Morgan Traa is a Winnipeg-based artist with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honors) from the University of Manitoba. Working across film, installation, and arts administration, Morgan is an active member of IATSE 856 and Chair of CARFAC Winnipeg. Their work has been recognized with several awards, including the University of Manitoba’s Emerging Leader Award (2022) and the Canadian International Film Festival’s Rising Star Award (2016). A passionate advocate for artists’ rights, Morgan also contributes to local arts initiatives, while continuing to shape Winnipeg’s creative landscape through their practice and leadership.
My City is a Graveyard documents Traas’ relationship with the city of Winnipeg as a young adult following the loss of her mother, and home, and the feeling of displacement within the city that accompanied these life-altering changes. Consisting of 17 paintings and a video that includes the artist’s poetry, My City Is a Graveyard uses Winnipeg as a backdrop for longing, anger and reclamation of place. Utilizing a painting style akin to American voyeurism, an unbridgeable distance is felt between the viewer and the painting, void of figures, the visual tension in Traa’s landscapes are paradoxically heavy with absence.
The hot sun casts sharp lines dappled by sunlight through trees, buildings resembling monuments to grief imposing on the blue sky. Traas’ work asks us to reflect on what it means to stay in a city full of memories with buildings like gravestones.
“I’m Isolated within the city walls, downtown is quiet and I am stuck in time. The city and I have this in common. We sit and wait to be moved, brutal in our stance and uncompromising in our resolve. My city is a graveyard.” – Traa
About aceartinc.: We are an artist-run centre dedicated to the support, exhibition, and dissemination of contemporary art. aceartinc. Presents five major exhibitions a year by contemporary visual artists.