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Yisa Akinbolaji
 YISA
AKINBOLAJI has engaged in numerous solo and group art exhibitions (local
and international) for more than two decades. Yisa is particularly renowned
for his oil paintings, acrylic paintings, mixed media, and mosaic installations.
His dexterity and uncompromising freedom as registered in his colour usage
has earned him several commissioned projects in mosaic installations.
Yisa has been published in many journals and books, one of which is, "Nigerian
Artists: A Who's Who and bibliography, Oxford, 1993", compiled and
edited by Bernice Kelly and Janet L. Stanley of the Smithsonian Institution
Libraries, Washington, U.S.A. Yisa has taught art and coordinated several
art workshops.
In 1997, Yisa moved to Canada. Over the years his art has been featured
in the newspapers, discussed on the radio, and shown on television. Yisa
is a member of the Canadian Artists' Representation, the president of
the Creative Foundation Inc; the art director of Indian Life Newspaper
and the past-president of The Manitoba Society of Artists.
Jo Cooper
 JO
COOPER, “Thunderbird Woman”, was born in 1949. Coming from
the Manigotagon and Selkirk areas, the plains forests and waterways of
Manitoba were her playgrounds. Receiving a B.A. in Geography and a second
B.A. in Arts, Jo has been working as a professional artist and living
in Frontenac, Quebec, where the Appalachian Mountains are backdrops to
family and career activities. Jo finds the inspiration for her artwork
coming from her Métis roots and a love of the environment. Her
choice of natural materials such as sand, burlap, and copper powder add
to the rugged textures and earthy tones of the acrylic paintings.
After a vision quest in 1991, the series “The Disappearance and
Resurgence of the Buffalo” found its home as a permanent exhibition
in Ancient Echoes Interpretive Centre, Herschel, Saskatchewan. Two environmental
installations were running simultaneously there in the summer of 2004
at the Viewpoint Gallery and the Summer Gallery in Lac Megantic. Cooper
has exhibited in Western Canada, the United States, and France. The human
socio-economic, historical energy in relationship to the environment is
a constant thread throughout her work.
Ray Dirks
 RAY
DIRKS is a watercolourist whose artworks most often depict daily life
in countries we know little about beyond the stereotypes. While not shying
away from whatever the reality, he is mindful to present his subjects
as people of dignity. Dirks is also curator at the Mennonite Heritage
Centre Gallery in Winnipeg. He has worked with artists in 30 countries,
half in Africa, and has brought together several internationally touring
exhibitions. When traveling -- as an artist, writer, curator or photographer
-- he asks to stay with ordinary families, discovering uncommon dignity
in common, and sometimes uncommonly difficult, situations. He enters worlds
far from his own to respectfully observe, learn and document. As a result
of his work in Africa, in 2002 he was invited to be artist-in-residence
at the Overseas Ministries Study Center and a research fellow at the Yale
Divinity School, both in New Haven, Connecticut. He has had solo exhibitions
in Canada, the US - including at Yale University, Ethiopia and Cuba. Three
Dirks curated exhibitions have toured to New York City. He was the photographer,
writer and designer of the coffee table book, In God's Image: A Global
Anabaptist Family. That project also included an exhibition from 17 countries
that toured in Africa, Europe and North America.
Gerald Folkerts
 GERALD
FOLKERTS was born in Vancouver and graduated from Dordt College (Iowa)
in 1980 with an education degree in Fine Arts and moved to Winnipeg to
begin a teaching career that would span eighteen years. Since then he
has left the classroom to devote more time to painting works that continually
invite viewers to reflect, and sometimes wrestle, with allusive, suggestion-rich
and deeply relevant images. Calvin Seerveld (Senior Member Emeritus in
Philosophical Aesthetics Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto, ON)
says, "Folkerts has the wisdom to let his Christian faith subtly
percolate in the spirit of his painterly art by showing compassion for
the problematic figures he treats."
Gerald has participated in both solo and group exhibitions in North America
and was an award-winner in IMAGO’s 30th Anniversary National Juried
Competition and Exhibition as well as being the recipient of the First
Award in several Manitoba Society of Artists Annual Juried Exhibitions.
He has served as juror for various exhibitions, led workshops, and has
been a featured presenter at art conferences and schools in Canada and
the USA. Gerald is a past-president of the Manitoba Society of Artists
and works out of his renovated attic studio in his Winnipeg home.
Steve Prince
 STEVE
A. PRINCE is a native of New Orleans, LA and resides in Hampton, VA. He
received his BFA from Xavier University of Louisiana and his MFA from
Michigan State University. Prince is an educator and has taught middle
school, college, and is currently teaching at Hampton High School in Virginia.
Prince is represented by Eyekons Gallery, in Grand Rapids, Michigan and
Stonemetal Press, in San Antonio, Texas. Prince has created a number of
public artworks, including a life-size bronze bust of 1967 Medal of Honor
recipient Ruppert Leon Sargent in Hampton, Virginia, a 12’ x 40’
mixed media installation entitled “Fabric of Life” in Newport
News, Virginia, a 4’ x 24’ woodcut entitled “Alexandria”
in Alexandria, Virginia, and two semi-kinetic winged figures each 6’
x 12’ called “Urban Dove I an II” in Williamsburg and
Newport News, Virginia respectively. Prince is the recipient of numerous
awards and honors, including the 2008 Steward School Artist in Residence
in Richmond, Virginia, the 2007 Partners of the Americas Artist in Residence
in Santa Catarina, Brazil, the 2005 Creative Excellence Award of Virginia
Career and Technical Education, the 2001 and 2004 Best in Show at the
Contemporary Art Center of Virginia Beach, the 2004 Award of Achievement
at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center Biennial, the Images 2006 and 2000 Merit
Award Winner at Pennsylvania State University, and the Outstanding Award
of Merit from the Mayor of New Orleans in 1999. Through his craft Prince
has conducted workshops internationally in addition to being an accomplished
lecturer in both secular and sacred settings. He has spoken at various
colleges, community centers, museums, galleries, and addressed congregations
of various denominations.
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