. Jamerson fonds.
Beal’s glass plate negatives, taken between 1915 and 1925, document homesteading life in western Manitoba from the perspective of a lone Black man living in an all-white rural township during the early 1900s. Meanwhile, the photographs in the Frank B. Jamerson fonds, created by unnamed photographers, depict everyday Black life in and around Amber Valley, Alberta—a historic community formed during the Great Black Migration of 1910. This migration saw African-Americans fleeing racial violence in the United States to seek refuge in the Canadian Prairies. The selected photographs in this exhibition capture the first thirty years after the migration, reflecting the experiences of the first generation of Black migrants in the region. The contemporary artists in this exhibition foster important dialogues about personal histories, a changing climate, and collective experiences in the region.
Additionally, the exhibition includes the newly created short film For Caesar by filmmaker Cheryl Foggo. The film features Leander Lane, the great-grandson of Julius Caesar Lane, a founding member of the Shiloh People, the historic African-Canadian community in Saskatchewan.
BLACK PRAIRIES provides space for communal grounding and reflection on the ongoing and ever-expanding continuum of Black life and Black cultural production in the Prairies.
Image: Rosa and Mary, Amber Valley, Alberta c. 1940, black and white photograph, 5 x 6 cm. Frank B. Jamerson fonds, courtesy City of Edmonton Archives.
