The Estevan Art Gallery and Museum (EAGM) was looking for a way to bring sport and art together in honour of the 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games in Estevan.
They believe they have done just that with a trio of new exhibits.
The EAGM held a reception on July 28 for their three new exhibits: Spectate by Regina artist Belinda Kriek; It’s All Greek to Me by Toronto’s Lee Goreas; and Chalk, Wheat and Diamonds, which is the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame’s touring exhibit on baseball history in Saskatchewan.
Kriek was in Estevan for the reception, which took place with a couple of days remaining in the Games. Spectate features several towering oil on canvas paintings of Saskatchewan Roughrider fans, as well as many smaller photos depicting faces and hand gestures seen at Rider games.
Kriek hails from South Africa, where rugby enjoys phenomenal popularity. So perhaps it was natural she would become a CFL fan after she immigrated to Canada with her family in 1996, and later moved to Saskatchewan in 2004.
But she only received the inspiration for Spectate in 2010, while attending a Rider game.
“Sport kind of attracted me,” said Kriek. “So I bought a 400-millimetre lens, and was going to take images of the athletes, the Riders.”
While she was taking the photos, she felt an incredible energy coming from the fans behind her. Kriek turned and marvelled at the spectators. From that moment, she wanted to focus on the fans, and eventually, she came up with this tribute to Rider Nation.
She tackled the larger paintings first. She loved to interact with fans outside Mosaic Stadium, or “the arena,” as she calls it, because it creates a connection between theatre and sport.
“So, outside the arena, in front of the gates, there was, at that time, these extremely decorated fans, diehard fans, who decorated themselves with costumes.”
At that time, Kriek found the outfits weren’t as commercialized as they are now, so fans used initiative and creativity to come up with something that represented the team. She was amazed to see fans dressing as pirates, or wearing green and white Mexican luchador wrestling masks.
Kriek believes she captured about 40,000 images, and used some of them, with permission of those fans.
She describes herself as a fan of the Riders, but she is an even bigger backer of their fans. When she first started documenting the fans, she became a big fan of the spectators. And as she started to pay closer attention to the fans, and their almost zealous support of the team, she became a fan of the Riders and the CFL.
“When you become familiar with the rules, it makes more sense,” said Kriek. “So you start watching closer. Every time there’s a game, I would buy a ticket … and that gulf of excitement overwhelms you.”
Kriek started dabbling in art in South Africa. She started painting in fabric, which was a very popular activity in the country at that time. She has also worked with ceramic clay and other substances using a kiln.
She earned a degree in visual arts, with a major in oil painting, from the University of Regina in 2012.
Working on the human form is something that she has always been interested in, and the works in Spectate are just another example of that.
“Since we arrived in Canada, there’s hardly a day where I did not paint,” said Kriek. “It’s part of who I am within this country, and making art and finding that sweet spot in front of the canvas is a part of me.”
This week’s edition of Lifestyles will have more on It’s All Greek to Me and Chalk, Wheat and Diamonds.
