Prairie Outdoor Exhibition

A large, round rug-tufted tapestry of a lone bison in the field under a big yellow sun. Wonder at the reason this lone bison has wandered from its herd under the prairie sky, beholding its commanding presence, mourning its loss of natural habitat and the most-important role it has played in human civilization.

Maureen Winnicki Lyons, founder of Wool Mountain, rages (quietly) against the machine using handcrafted art to save the world with wool. She quietly subverts the whirlwind age in which we live with 20+ years of experience in handmade slow-living through the arts and crafts movement in Manitoba.

Twice a day the Sun meets the horizon and casts an array of warm colours across the sky. This installation evokes the magic of those moments where everything is cast in golden light. The Sun at the horizon, featuring a painting of a warm loving embrace created by Laura Lee as the centrepiece. When we think of folk fest we think of days being filled of warm loving greetings from community, friends and loved ones old and new.  The centrepiece surrounded by upcycled wood and sheer flowy whimsical fabric representing the rays emanating from the Sun.

Laura Lee Harasym and André Péloquin-Hopfner are creative partners and life partners. Laura Lee is an established visual artist based in Manitoba. Her paintings are inspired by the warmth of life, motherhood and by André's landscape photography. André Péloquin-Hopfner is a multidisciplinary artist working in the realms of photography, digital art, and music. Together they inspire one another in many collaborative artistic endeavours.

Festival Echoes is a multi-piece art installation celebrating music, magic, natural beauty, and community spirit of the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Using natural materials and a mix of handcrafted and machine-aided techniques, the artwork features layered wood veneer compositions inspired by music and festival life.

Emilie is a multidisciplinary artist with a long history of exhibiting her work locally and abroad. Andrew is a mechanic and teacher who can build just about anything.

Flower Power is an immersive, interactive installation designed to transform a public space into a vibrant, wooden meadow. In this field, art isn't just something to look at — it’s an inclusive social catalyst. It is a playful and powerful nod to the way nature nourishes and heals us, allowing humans and art to merge into one colorful landscape. Groups of friends can pose together for a collective "bouquet" photo. Solo floaters can meet strangers in the field, sharing a moment of whimsy as they navigate the vibrancy of the installation creating memories that will live on long after the event ends.

Dharma Aguilar-Cardenas is a Winnipeg-based, first-generation Guatemalan multidisciplinary artist dedicated to creating inclusive, interactive experiences. Her practice is deeply rooted in the power of collaboration—a core value of her Guatemalan heritage that views community and partnership as essential paths to collective healing. Drawing from her diverse background in mental health services, painting, ceramics, and dance, Dharma explores the vibrant intersection of culture, nature, and play.

Bobby Ewanchuk is a Winnipeg based, interdisciplinary artist. He seeks to fill the world with colour and joy bringing light to wherever he goes. This passion is rooted in the perspective that colour can be used as a medium to heal elements of our lived world. His work as a Youth Woodworking Instructor has brought a lightness to his craft. He sees woodworking as a way to connect people to their creative selves and help them develop their confidence.

The Folk Fairy Tree returns as a whimsical gathering place celebrating connection, creativity, and the playful spirit of Winnipeg Folk Festival. Installed in a living tree, this interactive piece invites visitors to explore a miniature fairy world and take part in a shared exchange of art, wishes, and handmade treasures — all thriving under the prairie sun.

Darci Madlung is a multidisciplinary visual artist. Born in the mountains, Darci was inspired by local artists and nature. Her work includes painting and sculpture in a variety of mediums, collaborative public art projects and teaching in-studio, off-site workshops and kids art camps.

Janelle Lagasse is a two spirit Metis multidisciplinary artist from Manitoba whose work spans poetry, painting, photography, and spoken word. Rooted in her Indigenous heritage and inspired by the natural world, her art reflects themes of self-discovery, resilience, and connection. As a mother navigating personal transformation, Janelle creates to honour growth and invites others into spaces of healing and authenticity.

