Russell Yuristy: The Inside of Elephants and All Kinds of Things (to July 26)
Ottawa Art Gallery, 50 Mackenzie King Bridge
Opening reception: 6-9 p.m. March 11
Artist/curator talk: 6:30 p.m. April 1, Alma Duncan Salon
Admission: free
Details: oaggao.ca
If you know Russell Yuristy’s work, animals are probably the first images that come to mind.
In the last decade or so, the Ottawa-based artist has focused on paintings and prints of coyotes, rabbits, owls, ravens, salmon, grizzlies and other creatures of the Northern Hemisphere that may or may not be on the endangered list.
“I do a lot of animals now,” says the spry 84-year-old, who was born in Goodeve, Sask. and moved to Ottawa in the ’80s. “Especially animals that are on the way out. It makes me feel a little better; I’ve always liked animals.”
However, as you will discover in the Ottawa Art Gallery’s wonderful new exhibition of Yuristy’s work, his imagination knew no bounds in the first half of his career, encompassing whimsical ink drawings, ceramic sculpture, clay pipes, autobiographical paintings and, perhaps most significantly, large-scale, kid-friendly public art projects that were built for play.
“People know of a certain type of his work in Ottawa,” says senior curator Catherine Sinclair. “I wanted to focus on what they didn’t know about his career, especially the early stuff. It’s not his whole story because (the exhibition) only goes to 1991 and he still works actively today. But it shows a background that people who are familiar with his recent work never would have seen.”
The exhibition has been up for a couple of weeks, but Yuristy saw it for the first time during our interview this week. He couldn’t stop smiling at the squeals of children playing on a large elephant slide constructed in the gallery, inspired by one of his play structures.
“I’m so pleased,” he said, his blue eyes twinkling. “This is probably the best show I’ve ever had. It covers everything. I just love it.”
Artist Russell Yuristy looks on as children enjoy playing on a large wooden elephant sculpture, that doubles as a play structure for children, at the Ottawa Art Gallery exhibition Russell Yuristy: The Inside of Elephants and All Kinds of Things. March 4, 2020.
Errol McGihon /
Postmedia
His first solo show in more than a decade, it includes pieces inspired by his childhood growing up on a farm in Saskatchewan, when horse-and-buggy was the main form of transportation and where his love of animals was instilled. His great-grandparents were among the scores of Ukrainians who fled their country and settled on Canada’s prairies.
With his longtime friend, the renowned Saskatchewan artist Joe Fafard, Yuristy was also part of the Regina funk movement in the 1960s. One of their primary media was clay, and Yuristy would fill the spaces between sculptures in his kiln with fanciful pipes that he sold to the hippies for $5 or $10 each. He figures the RCMP in Saskatchewan probably still has a few in their collection of confiscated items. There are several samples in the exhibition.
After his first marriage broke up and money was tight, Yuristy immersed himself in drawing.
“I really liked using pen and ink, and I would just draw whatever came into my head,” he says. “My wife and I had split and I just wanted to get lost in something. It was better than psychiatry.”
Sinclair was thrilled to discover he still had a stack of these drawings in his studio, and picked some out to be framed for the exhibition. Animals figure prominently in these imaginative doodles, and it was Fafard who suggested Yuristy apply for a grant to turn them into a public art project.
Ottawa Art Gallery exhibition Russell Yuristy: The Inside of Elephants and All Kinds of Things curated by Catherine Sinclair, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Ottawa Art Gallery. March 4, 2020.
Errol McGihon /
Postmedia
In 1971, he landed a grant under the federal government’s Local Initiatives Project and founded the Creative Playground Workshop, which allowed him to hire people to help build large, animal-inspired public sculptures. Over the years, he built an elephant, moose, polar bear, buffalo and duck boat in various cities in Canada. They were all designed for children to explore.
In fact, the duck boat, built beside the South Saskatchewan River in 1972, is fondly remembered by OAG director Alexandra Badzak, who grew up in Saskatchewan and used to play on it when she was nine years old. It was her first exposure to public art.
Three of the structures were transported to the 1974 World’s Fair in Spokane, Wash., where they made the Canada Pavilion a big hit.
Another two were erected in Ottawa: A huge beaver, with a slide coming out of its mouth, went up on Victoria Island, made of logs and cement.
“I had one adult helping me and 10 to 15 kids,” Yuristy recalls. “I bought a cement mixer and got gloves for all the kids. They loved doing it.”
Russell Yuristy, Beaver, 1979. (Courtesy: the National Capital Commission)
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The second was a giant wooden fish, made of cedar logs, that sat outside the old city hall on Sussex Drive for a few years. Children played happily on it until a bureaucrat decided it was too dangerous and had it dismantled in the early ’90s. It was Yuristy’s last play structure.
The exhibition also has one room dedicated to Yuristy’s animals, showcasing a large stuffed salmon and a six-foot hippo on the wall. The hippo, papier-mâché on plywood, belongs to a collector who had it at their ski chalet at Mont Ste-Marie.
“That’s part of the fun of being a curator,” says Sinclair. “It’s almost like a treasure hunt every time. I got a call about this hippo so I drove up at Christmas and checked it out, and yep, that needs to go in the show. It shows how creative he is. He was experimenting with so many mediums. He’s a prolific maker and always has been.”
(The Yuristy exhibition is one of five in the OAG’s spring/summer season. For details on the others, go to oaggao.ca.)
lsaxberg@postmedia.com
Ottawa Art Gallery exhibition Russell Yuristy: The Inside of Elephants and All Kinds of Things curated by Catherine Sinclair, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Ottawa Art Gallery. March 4, 2020.
Errol McGihon /
Postmedia
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