Jean Paul Langlois: War and Peace, and Smoky the Cowhorse: Fazakas Gallery, Vancouver BC

Opening reception

Saturday, Oct 11, 2 - 4 pm

659 East Hastings Street

Fazakas Gallery is pleased to present War and Peace, and Smoky the Cowhorse, a solo exhibition by Métis artist Jean Paul Langlois. 

The exhibition's title originates from a conversation with Langlois' mother, who, when asked about her favourite book, replied without hesitation: "War and Peace," before adding, "…and Smoky the Cowhorse." Now 85 and living with Alzheimer's and vascular dementia, her unexpected answer struck Langlois as both humorous and profound. For the artist, this unlikely pairing captures the paradoxes that define his life and practice: the duality of Métis identity, the contradictions between his parents' worlds, and the tension between the complex subject matter of his work and its playful, saturated execution.

Based in East Vancouver, Langlois' work explores the juxtaposition of his Métis and Scottish settler heritages through vibrant pop culture motifs and ultra-saturated colour schemes. In this exhibition, Langlois brings together works from across his current projects which explore family histories and the alienation to his Indigenous and settler backgrounds. Central to the show is a narrative series recounting the story of Henry Vivier, a Métis father from North Dakota who stormed a residential school to reclaim his children at gunpoint. While not directly autobiographical, the story resonates deeply with Langlois' personal history, evoking a dream of his own great-grandfather rescuing relatives from the St. Bernard's Residential School in Grourard, Alberta. 

Other works turn inward, reflecting on moments of personal memory and family complexity. One such painting reimagines a tragic accident Langlois witnessed in the early 2000s, when his mother, who was working as an Indigenous social worker, accidentally struck a child's puppy while driving through the Pauquachin reserve. Langlois distills the scene into a surreal, dreamlike composition: a hard-edged abstraction of house and sky, and a 1965 Rambler 660 in place of his mother's Ford Focus, serving as a tableau of grief, stoicism, and quiet tension. 

Langlois' practice draws from a vast archive built from cinema, television, and art history, forming a collage of narratives which merge historical record, family history, and personal mythology. With War and Peace, and Smoky the Cowhorse, Langlois offers viewers a body of work that is at once personal and historically resonant, unapologetically bold, and deliberately unrestrained.