Designed as a tool for healing, mediation and contemplation, Labyrinth one continuous path leading to its center. The journey into the Labyrinth can be a metaphor for a journey into oneself in the search for wholeness of body and mind. It is an ancient symbol of self-discovery. Culleton works with the land to integrate the creating a new design each year. This year’s Labyrinth, in the shape of a sun, speaks to the renewal process that the prairie goes through every spring where the grass grows back, and the canvas is refreshed. Although Labyrinth is a physical undertaking, the reworking of the ground in that field has made it a sacred space for meditation and contemplation.

James Culleton is a Canadian contemporary multimedia artist and designer based in Saint Boniface, a city ward of Winnipeg, Manitoba. He specializes in blind-contour drawing and sculpture. His work has been exhibited across Canada and into the United States. Culleton received a BFA (Honours) from the University of Manitoba. Culleton produces mural art, oils and acrylics on canvas, blind contour drawings in ink and watercolor, as well as steel sculpture and multi-media installations.

A featuring Manitoba’s prairie and forest wildlife during sunset. Painted using an expressionist colour palette, and with a sense of wind and movement that reflects wild prairie life.

An artist from Manitoba, Julia Mark, creates colourful, quirky art that often features wildlife and animals. Graduating from the University of Manitoba with a Fine Arts Honours degree in painting, she then went on to pursue a career teaching high school Art. She's been involved in several public projects in Manitoba such as the “Bison on the Boulevard Project”.

Born in small town in Manitoba, Kerialee Friesen has always been drawn to nature, art, and words. She grew up scribbling short stories, poetry, and songs inspired by her inner world and the natural world around her. She creates sculptural and functional ceramics, paints abstract works, and needle felting. Her works have been shown at Forum Art Centre, Warehouse Artworks, 226 Gallery, and MAWA.

Building-on last year’s visual piece integrated near Shady Grove this interactive painting and diorama for festivalgoers to discover, interact with, and enjoy during the festival. Made from reclaimed wood, and hand-painted to capture the unique personality and essence of “under the prairie sun.”

Chris Pancoe is a multimedia artist with a penchant for working with clay, wood and found materials. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Manitoba and Master of Fine Arts from the University of Minnesota. He has taken part in residencies at The Pueblo Espanol in Barcelona, Spain and The Red Lodge Clay Centre in Montana, U.S.A.  He has taught ceramics/sculpture at Art City, The University of Manitoba, The University of Minnesota and at Inverhills Community College in Minnesota. He has exhibited his work locally, nationally, and internationally.

The Meadow Jam is an immersive outdoor installation that brings a whimsical prairie band to life. This ensemble of six characters, each crafted from reclaimed and recycled materials, celebrates music, nature, and community under the open sky.

Installed among the open fields and trees of Birds Hill Provincial Park, these sculptures create a sense of discovery, as if festivalgoers have stumbled upon a secret jam session. By blending folk aesthetics, prairie wildlife, and recycled materials, The Meadow Jam embodies the Winnipeg Folk Festival spirit — a celebration of connection, joy, and music under the prairie sun.

Dan Girard is a bilingual folk artist and multi-instrumentalist from St. Boniface who is guided by curiosity, craftsmanship, and a deep respect for working with his hands. Dan’s artistic work extends beyond music into woodworking, leatherwork, amateur blacksmithing and bladesmithing, and stone art. In the spirit of folk art, Dan incorporates recycled and repurposed materials into his creations, seeing potential where others might see waste, discarded objects become opportunities for renewal.

Meadow Music is an interactive, sun-soaked celebration of the joyful harmony that emerges when nature, imagination, and community gather under the wide prairie sky. This installation transforms a simple field into a playful place where music grows like wildflowers and the prairie itself sings along. These elements echo the Folk Fest spirit of discovery, creativity, and communal play. Visitors are invited to wander through the installation, encountering instruments as unexpected encounters along the path. The work encourages festivalgoers to slow down, look closely, and feel the warmth of the prairie sun as they explore a space where art and environment intertwine. The installation celebrates the playful energy that defines the Winnipeg Folk Festival; open-hearted, imaginative, and deeply rooted in the land. Under the prairie sun, music doesn’t just fill the air it grows from the earth itself.

