The wah-sa gallery: Daphne Odjig

Welcome to The Wah-sa Gallery

in the Johnston Terminal at The Forks
130-25 Forks Market Road
Winnipeg Manitoba R3C 4S8

Ph (204) 942-5121 FAX (204) 942-5122

Daphne Odjig

Daphne Odjig, and her husband Chester Beavon, have been very close and dear friends of The Wah-sa Gallery since its inception.
We first met Daphne Odjig when she resided in Easterville where Chester was the community development officer. She sold us two paintings that day, the first acrylic legends she has ever sold. It was a short time earlier Daphne had returned to Manitoulin Island for a cultural workshop and decided to paint 'Aboriginal'. In 1972 she and Chester opened their gallery in Winnipeg but found with a couple of years it really interferred with her first passion--to create art. Daphne and Chester persuaded two others and myself to purchase her gallery which she suggested be called The Wah-sa Gallery, Ojibway for 'far away' or in the vernacular of the day 'far out'.
For her work which may be found on this website and countless others, Daphne has amassed numerous wards, including the Order of Canada, the Governor-Generals Award, the National Aboriginal Achievement Award and following the breakthrough exhibit of her prints at the Kamloops Art Gallery in 2005, a retrospective of her originals opened in September, 2007 at the Sudbury Art Gallery and will travel a number of galleries including the National Gallery in Ottawa, only the second Woodlands Aboriginal to be given a solo exhibit, Norval Morrisseau being the first.
I have always said if Morisseau is considered the Father of Woodland Art, then Daphne is the Mother.
I hesitate to make that claim, however, as it is Daphne herself so vociferously claims she wants to be known as an artist who happens to be a Canadian Aboriginal.
Gary Scherbain

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