Grounding Relations: Exploring Our Connection to the Land

On View: July 3 – September 27, 2025

Selections from the Mann Art Gallery Permanent Collection

Curated by Jesse Campbell

This summer, the Mann Art Gallery invites visitors to explore Grounding Relations, a thoughtful and evocative selection of artworks from our Permanent Collection, curated by Jesse Campbell. On view from July 3 to September 27, 2025, this exhibition is presented in dialogue with Laura Hosaluk’s concurrent show, The Circle and the Dot, offering a rich, multifaceted meditation on our relationships to land, material, and heritage.

Linda Chartier, Spindle with Stone, 2003, oil on canvas, 40 x 35"

Grounding Relations considers how identity is deeply informed by the land upon which we live and from where we grow. The featured artworks—created by artists working across the prairie provinces—suggest that we are not only shaped by the land, but sustained by it. From its abundance of food and shelter to its resilience in the face of change, the land offers more than physical resources: it provides grounding, comfort, inspiration, and a sense of belonging.

The exhibition opens and closes with artworks by Linda Chartier, Pamella Burrill, Bob Pitzel, Andrée Felley-Martinson, Ivan Eyre, Allen Sapp, Michel Boutin, William Eakin, Beth Hone, McGregor Hone and Paul Kachur. Their use of organic materials such as sticks, clay, rocks, and shells reflect a tactile intimacy with the natural world. These simple yet potent elements are rich with stories—they are the raw materials of homes, trails, and tools, and they carry traces of memory and transformation.

Allen Sapp, Untitled, undated, oil on board, 32.5x26.5" Bequest from the estate of Andrée Felley-Martinson

Other featured works speak to places that hold personal and cultural meaning. Bob Pitzel’s Once Upon a Time, a watercolour of an aging farmhouse near St. Benedict, SK, captures a quiet reverence for prairie structures and the lives once lived in them. Similarly, Allen Sapp’s untitled painting reimagines his memories of Red Pheasant Cree Nation. Through expressive mark-making and rich colour, Sapp evokes the raw beauty of winter days, offering a poignant reminder of how the land and its rhythms are embedded in his art and identity.

Ivan Eyre’s surreal landscape Factory adds another layer to this conversation. With symbolic and psychological intensity, the work suggests a land shaped by industry and unceasing labour. Organic forms mingle with mechanized structures and hybrid figures, gesturing to the impact of extractive processes on both land and people.

Together, the works in Grounding Relations present a compelling reflection on how we relate to the land—materially, emotionally, and spiritually. They ask us to look closely at the natural world around us and consider how our environments shape who we are, individually and collectively.

Since its founding by former Director/Curator Grace Eiko Thompson in 1993, the Mann Art Gallery’s Permanent Collection has grown to reflect the histories, interests, and cultural narratives of this region. Comprising donations from generous individuals and acquisitions made possible through the exceptional support of Diane and Roger Mann, the Collection remains central to our mission: to preserve, share, and activate artwork that inspires dialogue and critical engagement.

We are grateful to our funders—the City of Prince Albert, SK Arts, the Canada Council for the Arts, and Diane & Roger Mann—whose support makes exhibitions like Grounding Relations possible.