Pavilion Art Galleries
One of Winnipeg's most recognizable and beloved landmarks, The Pavilion has served as the heart of Assiniboine Park for over 100 years.
The original building was constructed in 1908, one year before the Park officially opened, and replaced with the current structure in 1930 following a fire.
Today, the beautifully restored Pavilion is home to the largest collections of works by renowned Manitoba artists Ivan Eyre, Walter J. Phillips, and Clarence Tillenius. Through WAG@ThePark, a partnership with the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG), Park visitors enjoy free entry to expertly curated exhibitions, drawn largely from the Conservancy's collection, as well as from the WAG's vast holdings.
The Pavillion's 2nd-floor galleries will be closed at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 15, for a private event.
The Galleries
Community Gallery (2nd Floor)
Paintings by Karen Adamson and Alan Adamson
December 1, 2024 - February 3, 2025
Paintings by Karen Adamson and Alan Adamson. Karen's show titled "Dark and Deep" depicts nocturnal winter landscapes with horses from her home in Roseisle Manitoba. Her brother Alan's paintings "Landscapes and Faces" is a mix of Lake Winnipeg landscapes and family portraits.
Art Image:
Clouds and Rocks by Alan Adamson
Pastel
Pooh Gallery (2nd Floor)
“The Best Bear in All the World”: The Many Sides of Winnie-the-Pooh
This exhibition brings together objects, archives, and works of art drawn from the collection of the Assiniboine Park Conservancy, Colebourn Family Archive, and the Archive of Modern Conflict to sift through the elements of fact, fiction, and fantasy that together comprise the multilayered identity of Winnie-the-Pooh.
John P Crabb Gallery (2nd Floor)
Living Pictures from the Land
COMING SOON
*The John P Crabb Gallery is temporarily closed for maintenance.
Living Pictures from the Land explores connections between tableau vivants and the idyllic watercolour paintings of Walter J. Phillips, drawing further parallels with works by contemporary artists Edward Burtynsky, Simon Hughes, Sarah Anne Johnson, Holly King, and Shelley Niro.
“Pure landscapes are weather pictures, pictures of light, records of the day,” wrote Phillips in his unpublished manuscript. Tableau characteristics are embodied by the artist in the careful and seemingly innocent depiction of landscapes through the placement of a canoe on a lake, a totem among the trees, or a young child gazing upon a picturesque scene. Ingrained in our national consciousness, these views reinforce white settler colonial aspirations of a Canadian utopia. Like tableau vivants, Phillips' works straddle the space between the real and the imaginary.
Presented alongside contemporary photography, print and painting, the exhibition investigates the artistic desire for a true and real image, highlighting instead the tensions that surface between constructed binaries of fact and fiction, document and myth, past and future. In this way, the exhibition question constructions of truth on a land rife with intertwined histories.
Participating Artists: Walter J. Phillips, Edward Burtynsky, Simon Hughes, Sarah Anne Johnson, Holly King, and Shelley Niro
Holly King. Canadian, b. 1958. Fair, from the series Coming into View, 2002. chromogenic colour print on paper, 1/5. 153 x 109.5 cm. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Gift of the artist, 2014-126. Photo by Ernest Mayer, courtesy of WAG-Qaumajuq
Ivan Eyre Gallery (3rd Floor)
Shifting Horizons
November 30 - Spring 2025
“The difference between land and the sky is insignificant,” the artist Ivan Eyre has said. The beloved Manitoban is recognized for his earnest portrayal of the prairie landscape—the high horizon a defining feature of his work. Eyre’s fervent exploration of the horizon line is the thematic concept of Shifting Horizons, an exhibition that probes the metaphorical and physical space of the horizon to explore the ways in which it shapes our visual perspective.
Including selected paintings and drawings by Eyre from the Assiniboine Park Conservancy alongside works in WAG-Qaumajuq’s collection, Shifting Horizons activates the horizon as subject—a point of contact as well as a site of contention where lines, shapes, and patterns brim with energy. Works by Billy Akavak, Diana Thorneycroft, Sylvie Readman, Mario Yrisarry and more are presented together to reflect on the potential of the horizon as a transformative space. The exhibition contends that the horizon line does not simply guide our sightline—it also disrupts space and interrupts time.
Participating Artists: Ivan Eyre with Billy Akavak, David Firman, Ron Gorsline, Bruce Head, Lisa Klapstock, Kenneth Campbell Lochhead, Sylvie Readman, Tony Tascona, Diana Thorneycroft, Elizabeth Willmott and Mario Yrisarry.
Tony Tascona. Canadian, 1926-2006. Wave after Wave, from the series The Grand Western Canadian Series 78, 1978. silkscreen on paper. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery; Acquired with the assistance of the Canada Council, G-78-65
Contact gallerymanager@assiniboinepark.ca for general inquiries about art at Assiniboine Park.
Inquiries from artists regarding exhibitions in the Community Gallery can be directed to submissions@assiniboinepark.ca.
