In Good Company: Gillian Willans
A community story
November 12, 2021
By: Agnieszka Matejko

According to an ancient proverb, “Man may work from sun to sun / But woman’s work is never done.” As artist Gillian Willans discovered, what held true over generations reached a crisis point during the pandemic. A mother of three school-aged children, as well as a prolific painter and instructor at MacEwan University and the University of Alberta, she watched her home begin to unravel. But Willans, whose paintings address gender roles in domestic settings, turned adversity into grist for her creative mill.

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I am pleased to announce I have been awarded the 2018 Eldon and Anne Visual Art Prize, more information can be found by visiting the CARFAC Alberta website.

The Well Tended Garden - Gillian Willans
June 22, 2018

June 30 - August 19, 2018
Opening Reception: July 5 7-9pm

Edmonton Artist Gillian Willans’ paintings of the domestic realm capture her interest in social role-playing and her own struggles to define her belonging. Her work deals with a wide range of conceptual ideas that are filtered through the lens of personal experience and grounded in the history and development of Genre Painting (art which represents scenes from everyday life). She utilizes and manipulates the tradition of realism to help create unease within her paintings. With a focus on creating mood through dramatic use of light and shadow, the private living rooms become a stage in which a range of social interactions have played or could play-out. Willans intends for the spaces to reflect the value ideals and gender roles of the people who should be present, not unlike 17th century Dutch Genre Painting that she openly references...

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Gillian Willans: and light she lingers as your hostess – Review – curious arts
October 11, 2017 by Rohan Kulkarni

Afternoon Delight painting by Gillian Willans
Slip into another time at Gillian Willans’ exhibition And light she lingers as your hostess. This collection of still scenes, presented by Scott Gallery at 10411 124 St, invites viewers to investigate intimate snapshots of domesticity. These pieces originate from a feminine gaze, creating a gendered perspective which invites us to contemplate with the artist as she digests her own relationships to the home and its tangled interconnections to constructing autonomy.

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Gillian Willans’ Another Time Another Place – curious arts
April 28, 2015 by Lisa Gilroy


UAlberta painting instructor draws viewers into domestic realms with colourful nostalgia
Gillian Willans’ (‘99 BFA, ‘08 MFA) exhibition Another Time Another Place is a series of new works painted from found photographs of the interiors and exteriors of homes, showcased at the Scott Gallery until May 2, 2015.

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