Current Exhibitions

More Than Sugar & Butter

Sarah Cummings-Truszkowski

Nov 22nd, 2024 – Jan 24th, 2025

Since I was a child, I have loved spending time in the kitchen baking with my mother and grandmother. Together, we would bake upside down cakes, ice box cookies, cherry loaves, and Christmas desserts. Often, I would just watch them bake, or “help” by licking the spoons or mixing beaters. These days, with my grandmother gone and my mother living across the country in Ontario, I spend time baking with – and for – friends and family nearby.

By making each dessert into painted works of art, I reinforce the significance of baking. I elevate the meaning behind a simple baked dessert and look into the essence of what it means. I believe that by lifting up women’s experiences and time spent together baking at home celebrates the importance of motherhood, suggests how critical time spent together is, and for me, it highlights the integral role maternal women have played in my life. I cherish these women and the traditions they passed on to me.

Each work of art is painted with acrylic paint, on a square framed substrate of either canvas or board, with a two-inch frame. Each dessert is meaningful. For example, Candycane Swirl Fudge is only a treat for Holiday celebrations, Marzipan Squares with their green and pink batter are my brother’s favourite, Danish Pastries dotted with jam and icing are only to be eaten Christmas morning, and a chocolate cake is always made for my son’s birthday.

Over the years, I have collected many old writings, recipes, and recipe books that have been passed down through several generations of my maternal ancestry. Recipes with creased corners, faded words, butter stains, and fingerprints. I cherish these recipes and the desserts I make from them. The desserts are much more than the butter, sugar and calories they contain. For me, desserts are full of love, history, family, traditions, celebrations, and precious time spent with loved-ones.

Now, it is I who bakes special cakes and cookies, squares and rolls, with (and for) my family. Many of my paintings are of cakes I baked for my own childrens’ birthdays, cupcakes I made for class celebrations, or new recipes I have learned to bake on my own like a Strawberry Roulade or Linzer Cookies for special occasions. All of my paintings, all the special desserts, represent love; love from mother to child, love from one human to another, love through generations.

WEEB

Robert Truszkowksi

Nov 22nd, 2024 – Jan 24th, 2025

The concept for this exhibition is a bit hard to untangle. I have given it the title, WEEB, which is also the title of the paper lanterns installation.  Weeb is a slightly pejorative term, one sometimes given to Westerners who are obsessed with Japanese culture; typically Manga and Anime. Urban Dictionary, among others, defines a Weeb as an “unsociable white male, obsessed with Japan, who lives alone in their parents’ basement”. Not exactly a compliment! But in recent years, Weebs have sort of reclaimed this name, taking pride in their weirdness, and finding a community of like-minded folx, connected by the internet and social media. Language is powerful, and the act of this reclamation, much like the term nerd or geek, has earned Weebs a well-deserved reprieve from cowering in basements, afraid that some kid at their highschool (or office job, for that matter) might out them as uncool. Weebs (and nerds and geeks) rise up!

Submission Procedures

Submission Requirements

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or via mail to:
Curator
Estevan Art Gallery and Museum
118 – 4th Street
Estevan, SK
S4A 0T4

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