Sigvaldason Fine Art opens high-end art gallery in Gimli

By: Patricia Barrett

Getting fine artwork into the hands of art lovers and collectors has just been made a lot easier with the opening of an art gallery in Gimli. 

Nolan Sigvaldason, who grew up in Arborg and has been selling high-end artworks for nearly 15 years, said the opening of the gallery will give the public an opportunity to view and purchase investment-quality art. “One of the main reasons I decided to open a gallery in Gimli was to get more Manitobans and local people interested in owning art,” said Sigvaldason, who celebrated the launch of his gallery last Friday evening and is in the process of completing his website. “I have been dealing in art for a number of years and I’ve bought and sold a lot of art outside Manitoba and in other provinces and countries, but I’ve always hoped that more Manitobans would think about owning and investing in artwork.”

Since 2010 Sigvaldason has been helping art enthusiasts, collectors, dealers and corporations obtain fine artwork for their collections. The gallery offers free verbal appraisals, written appraisals for insurance purposes, assists with estate sales and professionally packages (or crates) and ships artwork to any location in Canada or abroad.

The gallery specializes in historical Canadian art and currently has several paintings by Canada’s Group of Seven landscape painters, who produced influential works in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as works by Emily Carr, Ukrainian Canadian sculptor Leo Mol, Ivan Eyre and Indigenous Group of Seven artists such as Noval Morrisseau. In addition to paintings, the gallery has screenprints, Inuit soapstone sculptures and rarer items such as monoprints (a type of printmaking) and woodblock prints.

“We have several pieces by Walter J. Phillips [Canadian painter and printmaker], who created around 50 woodblock prints,” said Sigvaldason. “He did several pieces of Gimli and surrounding areas, including the dock, and they’re quite valuable today. There are many things to consider with each, including how many were made — as that varied — their importance and condition. For example, WJ’s woodblock of Hnausa Dock is significantly more valuable and sought after than his Gimli Dock
woodblock mainly because of its importance to WJ’s career and what awards he won using Hnausa.”

Not only can people buy art from Sigvaldason’s gallery, but they can also potentially have the gallery sell their own art. People with artwork they think might be worth something can contact Sigvaldason and his staff for an appraisal. “We’d look at current values and determine what the best course of action would be to sell it,” said Sigvaldason. “Oftentimes, after a family member passes away, a family likes to keep a few pieces for themselves if there’s a large collection. For the rest, we can figure out what to do with the pieces. We have a number of options for selling in our gallery. We purchase art all the time, and we can consign some of the more expensive pieces and sell other pieces at auction.”

The fine art world has always been subject to forgery because of potential lucrative payouts, and it requires art dealers to know their material and have a network of experts with whom to consult. Sometimes, however, the experts themselves can be fooled by forgeries. The Vancouver Art Gallery’s acquisition of 10 paintings by Group of Seven member J.E.H. MacDonald, for example, turned out to be forgeries after an examination of handwriting and paint that wasn’t available at the time of the works’ creation. The gallery launched an investigative exhibit into the provenance (previous ownership) of the works and how the forgery was discovered.

Sigvaldason, who is a self-taught art specialist and who has family members in the art industry, said it can take a “lot of research” to determine whether a piece is authentic or fake. “There’s not an art dealer in the world that probably hasn’t made a mistake or two along the way, and you can learn from them. You have to do a lot of research,” said Sigvaldason. “I have a great team; we have many years of experience and we consult with other art dealers, galleries, museums or the artists themselves if they’re still alive. I’m connected to many galleries and art dealers right across Canada, so if there’s something I’m not sure of, I pick up the phone and talk to the expert in that area.” 

People who sell their art often prefer to remain anonymous, which can be challenging when assessing the provenance of a piece. Provenance may be important for determining authenticity. “However, we can usually tell within a minute or so if something looks off or not, and the back of the painting often tells just as much as the front,” he said. 

Sigvaldason also has hundreds of Canadian art books for reference on well-known artists, groups and movements, he said, and there are certain clues that may present with a piece of artwork that could raise some doubt. 

Fine art can at times be pricey. Those experiencing sticker shock should keep in mind that high-end works represent an investment that can increase in value over time for the owner or their descendants, said Sigvaldason. People should eschew picking up something mass-produced from a big box store as that has no value or meaning other than aesthetic appeal. 

As a better alternative, people should look at purchasing art from local artists, said Sigvaldason, as their art has significantly more meaning, and the inherent value of those works will be retained or could increase over time. Sigvaldason Fine Art is located at 70 Centre St. in Gimli.

Link to article: https://www.expressweeklynews.ca/split_document.aspx?doc=ExpressWeeklyNews011824.pdf#page=1