William Lobchuk The Great Northwest Series (triptych), Gift of Bill Lobchuk, School of Art Gallery Permanent Collection
Celebrating Winnipeg’s Grand Western Canadian Screen Shop
In 1968, Bill Lobchuk [DipArt/66] opened The Screen Shop at 48 Princess Street in Winnipeg. Thirty years since its closing, the impact of the Grand Western Canadian Screen Shop continues to resonate in Canada’s art community.
Superscreen: The Making of an Artist-Run Counterculture and the Grand Western Canadian Screen Shop, is a major exhibition that will launch this spring in the prairie provinces, just over five decades since the silkscreen printing shop opened its doors in Winnipeg.
It eventually became a hub of creative activity in the city, a centre around which artists from across Canada gathered to produce and promote their prints. Many of the artists whose work is featured in Superscreen received a diploma or Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Manitoba, including Bill Lobchuk, Don Proch [BFA/64, CertEd/65, BEd/68], Winston Leathers [DipArt/56], E. J. (Ted) Howorth [BFA/69, CertEd/72], Tony Tascona [DipArt/50] and Joe Fafard [BFA/66, LLD/07]. The Screen Shop closed in 1987, but not before it had played a significant role in establishing silkscreen printmaking as an important contemporary medium on the prairies.
Superscreen, a co-production of the MacKenzie Art Gallery and the School of Art Gallery, was curated by Alex King, Timothy Long and Anthony Kiendl. It opens in Regina on March 9, followed by a showing at the School of Art Gallery in fall 2019.