Remembering Alex Janvier, 1935 to 2024

Our hearts go out to Alex Janvier’s family and greater community with the news of his passing on July 10. 

Janvier co-founded the Professional Native Indian Artists Inc in 1973, which was instrumental in shifting Canadian discourse about contemporary aboriginal art.

Janvier had close ties to the University of Calgary – in 2008 he was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Laws (Hon. LLD) which is the university’s highest distinction for individuals with notable achievements, whose community service merit recognition. 

In early 2022, Libraries and Cultural Resources purchased ‘Residential Healing’ from Janvier Gallery. The painting was a key part of the Indigenous Art Collection installed throughout the Taylor Family Digital Library in September 2022.  

‘Residential Healing’ was part of the ‘Healing Language of Alex Janvier’ exhibition in Strathcona County (Sep 9 – Nov 20, 2022). It features this very personal description penned by Janvier:

“With the deepest regret, this happened to the artist. I lived under this regimented system, aimed to take the Indian out of the natural Indianness. Hope was nowhere to be found, both for child and parents and for ten months, we were totally separated from our parents, our language, and culture. Many died of broken-down spirits, the rest survived as perennial misfits. Many mark the graveyards with early age deaths. It was a lonely and an aimless life. However, for the artist, this is where he lived for ten years, and learned to paint. Lived long enough to paint the painful secret existence. Today I have come to terms with healing, by returning to the site of the pain, many years later. It was difficult to go back to the site. To heal, I had to go back to the site to begin to live again on Mother Earth. Today the artist lives and speaks his own words through painting. All who went to the residential schools will comprehend this painting. It is devoted to those who have passed on to their early graves with having been heard, nor healed. Now however, they are at peace in the spiritual world.”

The Indigenous Art Collection is comprised of artists who reside in Treaty 7 (Adrian Stimson) or have significant ties to UCalgary. Alex Janvier (2008), Jane Ash Poitras (2015) and Joane Cardinal-Schubert (2003) all have Honorary Doctor of Laws (Hon. LLD). Dale Auger (BED’92, MED’96, PHD’99) and David Garneau (BFA’89, MA’93) are UCalgary alumni.

To learn more about the paintings in the Indigenous Art Collection, sign up for a tour led by Kaia MacLeod, UCalgary Library’s Indigenous Librarian. 

The next tour is August 19 at 11am. To keep informed about any events or exhibitions at Nickle Galleries, sign up for this weekly newsletter.