Canada’s major new modern art museum is dazzling and unexpected
Canada has a major new modern art museum but it’s not in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa or Vancouver. Instead, the striking 126,000 sq ft glass-and-steel Remai Modern has just opened in the remote prairie town of Saskatoon, located in the country’s vast agricultural midwest. Designed by Toronto-based practice KPMB (with Winnipeg-based Architecture49 on board as architect of record), the state-of-the-art new gallery is impressive for its substantial permanent collection, including the most comprehensive assemblage of Picasso linocuts in the world, but also for its generous acquisition and programming budget, the result of one of the largest philanthropic donations in Canada’s arts history.
The building stands in a strategic location overlooking a bend in the South Saskatchewan River so that it embraces both the water and the city. ‘Wherever you are in the building, you always come back to the river, you always sense the river,’ says Bruce Kuwabara, founding partner at KPMB. Kuwabara and his team eschewed the prevalent and somewhat tired trend for improbable and parametrically-designed curvilinear forms and walls to create an elegant and what he calls ‘proto-modern’ building of cantilevered rectangular vessels, partly clad in a perforated copper-coloured metal screen.
The new museum’s opening exhibition – ‘Field Guide’ – is an eclectic but engaging mix of collection pieces and new commissions or acquisitions by 80 Canadian and international artists that cleverly fill every stairwell, corridor and landing as well as the more conventional museum galleries. It includes a recent and brilliant video installation by internationally renowned Canadian artist Stan Douglas as well as pieces by the likes of Thomas Hirschhorn, John Baldessari, Philippe Parreno and a major collaborative installation by indigenous artists Tanya Lukin Linklater and Duane Linklater.
The Remai Modern has inherited the 8,000-strong collection of works from its much-loved local predecessor, the Mendel Art Gallery, located just a short walk north along the river, but with its new and high-profile international director Gregory Burke (a New Zealander formerly at Toronto’s power plant) and chief curator Sandra Guimarães (a long-time collaborator at Portugal’s Serralves museum) it has signalled its ambitions to be not only a local art gallery but also an essential stopover on the global contemporary art circuit. ‘This museum should be a place to see the world,’ said Guimarães at the press opening.
As with many large projects of this scale there have been delays, budget increases and concerns among the local and well-established artist community about what the museum should be, concerns that the curatorial team hope will be allayed now that it has opened. One constant however has been the unwavering commitment of local developer and philanthropist Ellen Remai (pronounced ‘ray-mee’) to make the project all about the art.
Despite already donating a cool CAN$50 million towards the building, international programming and permanent collection (the linocuts were a Remai acquisition), she just announced a new and substantial gift of up to CAN$50 million over the next 25 years towards the purchasing of art. ‘This sort of big budget for acquisitions is unheard of in Canada so they’re pretty lucky,’ says Ian Wallace, a renowned Canadian artist whose 2011 photolaminate on canvas At the Crosswalk IX is part of the museum’s opening show. ‘They will be able to build an amazing collection over time.’ The Remai Modern would be an achievement anywhere – in a city of 260,000 it is nothing short of remarkable.
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Remai Modern website and KPMB website
ADDRESS
Remai Modern
102 Spadina Crescent E
Saskatoon SK S7K 0L3
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Giovanna Dunmall is a freelance journalist based in London and West Wales who writes about architecture, culture, travel and design for international publications including The National, Wallpaper*, Azure, Detail, Damn, Conde Nast Traveller, AD India, Interior Design, Design Anthology and others. She also does editing, translation and copy writing work for architecture practices, design brands and cultural organisations.
-
Pininfarina Battista Reversario is a new one-off electric hypercar
The all-electric Pininfarina Battista Reversario is joining its aesthetic inverse in an ultra-select car collector’s garage. We take a look at a car built to a very precise order
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Fernando Jorge’s fluid diamond earrings show his curve appeal
Discover Brazilian jewellery designer Fernando Jorge's snake-like silhouettes and graphic shapes
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Abreham Brioschi debuts Ethiopia-inspired rugs for Nodus
Abreham Brioschi teams up with luxury rug experts Nodus to translate visions from his heritage into a tactile reality
By Ifeoluwa Adedeji Published
-
Downs House II inspires West Coast Modern campaign in Vancouver
Downs House II, currently on the market in Vancouver, inspires a West Coast Modern campaign to save the modernist landmark
By Hadani Ditmars Published
-
Toronto’s Rolex boutique wows with dynamic façade
This Rolex boutique in Toronto features a dynamic, wavy façade in CNC-cut limestone created by local architecture studio Partisans
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Promenade Samuel-de Champlain is a riverside boulevard championing urban green
Promenade Samuel-de Champlain in Quebec gives the city’s river back to its community, transforming a previously neglected urban space
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Chez Léon is a contemporary Canadian retreat in the Quebec countryside
This Canadian retreat, an elegant update of the classic cabin in the woods, is part ski lodge, part tree house, combining traditional materials and stunning views with a light footprint
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
House in High Park is a Toronto home to be discovered slowly
House in High Park by Ian MacDonald Architect is a new-build home in Toronto that takes a problematic plot and transforms it into an exhilarating, contemporary residence
By Ellen Himelfarb Published
-
This Québec school evokes a calming atmosphere in tune with nature
This redesigned Québec school inspires a new paradigm in its architecture genre by creating a welcoming, home-like and nature-inspired environment
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Canvas House’s wavy brick façade stands out in its suburban Toronto context
Canvas House by Partisans brings a wavy brick façade to its sleepy Toronto suburban neighbourhood
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Discover Dyde House, a lesser known Arthur Erickson gem
Dyde House by modernist architect Arthur Erickson is celebrated in a new film, premiered in Canada
By Hadani Ditmars Published