Looking Back Through the Western Door

Looking Back Through the Western Door:
A Peter Maqua Retrospective

In honor of Peter Hornung Maqua (Sept, 1950 – Aug, 2006)

Peter Maqua was known throughout the Upper Peninsula and Canada for his acclaimed installation, Creation Cycle, shown at the Lee Hall Gallery and the Algoma Art Gallery in 1989. Although struggling with a deteriorating physical condition, Peter did not stop painting with either of these shows, but he continued creating until the time of his death.

This exhibition, mounted by his family and friends, includes some 150 works; majority of his works since 1989, plus earlier ones and several of the important pieces from Creation Cycle. All reflect Peter’s love and reverence for the First People’s lifeway. The overall theme of his work might be encapsulated in the Ojibwa phrase, “Aaniikaaniigaanaak! We are all related”: every living being: people, bears, trees, plants, and Earth herself, interconnected, interacting. These paintings seem to pulsate with life. They are the life work of a person who believed in honoring that connection, and they lift the viewer in wonder.