Alum Landon Mackenzie takes home a 2017 Governor General’s Award
During her long career, renowned Canadian painter Landon Mackenzie, MFA 79, has seen her spectacular canvasses showcased in more than 100 exhibitions across the country and internationally.
Mackenzie’s prowess was formally recognized on February 16, when she was named one of the recipients of a 2017 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.
Her large-format paintings can be found in the collections of such museums as the National Gallery of Canada, Vancouver Art Gallery, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) and Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
If I Loved a Cowboy... Leaving Her Fingerprints Over Everything She Does, 1995 | Photo: Collection Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Mackenzie also taught Studio Arts at Concordia from 1978 to 1985 before joining the faculty at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver in 1986. Mackenzie was appointed full professor at Emily Carr in 2008.
On the eve of the March 1 Governor General’s Awards ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, she sat down for a candid Q&A.
When did you learn the news of your 2017 Governor General’s (GG) Award win?
Landon Mackenzie: “They tell you a couple months ahead, because they need to make a movie [about your career]. During this time you also have to keep it secret! So [while filming the movie] I had to make up a story that a friend who taught at the Vancouver Film School was making a movie about women and creativity.”
What do awards mean to you?
LM: “I think a GG Award is the pinnacle of your career in Canada because a lot of the awards we have are for younger artists, which is totally appropriate. When I won the won the Quebec Biennale of Painting in 1981, that certainly launched me.
This award is nice recognition because I’ve actually worked hard for 40 years, and it’s a peer jury.”
Landon Mackenzie is a professor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. | Photo courtesy of Emily Carr University
Why in your career did you decide to focus on large-format paintings?
LM: “A nice Montreal connection there: When I come out of graduate school [at Concordia] and began painting, I was just bursting to go big. So I began painting in secret at a studio, on Clark Street at De Maisonneuve Blvd.
These were large Montreal spaces. As the garment industry went offshore, many artists who came to Montreal in the mid-’70s would have these great big spaces to work in. So I moved up from a seven-by-eight-foot canvas to seven-by-fourteen because we had the space. It was go bigger or go home!
I actually credit the large beautiful spaces, my incredible network that I met — my artistic family — in Montreal, who were all at Concordia for graduate school.”
I can picture you painting on a ladder…
LM: “I have several!”
You co-founded legendary Montreal art gallery Articule in 1979.
LM: “There was a core seed group that expanded into a second seed group. I was part of the second seed group. Basically we started Articule with this one basic idea, that if we could just come up with three months’ rent, we could start an art gallery.
We realized that existing galleries couldn’t show installation art. I had one of the first shows there, and I think it’s amazing that Articule is still around.”
Houbart’s Hope: Tracing One Warm Line, 2001-04 | Photo credit: Collection MAC
You are still represented by Montreal gallery Art 45, which is located in the Belgo Building in Montreal?
LM: “Art 45 is my only Canadian representation. Montreal is a very special arts community — there is a respect for a very intellectual and poetic discourse around painting that I don’t think I have found in another community.”
How important is it to have your works included in the collections of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Musée d’art contemporain?
LM: “Really important. The MMFA bought two of my prints early on, before anyone knew I was painting. It was really amazing to have the museum validate my vision. And now they have two of the best large mapping paintings too.”
Would you agree with the saying, a world without art is not a world worth living in?
LM: “Most of the time we don’t actually spend any time analyzing why we like art. But can I imagine a world without movies, without music, painting, books or theatre? No. I think art is critical to our emotional world.”
You taught at Concordia for five years, and are currently a professor at Emily Carr University. What is it like for you to teach, and what importance do you place on being a role model?
LM: “It is easier to teach when you are well known as an artist than if you are not known. I went to a couple of exhibition openings after the GG Award winners were announced, and my students were so thrilled — ‘Oh, I knew she was a great teacher and a good person, but now I know I’m not the only one who thinks she is an interesting artist.’
When I was offered a full-time job at Emily Carr, I asked Guido Molinari [the late, former Concordia professor and Mackenzie’s mentor] what to do, and he said, ‘Just do it. You’re hot. They always want you when you’re hot. You can always leave a tenure-track position, it’s not a death sentence.’
There is an important reason why I have stayed in it — I really love watching students grow, and the key is not to throw them off track but let them know that they are onto something. You have to challenge them but not squash them.”
How would your characterize your time at Concordia? How did it help shape you?
LM: “The MFA program in the 1970s gave students a lot of time and room to experiment. We had amazing visiting artists who came through. There was a respect for the individual, and the incredible, profound mentorship of Guido Molinari and Irene Whittome.”
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