Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/407098
e two men worked well together. ey under- stood each other. "We both came from humble beginnings," Shurniak tells me during a chat in his gallery office last winter. Retiring from Hutchison Whampoa in 1997, he looked after a new investment for Li in Australia for five years before returning to Saskatchewan to build and operate the gallery. Pointing around his office, he says he doesn't use this space for work anymore. e A.Y. Jackson on the wall behind me and six other Group of Seven paintings hanging in the room make it far too popular with the public for uninterrupted concentration. Remaining active on the boards of two international cor- porations, the 83-year-old now uses a meeting room as his working office. As if the Jackson, Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer and large A.J. Casson (above the fire- place) pieces aren't enough of an eyeful, a glass candy dish in vivid blue and orange and matching pair of orbs also command attention from a coffee table across the way. And in front of me on the floor lies a jewel-pat- terned Kashmir carpet in shades of ivory, chest- nut and muted blues. Shurniak purchased it in 1977 while travelling through the then-peaceful region of northern India. Each slender tuft of wool in the one-by-two-metre rug, considered the soul of the home in Kashmir folklore, is cre- ated with a single, hand-tied knot. "It takes a family about six months to cre- ate a carpet this size," says Shurniak. My spouse Renée joins us for a gallery tour, and we soon learn that every object has a story, and every story is a piece of Shurniak's past. But the 720-square-metre gallery with tunnel-vaulted entranceway and landscaped courtyard doesn't feel like a shrine to personal achievement. Sure, Shurniak also holds hon- ourary doctorate degrees from the University of Saskatchewan and University of Western Ontario, where he spent two to three weeks each year monitoring students at the Richard Ivey School of Business. But he comes across as a considerate and refined man who freely acknowledges the gallery grew out of a pas- sion borne of yearning. "When you don't know any- one, the loneliest place in the world can be a big city," says Shurniak, a lifelong bachelor. "I mean, talk to me about loneliness – I've experienced it. So I used to visit galleries and museums, and that helped." The personal art collection spurred by those visits, some 300 to 500 paintings and an equal number of sculptures, rugs, scrolls, furni- ture pieces, jade and wood carvings, terracotta figurines, silver collectibles, potter y and ancient vases from around the globe and close to home, is now a gift to the people of Sas- katchewan. Opening in 2005, the gallery sees an average 900 visitors per month, mostly from Canada but also from the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Asia. It operates as a charita- ble private foundation and admission is free, with Shurniak footing the bills. Arrangements are in place for its continued operation for at (clockwise from top) The Shurniak Art Gallery hosts exhibitions for local and national artists; Contemplation by Italian sculptor Loredano Rosin; the gallery's Bexhill Room; an outdoor bronze sculpture, Flowers, by Joe Fafard. shurniak art gallery, (contemplation) expressions photography w i n t e r 2 0 1 4 | w e s t w o r l d 15 e two men worked well together. ey under- e two men worked well together. ey under- e two men worked well together. ey under stood each other. "We both came from humble beginnings," Shurniak tells me during a chat in his gallery office last winter. Retiring from Hutchison Whampoa in 1997, he looked after a new investment for Li in Australia for five years attention from a coffee table across the way. And in front of me on the floor lies a jewel-pat- terned Kashmir carpet in shades of ivory, chest- ory, chest- ory, chest nut and muted blues. Shurniak purchased it in 1977 while travelling through the then-peaceful region of northern India. Each slender tuft of wool in the one-by-two-metre rug, considered the soul of the home in Kashmir folklore, is cre- ated with a single, hand-tied knot. "It takes a family about six months to cre- ate a carpet this size," says Shurniak. My spouse Renée joins us for a gallery (clockwise from top) The Shurniak Art Gallery hosts exhibitions for local and national artists; Contemplation by Italian sculptor Loredano Rosin; the gallery's Bexhill Room; an outdoor bronze sculpture, Flowers, by Joe Fafard. Flowers, by Joe Fafard. Flowers