On Thursday, Sept. 29, at 7:30 p.m., the ODD Gallery in Dawson City will be holding a

reception for the opening of Perpetual Curiosities: A 30-Year Retrospective.

The exhibition is by long-time Dawsonite Shelley Hakonson, whose last show at the gallery was a shared exhibition. This time she’s going solo.

“It’s nerve wracking, but also fun and exciting,” she says.

The idea for a retrospective show came about after Hakonson offered Meg Walker, Interim Gallery Director, three options for a show.

“Meg said let’s do them all, and I thought it was a great idea.”

One of the pieces in the show dates all the way back to 1968.

Hakonson, originally from Vancouver, first came to Dawson in 1976 as an entertainer and dancer for the Gaslight Follies and Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall. She eventually met and married local Greg Hakonson, and has been here ever since.

“He motivates and pushes me,” she says. “He also helps build my bases and frames – it’s good to have a guy around who likes to build.”

Hakonson creates textile works; paintings using acrylics, cold wax, and oils; and sculptures and masks – all of which will be featured in the show.

“My studio has always been either the dining room table or the kitchen table, and at times, both at once. Sometimes the basement for messy work,” Hakonson says.

Over the years, Hakonson has tackled different themes. She’s used wordplay to create a series of paintings entitled the “Heart Series” and “Zoomorphics.” She’s looked at a feminist approach to considering different women’s lives and issues around the world, motivating her to create paintings and sculptures about practices like foot-binding in ancient China. She’s also created images depicting goddesses who aren’t always the pretty ones.

Along with exhibiting in both the ODD Gallery and Confluence Gallery in Dawson City, and the Yukon Arts Centre in Whitehorse, Hakonson has displayed her work at the Galerie 240 in Ottawa, the Spirit Gallery in Juneau Alaska, the Agora Gallery in New York and The Savannah Gallery in Anguilla, in the Caribbean.

After the show, Hakonson is looking forward to continuing to work on her art throughout the winter.

“I’m most content when doing art. It keeps me sane – that and my husband,” she says with a twinkle in her eye.

Shelley Hakonson’s exhibition, Perpetual Curiosities: A 30-Year Retrospective, will run from Sept. 29 to Nov. 3.

For more information, please contact Meg Walker at the ODD Gallery at (867) 993-5005 or [email protected].

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