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<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">For Immediate Release
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<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Wolves: The Art of Dempsey Bob final presentation in Kelowna<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Wolves: The Art of Dempsey Bob<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">October 14, 2023 to February 18, 2024<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">October 12, 2023 – Kelowna, BC:
</span></b><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The life and work of one of the most gifted carvers in British Columbia will soon be on view in Kelowna.
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<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><i><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Wolves: The Art of Dempsey Bob
</span></i><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">charts the progression of Dempsey Bob, from his early days starting out as a young carver from the Tahltan-Tlingit First Nations in the early 1970s, until today. The exhibition opens
at the Kelowna Art Gallery this weekend.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“We’re thrilled to be one of only five cities across Canada to host this history-making exhibition,” says
<b>Nataley Nagy</b>, Executive Director at the Kelowna Art Gallery. “This presentation is such a triumph for Dempsey Bob, who has waited a lifetime for a major retrospective of his career, and we’re positive Okanagan audiences will not leave disappointed.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Viewers will have the rare opportunity to see a collection of Bob’s beautiful masks, wall sculptures, vessels, and regalia, which have been brought together for the first
time from the walls of private collectors as well as from the vaults of public art museums.
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<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“It is good to once again be surrounded by my work. These are my friends,” says
<b>Dempsey Bob</b>, “I’ve spent hundreds of hours with each of them, finding the faces in the wood, and many of them I haven’t seen in decades. It’s powerful when you get them all together.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dempsey Bob was born into an artistic family in Telegraph Creek, on the Stikine River in the northwest corner of BC. His mother was from the Wolf clan, which means in
the matriarchal lineage, he is as well. As a young man, he studied with the legendary Haida artist Freda Diesing (1925–2002), who is one of the few women to carve totem poles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Through his training in the mainland Indigenous practices of mask and pole carving, Bob developed his own exquisite sense of line, which invests his works with an almost
uncanny vitality. His subjects – such as wolves, eagles, bears, ravens, and killer whales – seem to peer right out of his sculptures.
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<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dempsey Bob has been one of the most important teachers of his generation and is a founder of the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art in Terrace, BC, where he
lives and teaches today. For his contributions, he has been invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada (2013), received the Artistic Achievement Award at the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts (2021), and has been awarded three honorary
doctorates.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><i><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Wolves: The Art of Dempsey Bob,</span></i><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> presented with support from Rogers Communications, runs
from October 14, 2023 to February 18, 2024. It was co-curated by Sarah Milroy, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, and Curtis Collins, Audain Art Museum.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated hard cover book featuring the artist’s life stories and legends entitled
<i>Dempsey Bob: In His Own Voice</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The Kelowna Art Gallery is located at 1315 Water Street, in downtown Kelowna, BC.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">- 30 –<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><u><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Image Credits<o:p></o:p></span></u></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dempsey Bob,
<i>Wolf Chief’s Hat</i>, c. 1993. Red cedar, acrylic paint, operculum, horse hair, leather, ermine. Collection of Eric Savics. Rachel Topham Photography.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dempsey Bob (b. 1948),
<i>Northern Eagles Transformation Mask</i>, 2011, yellow cedar and acrylic paint. Audain Art Museum Collection, Whistler, BC. Gift of Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa. Photo courtesy of Trevor Mills Photography.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dempsey Bob wearing
<i>Killer Whale Headdress</i> and holding <i>Eagle Human Mask</i> and <i>Eagle Bear Mask</i>, all of 1987, in University of British Columbia, Museum of Anthropology collection. Photograph courtesy of Dempsey and Margaret Bob.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dempsey Bob,
<i>Wolf Bowl</i>, 1991, alder wood, acrylic paint, operculum shell. Collection of Eric Savics, Photo courtesy of Scott Brammer Photography.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dempsey Bob,
<i>Wolf Chief’s Hat</i>, c. 1993. Red cedar, acrylic paint, operculum, horse hair, leather, ermine. Collection of Eric Savics. Rachel Topham Photography.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><u><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Resources</span></u><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Exhibition Webpage:
<a href="https://kelownaartgallery.com/wolves-the-art-of-dempsey-bob/">https://kelownaartgallery.com/wolves-the-art-of-dempsey-bob/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><u><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">For additional high-res images, to arrange an interview, or other media enquiries, please contact:<o:p></o:p></span></u></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Joshua Desnoyers<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Marketing and Events Coordinator<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Kelowna Art Gallery<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">1315 Water Street, Kelowna, BC V1Y 9R3<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">250-762-2226 ext. 305<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><a href="mailto:josh@kelownaartgallery.com">josh@kelownaartgallery.com</a>
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<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><a href="http://www.kelownaartgallery.com">www.kelownaartgallery.com</a>
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