Category: Artist Spotlight

A recent graduate of our Exchange Arts Incubator program, Solange Roy is a Francophone, Indigenous ceramic artist living and working in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Solange obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours from the University of Manitoba in 2022. She won the People’s Choice award at the BFA Honours exhibition and her cake sculpture “You Want a Piece of Me?” won the provincial prize for the BMO 1st Art! National Competition. Solange specializes in hand-building methods to create intricate, colourful and unique sculptures.

Lake Winnipeg is Gayle Halliwell’s first love; her watercolours of this freshwater ocean are in collections across North America. As painting large is also a favourite challenge for Gayle, she gleefully splashes acrylics across canvas as well. When neither media represents a subject that dominates her mind’s eye, she turns to clay and squishes out shapes that play on her theme. In 2010, Gayle rehabbed a derelict building in Winnipeg Beach to become Studio 410. Typically a messy hive of creativity, she tidies for The WAVE Studio Tour, appointments and to host…

Alan Lacovetsky has been making functional pottery and sculpture from custom-mixed clays for nearly fifty years. He has worked and exhibited throughout Canada, the US, Australia, China, Korea, Japan, Thailand and Croatia. After receiving a Master’s degree from the University of North Dakota, he taught at both the University of Manitoba and Brandon University. His earthy and ageless work is made on a foot-powered wheel and fired in a wood-burning kiln in a studio near Oak Hammock Marsh, with many materials sourced locally.

Amanda Onchulenko is a painter, textile artist and author, and the current Artist-In-Residence at the Fairmont Hotel. Her work is both strong and colourful, with emotion reflected in each brush stroke. As part of the Interlake WAVE Artists group, she opens her studio twice a year for tours and purchases.

Lita Fontaine is of Dakota, Anishinaabe, and Metis descent. Fontaine was born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, and grew up in Winnipeg’s North End. She is an interdisciplinary artist, and received her Masters of Fine Arts specializing in Inter-Media. Lita is a founding member of Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Gallery, where she held her first solo exhibition. She received the University of Manitoba Distinguished Alumni Award in 2021 and her work can be found on murals in Winnipeg, and in personal and public art collections.

Shawna Forester Smith is a chronically ill and disabled Ojibwe artist and writer living in a chronic care unit at Deer Lodge Centre in Winnipeg.

Creative Manitoba’s Artist Spotlight is happy to feature singer/songwriter and past GerryFest mentee, Shay Wolf. GerryFest is an annual arts festival at The St Norbert Arts Centre, honouring Gerry Atwell’s memory and contributions to the artistic community. GerryFest hosts the SNAC Rise Up Mentorship Program for emerging artists.

Ashley Bieniarz, Kwiat is an avant-pop Metis and Polish artist from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has been playing piano since she was three years old but didn’t start performing original music until 2015 while she was completing my bachelor of music at the University of Manitoba in the Desautels Faculty of Music.

Tyson Caron is a proud dad, husband, son, friend, a local Winnipeg filmmaker, and coffee drinker. He’s a person who puts relationships first. As a writer, director, producer of both documentary and fiction films, relationships are at the heart of his art form.

Suzie Martin has been the Artistic Director of Theatre Projects Manitoba since April 1, 2022. She is a Director and sometimes Dramaturg, who is admittedly obsessed with the mechanics of storytelling.