Winnipeg is a haven for imaginative artists’ creativity and The Fall Show at Golden City is no exception. The exhibit is a capricious offering from one of the city’s most imaginative artist collectives, Wigtads International.

Hung salon style, The Fall Show is a feast for the senses. When you have five artists that share a studio and work in a wide variety of media, such as Wigtads, what results is an interesting mixture of people and art.

The exhibition in part represents the recreation of the Wigtads studio at 75 Albert St. in the form of a paint spattered drafting table fully equipped with paint brushes and an art history book open to NeoClassicism.

An old video screen plays a collaborative piece by the group filmed primarily in and around the Wigtads’ studio at 75 Albert. In the video, birdmen dance in stairwells and inverted images throb in and out of view.

The show was inspired by “Sleep of Reason,” a work by 18th century Spanish painter Francisco Goya, said Michael Meadows, a longtime Wigtads studio resident.

Goya once said, “Fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of their marvels.”

Judging by the window display, these impossible monsters that Goya speaks of are made of sculpted paper.

The window piece is a three-part narrative entitled “Cryptic Triptych.” In it, fantastic creatures and haunting faces make for an eerie and Halloween-appropriate window front. A multi-teated female cat stands proudly against scenes of twisting heads and faces floating vividly nearby.

Grant Mitchell, organizer of the exhibit, provides great examples of the kind of variety that is this show’s strength.

One of Mitchell’s drawings, entitled “Dream,” describes a lucid moment in a dream where a line of crows stand in front of a white, antiseptic kitchen wall.

In “Odalisk,” one of his sculptures, Mitchell mounted a cracked log onto a pedestal and painted it white.

Mitchell shows painting, video, drawing, and sculpture on his own and in collaborations with others in the group.

One of the collaborators, Mark Yuill, shows a striking collection of portraits that he made on cereal boxes.

“I get turned on by studying faces and reading the narrative of the expressions,” reads Yuill’s artist statement. “I’m in love with the marriage of words and images.”

Each of his portraits are accompanied an inscription.

Cory Penner’s photography depicts a somewhat different reality, guiding the viewer through a landscape more commonly found in fantasy novels than everyday life. Penner’s sweeping landscapes of PEI, and its wildlife, are a stark contrast to his large photograph of a blurred alley.

Michael Koche-Schulte mixes it up with several styles of painting. Koche-Schulte, and his work, is unassuming and can be hard to recognize within the group. Most surprising were his delicious hand made pretzels that were part of the packed opening night’s snack bar.

In the end, it’s the imaginative current that runs through all the work in the show that is the most enjoyable. Wheat stalks poke out of holes in the floor and a moose pelvis dangles from the ceiling of the gallery.

Every time you look at this show you’ll find something new and engaging.

Published in Volume 64, Number 7 of The Uniter (October 15, 2009)