Art Gallery Guelph
When we visited the Art Gallery of Guelph, the two works that really stayed with me were Adrian Stimson’s Bison Survival Story Robe (2025) and Lone Bull – Kenow Wildfire Waterton Park (2025). Both of them were so detailed and beautifully done, but what really stood out to me was how they mixed storytelling, research, and painting together to share histories of resilience and survival.
Adrian Stimson – Bison Survival Story Robe, 2025
The Bison Survival Story Robe shows the history of bison in North America, how their massive herds were almost wiped out and how only a small group survived. Stimson uses the Blackfoot tradition of winter count drawings, with pictographs that layer memory and history. The longer I looked at it, the more I started noticing small details, symbols, and marks that add up to tell multiple stories at once. Michelle talked about how this piece is a way of carrying on stories, even ones that aren’t immediately clear. It takes time to read into it, but the details make it possible to understand the narratives that are embedded there.
Adrian Stimson- Lone Bull- Kenow Wildfire Waterton Park, 2025
The second work, Lone Bull – Kenow Wildfire Waterton Park, is a large oil painting showing a bull that survived the devastating 2017 wildfire in Waterton Lakes National Park. Almost all the animals had to be evacuated, but one bull lived through the fire. Stimson connects this survival to the idea of “survivance,” meaning not just survival, but persistence, renewal, and the continuation of presence despite extinction. Because I’m personally interested in oil painting, this piece especially caught my attention, I loved seeing how a traditional medium can carry such a layered and powerful story.
Both works connect to my own practice because they balance strong storytelling with technical skill. I often focus on the surface of my paintings, but seeing these reminded me that art can hold so much more if you take the time to embed meaning and research into it. The exhibition really showed me how every detail whether a brushstroke or a small pictograph can hold significance. What I took away from this visit is that painting may serve as a medium for memory, history, and renewal in addition to being an artwork.
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