SKILLFUL Review: Lou Lynn, Jane Kidd & Greg Payce

Kelowna Art Gallery
June 13 to October 25, 2026

Skillful exhibition, 2026. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KELOWNA ART GALLERY.

Skillful, a statement of fact when applied to artists like Lou Lynn, Jane Kidd and Greg Payce, as well as the title of this exhibition. "Skillful" is also a defiant word, especially in the wider context of contemporary art since the Sixties when conceptual concerns were rated by critics and academics more highly than the hours of sheer labour and technique. It was easy to dismiss the well-crafted object as being an object of formalism with a lack of meaningful content. This is not the case when considering this virtuosic display of 30 wall-based and sculptural works.

Jane Kidd, Inheritance: Remnant 1-4, 2020-2. Shaped woven tapestry. COURTESY OF KELOWNA ART GALLERY.

As the viewer moves from one display to another, it’s hard not to marvel, especially when you have moments, as I did, when considering Greg Payce’s beautifully coloured Brothers and Sisters (2017), Lou Lynn’s witty and mischievous Button Box (2016), and Jane Kidd’s sumptuous environmentally- themed tapestries. The latter is all the more poignant as smoke from British Columbia’s 2026 Summer of Fire blanketed the interior, including Kelowna, where the exhibition took place.

Greg Payce and Jane Kidd were long-time instructors at the Alberta College of Art (now Alberta University of the Arts) while Lou Lynn taught at the Kootenay School of the Arts at Selkirk College from 1994-2007. All three artists are recipients of the Saidye Bronfman Award: Canada’s most important prize in the field of fine craft. Created in 1977 and awarded by the Canada Council in the name of Montreal collector and philanthropist, Saidye Bronfman (1896-1995), the award recognizes exceptional artists with a $25,000 annual prize.  

Skillful was curated by Clea Haugo of Kelowna Art Gallery. She makes an important point when, in the catalogue, she comments: “In this moment of the ascent of Artificial Intelligence, the reproduced product, the virtual image, it is exciting to witness the handmade and revere the maker. Skillful is just that, an authentic human-centered experience.” An experience I think, where technical mastery is balanced with conceptual depth.

Lou Lynn’s work in metal and glass, as part of Skillful. IMAGE COURTESY OF THE KELOWNA ART GALLERY.

Nelson-based Lou Lynn, who is inspired by the utilitarian domain of the kitchen and garage and creates uncanny glass and bronze ‘utensils’. Despite their descriptive names like Dipper, Masher, Beater (2012), not much would be accomplished if they were put to work! Nonetheless, hand-crafted with skill and precision, these so-called ‘tools’ have a disquieting presence. Put a whole row of them on display as the gallery did, and you have an invitation to think about what exactly is different about these tools. Not only is the viewer engaged with the loopiness of the whole project, but as an artist, Lynn challenges and plays with our expectations about what can be actually accomplished with them.

Even more engaging is her tour de force, Button Box (2016), a three-foot metal dish filled with oversized glass, bronze, and wood buttons. Inspired by the fervor of individuals who collect buttons as a hobby or a scholarly subject, the resourceful Lynn reimagines these (generally) small and functional objects as enlarged entities with their own peculiar beauty.

Greg Payce’s work with the negative space between vessels showing an image. COURTESY OF KELOWNA ART GALLERY.

Greg Payce is nothing if not masterful in the way he skillfully manipulates the humble ceramic vase into objects beyond the decorative, as they often are in the home. On display are single pieces which appear to be spinning, like the earthenware Blur (2005), thanks to its many precise ridges and thin lines of colour. Elsewhere, the evocative installation Brothers and Sisters (2017) includes sixteen porcelain vases in white or coloured slips, the curved negative spaces between each vase depicting the head of a boy or a girl.

Flock (2015) in the foreground in the exhibition. COURTESY OF KELOWNA ART GALLERY.

A similar trompe-l’oeil effect appears earlier in Flock (2015), a series of over ninety vessel-like forms of turned aluminum, bolted together in a circular arrangement of seven layers. Walk around it, and negative space comes into play again as it presents the illusion of birds in flight! 

Greg Payce, Dwell, 2005-2010. Porcelain with slips, dimensions variable. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST.

The Calgary-based artist is also known nationally and internationally for his use of lenticular photo-based imagery in conjunction with his ceramic practice. An example is Allusion (2025) which harnesses, nearly fifteen years later, the twirling power of 22 pagoda-style sculptures displayed together as the impressive Dwell, created from 2005 to 2010. The photographed sculptures, to highlight their negative space images, are superimposed over one another to create a sense blurred movement, bringing a new interpretation to the ceramic work.

Jane Kidd, Inheritance, 2022 - 2026. Shaped woven tapestry. COURTESY OF KELOWNA ART GALLERY.

The Victoria-born Jane Kidd makes her home on Salt Spring Island, where her tapestry magic takes place. But who would have known her child-size gowns and wall pieces were conceived with the environment and the contemporary landscape in mind? Technically demanding, these pieces are an evocative response to the many environmental issues besetting the planet. Perceptively titled Inheritance (2022-2026), the five gowns suggest ecological decay. Their woven imagery is abstract, but the coloration and composition suggest Kidd has paid close attention to nature’s elemental aspects like mold and wild fire.

Her woven wall-mounted tapestry series from 2025 to 2026 have a more textural, even visceral presence. Titled Unravelling: bruised, battered, burnt, the four panels stand out for their symbolic references to the environment: drought, nature unraveled, and forest fire. Also engaging are her draped weavings, Inheritance: Remnant 1,2,3,4, which have the casual look of large towels hung to dry. But they are neither functional nor so casual in purpose: their woven imagery is landscape-inspired, suggesting water, dry stream beds, vegetation, clouds and ominous atmospheric conditions. 

Jane Kidd, Inheritance and Unravelling. Shaped woven tapestry. COURTESY OF KELOWNA ART GALLERY.

This attention to drapery brings to mind the earlier efforts of artists from the art historical past – Classical art, for example – who loved to capture the flow of the draped garment.  This may be a stretch, but the varied shapes of Kidd’s hanging weavings are rich in form and emotion.

A catalogue, in a small edition, with a contribution from fine craft historian Julia Krueger rounds out this important show. Skillful implies technical expertise, but in this exhibition the meaning of this adjective is more fluent and wide-ranging. Here, "skillful" also encompasses the ability to communicate ideas and meaning, and the thirty-object display  overall provides an excellent exploration of the two-sided nature of this very word.