Laura Hosaluk is very excited to make her debut in Prince Albert.  (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Upcoming shows

Summer exhibit at Mann Art Gallery explores Sask. identity

Jul 8, 2025 | 8:00 AM

A mixed-media installation that explores ancestry, identity, and cultural memory opens this week at the Mann Art Gallery.

The Circle and the Dot is by Saskatoon artist Laura Hosaluk. She told paNOW the work represents the conception of an identity. More specifically, what it means to be from the Prairies and what it means to be Canadian. 


“So I think we are at an exciting time where a lot of us are asking those questions, and if an artist’s practice can offer anything, it’s that reimagining, that creativity, that care and commitment to that conversation.”

Born in 1983 in Saskatoon and of Saskatchewan Settler descent, Hosaluk was immersed in the craft early on, learning from her father and other makers locally and internationally. She noted this exhibit has been a long time coming and was inspired through a community arts project called Good Stories Earth, which began in response to the pandemic.

“It was at a time when there was a lot of fear, and we were scared to go outside, or just to have contact again with not only each other, but even that question, how we related to the natural world. So this art project was an opportunity for European learners to learn a little more about where they come from.”

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Inspired by her Ukrainian and Scottish roots and shaped by the Saskatchewan landscape, the work merges wattle and daub – a building technique used by Ukrainians to settle the prairie – into contemporary form. Hosaluk has been able to construct sculptural towers and immersive environments that reflect personal memory and shared histories.

“I discovered through the research of looking back on my mother’s ancestry, the story of skekling. It’s a lost folklore. There’s no actual documentation of it, just oral retelling or re-imagining through artist interpretation and skekling represents an old pagan tradition where people would disguise themselves. They would dress up in these very elaborate costumes, made from straw because that was a resource material they could build readily from. I’ve translated that into a material that I had readily around me.”

Jesse Campbell, the gallery’s Interim Artistic Director (part-time), explained at the gallery, they are always trying to uplift people in different ways of thinking that are relevant to not just Prince Albert, but can also speak to the characteristics of this place, histories of this place, and culture.

“The goal of this show really is to use this work made from natural materials that deals with the land, the ground, to encourage people to think about their own histories on this land,” she said.

Close friend Laura St. Pierre helps with set up. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

The opening reception on July 10 will feature an artist talk and performance by KSAMB Dance which is based out of Saskatoon but includes local dancer Kyle Severson.

“With this work, there’s really a human relationship to it. You can’t really be complacent when you’re walking around here and looking through a little passage in a sculpture,” Campbell explained, adding the dance performance has actually been part of this body of work since it was initiated a couple of years ago.

“It highlights not only ways that the body interacts physically with the work, but the work itself and how people are encouraged through that relationship, through the human connection, to consider what they bring to this. An artwork is very rich when everyone has their own interpretations and experiences of it.”

There is no fee to attend the exhibit or the gallery’s reception. Doors open on Thursday at 7 p.m.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Blue Sky: @nigelmaxwell.bsky.social