CUT KNIFE — Aleksi Ann is no stranger to the community of Cut Knife and soon her artwork won’t be either. Ann, who grew up in Cut Knife, was back on March 14 for an intimate evening at The Spare Room Gallery to showcase her collection, “Lurid Dreams”.
The collection of paintings has something for everyone. While many of the canvases are animal-related, the feeling one gets from looking at the art varies from one frame to the next. While many of her works encompass the feeling of warmth, happiness and joy, with inviting, vibrant, rich tones, in a series of four images of a fox, a goose, a deer and a coyote, Ann captures the intensity one feels when encountering these animals with massive glowing eyes while driving down the road at night.
As a young teen, Ann first started painting with watercolours, expanding into acrylics a few years later. She continued to find inspiration in everyday life, often using her heritage and self-identity as her muse and vibrant colours to create her pieces.
“At this show you’ll see a lot of animals indigenous to the prairies, a lot of Métis imagery and a lot of homage to queer prairie culture with my use of colour and material,” said Ann.
Many of Ann’s pieces exude bright hues that jump off the canvas and as she explained in her interview with Â鶹´«Ã½AV, there are a multitude of reasons for this.
“Often, I am paying homage to pride flags or vapourware aesthetics which have very rich and bright colours. I also like to heighten the emotional response in viewers. I found when I viewed artwork in person that had intense colour, it magnified my own emotional response. I like when my work is emotionally charged, whether it's happy, romantic, moody or unsettling.”
As she continued to create vibrant artwork, Ann started to add other mediums to her canvases. Her collection that is currently on display is a testament to what she can do with glitter, foil transfers and even beadwork. Ann said she participated in the Cando School’s Métis Days last spring and began brainstorming ways she could incorporate traditional Métis artistry into her contemporary paintings. One of these traditional arts included beading.
“I started with rainbows in landscapes for Pride Week last year, which were nice, easy lines, then practiced making other designs along with florals. Learning to bead has been lovely. It helps me feel more connected to my roots and I have developed more patience around my artistic practice in general since starting,” said Ann.
While many of the traditional beaders work on regalia and make accessories, Ann takes her self-taught knowledge of beading and applies it to her canvases. When viewing Ann’s art up close, the hand-sewn threads are still vaguely visible, holding all the beads in place. Although she doesn’t know of any other artists who use her technique with the small beads, she is certain she is not the only one who does it.
Ann is continually working on new pieces all the time and spends time each day at a canvas. She is currently working on a series of small paintings that capture the beauty of the northern lights with some cultural and historical Métis items integrated.
“The project I am most excited about is a portrait of my great-great-great-grandmother, Elise Tourand. It’s a larger portrait and will be my most ambitious project in terms of the amount of beadwork I plan to do on it. I’m sure it will take me a long time, but I look forward to getting to share her and her story with everyone when it is finished,” said Ann. She added that her ancestors are the reason she is here and able to share her work, finding it extremely fulfilling to share and preserve pieces of them and their stories.
Ann says her favourite piece changes daily, but lately it has been ‘The Rise and Fall of a Métis Princess’, a self-portrait that parodies Chappell Roan’s latest album cover.
“On a more technical level, I am really proud of the piece “Immochi-Itayhtamun”, which means “imagine” in Michif. I would describe it as a portrait of my imagination, and it has taken the longest by far of any piece in the show to make,” said Ann, adding she started the work in August, 2024 and finished the piece just last month. She also said it will be installed in Saskatoon this spring in the Broadway district as a vinyl reproduction mural.
While Ann’s more local show has received a multitude of positive comments, she is happy to share bits of herself and her story.
“I heard a lot of stories about the Cut Knife theatre from local elementary school students when they saw that particular piece of art, or some people recognized a storm cloud I painted, telling me where they were and what they were doing during the storm. It’s a really special bond over commonalities and I feel that is so very important during a time where division seems to run rampant,” said the artist.
Ann’s collection will continue to hang at The Spare Room Gallery, located in the same building as the public library, until April 29.
