Copyright 2000 by Edward Willett

In the 1970s, Susan Whitney was director of Kesik Gallery, a now-vanished cooperative gallery that used to be found on 11th Avenue.

She knew many business people and many artists in the city, so when business people were interested in buying art, they'd come to her to introduce them to the artists.

Some of those artists--people like David Thauberger and Joe Fafard--encouraged Susan to consider undertaking the task of bringing people and artists together more seriously. For one thing, she says, "they suggested I could get a commission!"

As a result, the Susan Whitney Gallery was born.

Originally, the gallery was located on Victoria and Osler, and Susan represented just three artists: David Thauberger, Joe Fafard, and Don McVeigh.

Today, the gallery is located in the historic Duncan house at 2220 Lorne Street. The house, built for Albert Duncan, Regina's first pharmacist, in 1908, was originally located at 2160 Cornwall, but was moved to its present location in 1987 when Susan bought it.

"When I bought it it was a shell, which was perfect for my needs," Susan says. "I built an addition on the back. I needed the extra space on the main floor and I also wanted some ceiling height."

Today, Susan represents 20 artists, and runs eight shows a year: six one-person shows, and two group shows. The one-person shows usually run a month or a little longer, while the group shows, which run in December and January and in July and August, typically last two months.

Her artists still include Thauberger (whose one-person show is currently at the gallery) and Fafard, along with Ryan Arnott, Bruce Anderson, Lorne Beug, Victor Cicansky, Cyndy Chwelos, Jack Cowin, Brian Gladwell, Rick Gorenko, Miranda Jones, Donna Kriekle, Jefferson Little, Jeff Nachtigall, Wilf Perrault, James Slingerland, Elyse St. George, Victor Tiede, Dan Unger, Russ Yuristy and Jane Zednik.

Each artist gets a one-person show once every two or three years, Susan says. "It's a small community, so every two or three years is enough," she says, although she admits she occasionally disappoints patrons who visit the gallery just a week after a show by their favorite artist closes and discover they'll have to wait two years for the next one.

As befits a gallery named after its owner, the Susan Whitney Gallery shows artwork that Susan Whitney likes. "It is so unlike a public gallery, where you have to answer to a board, you have to answer to a huge community," she says. "One of the things about a commercial gallery is you can be quite free with your own tastes."

And what does her taste run to? "It's certainly representational," Susan muses. "A lot of the work ties in with folk art--I really like functional furniture that has both art and function. A lot of the colours that I show are bold. Quite often the work is quite quirky. And there's a real connection to Saskatchewan." The Saskatchewan connection is not surprising, considering almost all have her shows feature Saskatchewan artists, and the exceptions are artists from outside the province who have influenced Saskatchewan artists.

Her clients, meanwhile, come from much further afield; it would be difficult for the gallery to survive if it had to rely just on clients in Regina. "I have a lot of clients across Canada and I'm building clients in the States," Susan said, a process that means "lots of work, lots of mail-outs, lot of images to be sent, a lot of shipping."

But although the clients live all over, a lot of them once lived here, Susan says, and began their relationship with her gallery while they were in Saskatchewan. "When I get my claws into someone I really don't let go," she says, laughing.

When someone visits her gallery for any show, Susan says, "I hope they find something they enjoy and like and have the interest to come back. I really hope they've enjoyed their experience and even if they don't like everything, they've found something they enjoy looking at, and are interested in seeing more work."

Coming up after the Thauberger show is a collection of paintings by Miranda Jones created to illustrate a children's book called The Floating Orchard. The show opens November 10, and Miranda Jones will be reading from the book on November 11. The next group show opens on December 8.

Be sure to drop by! A visit to a gallery is a great way to warm up a cold autumn or winter day...and the Susan Whitney Gallery is one of Regina's best.

Posted September 22, 2004