Remai Modern introduces visual identity and summer programs
- EFN Staff | June 07, 2016
Remai Modern recently announced a new phase and a bold new look at an event at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market. Gregory Burke, Remai Modern Executive Director & CEO, unveiled the new museum’s distinctive logo, in (near-black) anthracite and yellow; a new website at remaimodern.org; special art commissions for the website’s homepage; and a program featuring Saskatchewan artists at the Farmers’ Market each Saturday through the summer.
“We are delighted to reveal our lively new visual identity, created by New York designers karlssonwilker; and our new, streamlined website,” Burke said. “These initiatives help define our personality as a cutting-edge museum of modern art, and bring us another step closer to our opening next year.”
Like the museum itself, which is a multidisciplinary and multi-purpose institution, the logo (remaimodern.org/new-museum#the-designers) has extra, unexpected features: the lower-case letters “r” and “m” precede the words Remai and Modern.
“These playful additions are intended to emphasize our willingness to be bold and to ask questions, including questions about our own identity,” Burke explained. The anthracite colour denotes Saskatchewan’s soil and minerals; the yellow is for sunny days and golden harvests. In the logo, in Cree syllabics the word Saskatchewan is found under the title.
“Art comes first at Remai Modern, and we’re excited to present special art commissions — by local, national and international artists — to enhance the new website’s homepage,” Burke said. “We’re harnessing some of the power of digital media, which affect how we see, think, and connect with others.”
A new commission will appear on the homepage at the first of each month, and previous artwork will remain accessible through the archive. The first web commission, curated by Burke and Sandra Guimarães, Director of Programs & Chief Curator, is by leading British artist Ryan Gander. The work, My validation through my association, 2016, references a chair connected to Picasso. The chair was donated to Remai Modern in 2014, along with a group of Picasso ceramics, by the Frederick Mulder Foundation. Gander’s project is a Twitter feed by a ghostwriter contracted to create imagined musings from the “Picasso chair.” Follow the chair’s reflections at @Picassos_chair and join in the conversation.
Remai Modern also announced its summer program, Three Seeds and a Hen’s Tooth, to take place every Saturday outdoors at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market, starting June 4. The program features Saskatchewan artists Cara Driscoll, Kara Uzelman, and Jordan Schwab. While the approach is light-hearted, the meaningful issues considered by the artists and collaborators offer food for thought, and include ecology, local food production, and sustenance.