As long-time partners in both life, art, and everything in between, Glen and Charlene follow creativity wherever and in whatever form it wants to take them, using any medium or method that best brings their shared vision, experiences, ideas, and observations to life.

Our Hill is a painted art piece made of cut wood; depicting a hill as a character's hair with elements representational of the folk festival we experience as concert goers.

Mila Houle (Happy Houligan) is a 2SLGBTQIA+ multi-media artist and illustrator. She's currently studying at Red River College's Graphic Design Program. She has a keen interest for crafting, crochet and music.

The sculpture, The Pitcher Plant, is a botanical model and solar powered fountain in tribute to the beautiful carnivorous plant. It is inspired by visits to the nearby Brokenhead Wetland Interpretive trail.

Ryan Lacovetsky started lampworking in 1999, in Union Bay, BC. In 2002 he moved to Winnipeg, and operated Shine Glassworks, a full-service production lampworking studio, which offered lessons and studio rental, as well as repairs. He has sold his work at shops, festivals, and craft events including The Winnipeg Folk Festival’s Handmade Village.

Sky Garden reflects the vibrant social atmosphere of the festival. The space underneath Sky Garden will be a place for attendees to sit and enjoy. Suspended overhead the colourful patterns, movement and dappled light are intended to enchant the viewer. Enhancing this feeling at night, Sky Garden will light up.

Karen Wardle is a Winnipeg-based sculptor and painter. Her work has been exhibited in shows across Canada. Wardle maintains an interest in the complexities of human ecology and most importantly our impact upon the natural environment.

An installation of upwards of 300+ small paintings, named Prefabs (by Smith’s art collective 26), are done on pieces of reclaimed wood, in various locations throughout the festival site. For this year’s theme “Under the Prairie Sun,” Star Power explores the relationship we have with the sun. The Prefab provides for the festival attendee, as it does urbanite, a moment of contemplation and wonder outside of the gallery setting.

Cyrus Smith is a Canadian visual artist residing in Winnipeg, MB. Having an extensive background in street art, Smith borrows from popular culture and addresses several themes throughout his work. He has been involved with numerous exhibitions, public art, and performance projects throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe. Smith has given lectures and workshops detailing the risk of alienation and suppression of Graffiti Art. His work is included in collections worldwide.

Rachael Hoogstraten Searle (aka Sour Pony) is a visual artist and writer, originally from rural Alberta, based now in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She works primarily in mixed media collage. She has spent her years in Winnipeg embedded in the culture of live music and art. Her work plays with elements of the rural experience, natural artifacts, the naked form and our deepest connections to what grounds us to the natural world.

Placed across the land, these sculptures will appear as if they have always been part of the site: an echo of musicians who once gathered there, and a quiet acknowledgment of the generations of music, movement, and shared joy that have passed through the field. The work invites festivalgoers to reflect on the continuity of place—how land holds memory—and to imagine the sounds, emotions, and communal spirit that have flowed through it over time.

Amanda Kindzierski (she/her) is an Ojibwe, Métis, Polish, and Ukrainian filmmaker who identifies as Two-Spirited. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, she has written, produced, directed, and edited over 20 films that have screened at local, regional, and international film festivals. She teaches filmmaking to children and adults through schools and community organizations. Her work is shaped by storytelling, collaboration, and a deep relationship to land. She is a member of Keeseekoose First Nation and a descendant of the Duck Bay Métis Community.

A selection of cyanotype prints (made possible by sunlight). Made from plants that grow in Manitoba, many from stage namesakes, these prints are on natural fiber fabrics and displayed on a clothesline.

Alison Foster is a multidisciplinary artist and art educator living in Winnipeg. She believes that art is for everyone!

A collection of cyanotype fabric panels printed using Manitoba Prairie sunlight to form an expansive blue field that records the silhouettes of prairie plants. Embroidery emphasizes plants and names them. This layered approach brings together photographic documentation and tactile mark-making, highlighting both the presence and specificity of prairie flora growing under the sun. Sun Soaked Prairie is a visual archive of prairie plants emphasizing observation and the act of naming as forms of recognition.

