And each part of the whole falls off
And cannot know it knew, except
Here and there, in cold pockets
Of remembrance, whispers out of time.
John Ashberry - Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror

SOMETHING ABOUT WINNIPEG

CAROLE FREEMAN is a painter of people and narrative pictures. Her imagery combines clinical study, empathy, humour, and ironic juxtaposition. Occasionally referencing Old and Modern Masters, she whimsically subverts history – art, cultural, personal - with the “zeal of a transgressive visual polyglot”.(1) Stylistically lying between classical representation and contemporary figuration, Freeman’s paintings manipulate time and space through fine detail and gestural brushwork, monochromatic and luminous colour, lightness of spirit and soulful depth.

While considering her solo exhibition for Gurevich Fine Art, Freeman, a Winnipeg émigré, felt compelled to make it be ‘something about Winnipeg’ – memories of growing up, family and friends - inspired by friendly people, bleak winters, brief summers, big skies, Winnipeg culture, history, and geography. In her Toronto studio, Something About Winnipeg evolved into over 80 pictures depicting Freeman’s investigation, acknowledgement, and surrender to “Peg’s” enduring influence and significance, and the mark it left on her psyche.

Her subjects, from the everyday (a cinnamon bun, nose warmers) to the unexpected (a pirate, a thief, a Mountie, a princess) enchant, and populate Freeman’s imaginative, capricious, and poignant retelling of historical and personal stories of her hometown. From the monumental to scaled down moments, Winnipeg people, still life, and landscape, Freeman’s paintings express both singular allegories and one continuous metaphorical narrative that raise questions of time, place, and personage, with some answers in cryptic, playful, or emotive titles. In the long run, Something About Winnipeg became Freeman’s “self portrait in a convex mirror”.

As source material, Freeman employed personal and found photographs for access to subjects and the creation of this body of work, as well as the distillation of works by Piero Della Francesca, Manet, Sargent, Richter, and Margaux Williamson. In the words of former art critic for the Globe and Mail, Gary Michael Dault, Something About Winnipeg, is Freeman’s “epic undertaking…the Summa of a city… the jewel in the crown”.(2)

Freeman discussed her practice at an Art Talk/Art Walk event at the Winnipeg Free Press News Café on Friday, October 28, 2016, before the gallery opening. A feature article titled "Painting the Faces of Winnipeg" by Alison May Gilmore appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press on October 31, 2016, highlighting the exhibition's emotional depth and Freeman's connection to the city. It included images of key works and quotes from the artist.

1. “Carole Freeman’s Selections 2012 -2016”, David Saric, Artoronto.ca, August, 2016.

2. “Surprise Appearances”, Gary Michael Dault, Arabella, Summer, 2016.

PAINTING DESCRIPTIONS

Something about Winnipeg

Situated at the meeting place of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, this history painting is composed from stories Freeman learned in school or was told by her parents: the General Strike of 1919, the 1950 flood, the Queen's Royal visit, skating on the river, Sieur de La Verandrye Louis Riel, the Selkirk settlers the Countless of Dufferin, the Winnipeg Grenadiers who fought in World Wars I and II, the World War I women's volunteer division photographed outside Winnipeg by L.B. Foote, the true story of Winnie the Pooh, Aboriginal teepees in Buffalo hunting as depicted in the Paul Kane Painting Assiniboine Hunting Buffalo.

48 Portraits 

In 1972, Gerhard Richter’s 48 Portraits at the Venice Biennale’s German pavilion showcased grayscale paintings of male European cultural figures in a uniform, softly rendered style, creating an anonymous aesthetic. In 1992, Gottfried Helnwein responded with 48 Portraits of influential women in vivid red hues. 

Inspired by both, Freeman’s 48 Portraits, exhibited in 2016’s Something about Winnipeg, features equal numbers of men and women from Winnipeg, Canada—famous and obscure, Indigenous and Caucasian, spanning diverse roles such as writers, artists, and a thief. Rendered in grayscale at one-quarter the size of Richter’s, Freeman’s work uses detailed brushwork to highlight individuality.

Subject List:

Claire Adams (Silent Film Actress)
J.H. Ashdown (Hardware Magnate)
Gail Asper (Museum Philanthropist)
Izzy Asper (Media Magnate)
Evelyn Luella Moore Ames (Home Economist)
Adam Beach (First Nations Actor)
Rachel Browne (Choreographer, Dancer)
Tyler Brûlé (Magazine Publisher)
Minnie J. Campbell (Community Leader)
Ruth Jacobs Cohen Collie (Poet, Writer)
Burton Cummings (Rock Musician)
Rosanna Deerchild (Cree Broadcaster)
Deanna Durbin (Musical Film Star)
Marcel Dzama (Contemporary Artist)
Ivan Eyre (Canadian Painter)
Lionel Lemoine Fitzgerald (Group of Seven Artist)
Nahanni Fontaine (Indigenous Advocate)
Etienne Gaboury (Landmark Architect)
Monty Hall (Game Show Host)
Ray Henault (Military Leader)
Franz Johnston (Group of Seven Artist)
Guy Gavriel Kay (Fantasy Author)
Phil Kives (K-Tel Founder)
Wanda Koop (Contemporary Painter)
Chantal Kreviazuk (Singer-Songwriter)
Margaret Laurence (Canadian Novelist)
Ken Leishman (Flying Bandit, Thief)
Dorothy Livesay (Award-Winning Poet)
Guy Maddin (Experimental Filmmaker)
John Alexander MacAulay (Red Cross Leader)
Marshall McLuhan (Media Theorist)
Nellie McClung (Feminist, Suffragist)
Margaret Stovel McWilliams (Feminist, Historian)
Leo Mol (Sculptor)
Kent Monkman (Cree Artist)
Sylvia Ostry (Economist, Statistician)
James Armstrong Richardson (Aviation Pioneer)
Gabrielle Roy (Francophone Author)
Gerry Schwartz (Onex Corporation Founder)
Carol Shields (Pulitzer Prize Novelist)
Murray Sinclair (Truth and Reconciliation Chair)
David Steinberg (Comedian, Director)
Gail Stephens (City of Winnipeg Organization and Business Leader)
Sir William Stephenson (Spymaster, James Bond Inspiration)
Eva Stubbs (Sculptor, Painter)
Lillian Benyon Thomas (Suffragist, Writer)
Susan Thompson (Winnipeg’s First Female Mayor)
Kim Wheeler (Anishinabe/Mohawk Producer)