Copyright 2001 by Edward Willett

More than a year ago, not long after this column started, I took you on a virtual tour of some of Regina's art galleries by visiting their Web sites.

That many months is an eternity in Internet time, so this week, as I gear back up to weekly updates of this column after becoming rather irregular in my writing of them during the summer (new baby; 'nuff said), I thought I'd revisit those Web sites and see how they're shaping up.

As I said last year, visiting a Web site is never a substitute for visiting an actual gallery, but Web sites also offer their own awards and can enhance your visit to the brick-and-mortar, paintings-on-the-wall reality.

In alphabetical order:

The Assiniboia Gallery. This continues to be one of my favorite galleries, and one of my favorite Web sites, with information (and high-quality, high-resolution photographs of the artworks) about current and upcoming shows, biographical information and samples of the works of all the artists represented at the gallery, and the opportunity to be added to an online mailing list that ensures you'll be notified whenever new works by the artists that interest you arrive.

At the moment, you can browse through images of "The Harvest Show," a show of works by various artists with the common theme of the Harvest, plus images from the upcoming show of works by Allan Sapp. Visit the Web site, then visit the gallery!

The Dunlop Art Gallery. The Dunlop Art Gallery, with a central gallery in the main branch of the Regina Public Library and a satellite gallery at the Sherwood Village Branch, has a very impressive site, divided into six major areas: details (everything you ever wanted to know about the Dunlop, publications (a database and price list for the books and papers published by the gallery), site seeing (links to other art sites), virtual Dunlop (one of the most interesting sections, because it features an exhibit created expressly for viewing online), What's On (current, past and future exhibits) and communication (where you can leave a comment). The current Virtual Dunlop exhibit is isi-pikiskwewin ayapihkesisak (Speaking the Language of Spiders), which Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew developed during a Banff residency in the fall of 1996. It deals with the influence of drugs, prostitution and criminalization on First Nations street kids and the contrasting influence of First Nations spirituality.

Joe Moran Gallery. This is a very basic page, part of the large Wascana Centre Authority site, but it does provide useful information, including hours of operation, location and a description of the current show (without, alas, any images).

MacKenzie Art Gallery. The MacKenzie Art Gallery is the flagship gallery of the city, and appropriately enough, has the most impressive Web site. It's gorgeous, well-laid-out, and very complete. You can view information about current events, the current shows ("Groundcover," an exhibit of works by Ursulina McPhee Stepan; "John & Lou's 1923 Voyage," by artist John Will, and "Anatomy of a Garden," featuring works from the Permanent Collection), past and future shows, and the gallery itself.

The best feature is the section called "the Collection," where you can search through images of the permanent collection by artist or object (i.e., collage, painting, photograph, sculpture). As the site says, "It's the next best thing to being there!"

McIntyre Street Gallery. Not as flashy as some of the gallery's sites, but worth a visit, the McIntyre Street Gallery's Web site provides a glimpse of the works in the current exhibit, biographies and samples of the work of the gallery's other artists and a schedule of upcoming exhibits.

Neutral Ground. This site has changed URLs since I last visited it, and its looks have improved, too. In fact, this, too, is an imposingly impressive Web site, featuring a plethora of fascinating material, from descriptions of past exhibits to a virtual walkthrough (QuickTime format) of the gallery space to complete on-line works of art, such as the blandly named but interesting "Projects" by Eduardo Aquino & Karen Shanski, a meditation on various aspects of arts and society. The next exhibit at Neutral Ground, by the way, is KIT's "Airbag Architecture."

SaskPower Gallery on the Roof. The Gallery on the Roof (of the SaskPower building) has featured Saskatchewan artists for more than 30 years. The gallery's site, part of the SaskPower site, includes basic information about the gallery, plus a biography of the artist whose work is currently on display, and a single image from the show. Information about artists whose work has been displayed in the recent past is also available. (UPDATE 2004:  this gallery has been closed.)

Susan Whitney Gallery. The Susan Whitney Gallery is one of my favorites, and the last time I did a survey of gallery Web site, it didn't have one; but it does now, and it's a good one, with an online version of the current show (an exhibit by Wilf Perrault) and the past few shows, biographies and samples of the work of all the various artists represented by the gallery, a schedule of upcoming exhibits, and more. I particularly like the way artworks are displayed in their own window with an easy point-and-click interface to move you from one to the next.

I've probably missed some galleries and some Web sites. If you know of one I should visit, let me know and I'll include them in a future column.

In the meantime, pay the above galleries a visit on-line--and then, having whet your appetite, pay them a visit in person.

Art, after all, both on-line and off, is food for the soul.

Posted September 22, 2004