Dialogue(s) with Jim Logan and Leah Snyder

Dialogue(s) with Jim Logan and Leah Snyder
Friday, May 31st at 6:30PM at L’Imagier
Collection of the Canada Council Art Bank

Jim Logan’s practice explores the northern Canadian Indigenous experience. Not so long ago it was against the law to keep Indigenous children from attending a residential school. In order to keep the language and spiritual beliefs of their community alive, Elders would select and hide a special child from the Church and government authorities and immerse that child in their language, stories, songs and spiritual beliefs. The child would become a knowledge-keeper and those who returned from the school ,and were searching could go to that person to be reacquainted with their culture.

Dialogue(s) is a captivating conversation program that brings together artists and cultural workers from diverse backgrounds to engage in meaningful discussions.

This initiative of the Centre d’Exposition L’Imagier and the Canada Council Art Bank contributes to the promotion of the Art Bank’s collection and its access to the public. Each conversation is an opportunity for thought-provoking exchanges of ideas. Artists, curators and cultural influencers come together to explore important topics related to art, culture, and society.

Through the series Dialogue(s), we aim to support a deeper understanding of different perspectives, challenge existing norms, and inspire new ways of thinking. The program provides a unique opportunity to delve into the creative process, artistic inspiration, and the social impact of art in today’s society.

Both of Jim’s parents originally lived in Alberta but moved to British Columbia to find employment. Jim was born in 1955 in New Westminster, B.C., and grew up in a Métis household in Port Coquitlam, B.C.

He studied at the Kootenay School of Art in Nelson, B.C., and spent several years working as a lay minister in the First Nations village of Kwanlin Dün, near Whitehorse, Yukon. While there, Jim’s life and art career were transformed as he first began painting social-statement pieces based on his observations and personal experiences.

Since 1984, he has exhibited his works in a number of commercial venues, including the Bearclaw Gallery in Edmonton, the Leona Lattimer Gallery in Vancouver, the Youngfox Gallery and Gallery Phillip in Toronto. His work has been collected in such galleries as The Yukon Art Center, the Kamloops Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Casula Powerhouse Gallery in Liverpool, Australia and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in Norman, Oklahoma. His work has been widely exhibited internationally in group exhibitions such as Indigena and Transitions which were exhibited in various galleries around the globe. His work has also been collected by the City of Ottawa, The National Indigenous Art Collection at the Department of Indigenous and Northern Development and by Global Affairs Canada.

Through his work, he advocates for the restoration of identity and self-awareness within First Nations communities. His 1989 exhibition A Requiem for Our Children was amongst the first exhibitions revealing the truth of Residential Schools in Canada, while his Classical Aboriginal Series sheds light on the low visibility of Indigenous aesthetics in formal art history and has managed to bring a new significance—a Indigenous perspective—to the icons of Western art.

Leah Snyder is a writer and digital designer (The L. Project). With over two decades of interfacing with screens, Leah has a unique vantage point to observe the way communication is changing and insight as to what these changes represent particularly around how the arts can use digital technology for cultural transformation. Her research focus looks at how we construct – or deconstruct – national narratives in a digital era as well as how we develop communities around shared values in cyberspace. Leah’s design focus has centred around the production of robust digital archives, mainly for contemporary Indigenous artists. As a writer, she has contributed to multiple Canadian art and architecture publications including Border Crossings, Canadian Architect Magazine, C Magazine, and the National Gallery of Canada as well as catalogues for clients such as Heffel Gallery. Curatorially, she is interested in how new technologies offer an opportunity to virtually stand in another’s shoes and see the world through another’s eyes. At its foundation, her work has been the construction of digital architectures that provide alternative engagement and educational spaces to experience a different story.

The Canada Council Art Bank makes contemporary art available to a wide public across the country through art rental, exhibitions and outreach activities. With more than 17,000 artworks by over 3,000 artists, the Art Bank is home to the largest collection of contemporary Canadian art in the world. It houses paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and prints by emerging and established artists, including a significant number of artworks by Indigenous artists. The entire collection can now be explored on  their website