Kristina Blackwood is a multidisciplinary artist with a foundation in craft. Her work centers on transforming everyday often overlooked objects into pieces that are both beautiful and meaningful. Blackwood is drawn to the act of making—bringing ideas that once existed only internally into tangible forms that live beyond herself.

Caroline Wintoniw is a Manitoba based multidisciplinary artist inspired by the organic shapes, textures, and rhythms of nature. Caroline has a deep fascination with historical photographic methods, often incorporating these methods in her work. Caroline’s evolving body of work is a harmonious dialogue between craft and contemporary vision, rooted in a deep reverence for nature.

Wear Do Garments Gather embraces exposure — to light, climate, and time — while situating gathering within the shelter of trees. The work invites festivalgoers to move slowly beneath the canopy, experiencing how materials, bodies, and environment coexist under open sky.

Wear Do Garments Gather is a site-responsive outdoor installation composed of sculptural fabric forms created from salvaged clothing sourced through Winnipeg-based textile recycling. The work reconfigures discarded garments into suspended textile elements installed directly within the tree canopy at Birds Hill Provincial Park, allowing the landscape itself to act as both structure and collaborator.

The project considers clothing as both a functional object and a carrier of lived experience. Each garment holds traces of use, labour, and personal history, which are reassembled into a collective form shaped by place, weather, and communal presence. By working with salvaged materials and minimal infrastructure, the installation foregrounds sustainability, care, and transformation.

The fabrics which shift in appearance throughout the day. Under the prairie sun, these materials catch and diffuse light filtering through the leaves, casting layered shadows and quiet flashes onto the ground below. As wind moves through the grounds, the suspended garments sway gently, creating a quiet, dance-like motion that echoes the presence of music and movement across the festival site.

As daylight fades, the installation transitions into a subdued nighttime presence.

Aderemilekun Olusoga is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Winnipeg, working across painting, photography, and media art. Her Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and Certificate in Applied Psychology informs her approach to image-making as both an analytical and reflective process. Olusoga is interested in how personal history can articulate collective experience, and in how diasporic subjects negotiate relationships to land, culture, and belonging over time.

Wishing You Well is a whimsical wonder of weeds, inspired by dreams of looking up at the sky from below the plants, and watching them reach up towards that loyal prairie sun. Playing with scale, this bluff of giant plants will spring from the prairie grass welcoming visitors to contemplate the lucky leaves they usually search for beneath their feet as they gaze up at these giant stems. Search for a four-leaf clover while gathering with friends, family and loved ones to make a wish upon a giant fluff.

Ruby Rain is a self-taught queer artist in Winnipeg, MB. She likes making joyful, affirming, and downright silly stuff that she wants to see in the world. They love to use colour as medicine and tend to design things that “little Ruby” would squeal at! With a focus on vivid digital illustration, her iconic stickers can be seen on countless water bottles in Winnipeg.

Sean McLachlan is a Winnipeg based artist who focuses on capturing the power of place through his celebrated sculptural public artworks throughout the East Exchange district of Winnipeg, and creating letterpress print based artworks created in traditional print studio, Printmonger Press.

Woodland Animals continues a beloved tradition, bringing festival-goers closer to the natural beauty of Birds Hill Provincial Park and the animals that call it home. Handcrafted from wood, these friendly animals celebrate the warmth, connection, and life that comes from living Under the Prairie Sun, welcoming festivalgoers of all ages. They include engraved QR codes linking to animal facts. Over the past few years, these woodland creatures have become a part of the festival experience, with attendees seeking them out and capturing photos as part of their Folk Fest memories.

Amber Green is a proud Two-Spirit Métis, Winnipeg-based artist and designer working under the name Stone and Colour. Her wood-based artwork is inspired by life, land, and quiet storytelling, blending natural textures with thoughtful design. Amber’s work explores connection—to place, to nature, and to shared experience—creating pieces that feel at home in both outdoor and community-centred spaces.