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Visual Arts by Anne Severson Canada’s premiere presentation of the exhibit Sharaku Interpreted by Japan’s Contemporary Artists opens at the Triangle on June 29 at 7:30 p.m. Highlighting the wine and cheese reception will be a special performance with Japanese drums by the Kita No Taiko Group from Edmonton. Toshusai Sharaku was a rogue artist during the famous ukiyo-e period of polychrome wood-block printmaking in Japan’s 17th to 19th centuries. During a short period in 1794, Sharaku suddenly began portraying the frozen faces and hands of Kabuki actors to depict their inner character in an impressionistic fashion that surpasses realism. This pioneering quality of Sharaku, later helped by better known ukiyo-e artists such as Hokusai, Hiroshige and Utamaro, carried the Japanese age of ukiyo-e mass prints into Western art during the 19th century and forever altered the course of modern art. Two adjunct exhibits at the Triangle include contemporary Japanese artists reinterpreting Sharaku’s influence both in graphic design and in a more personal, conceptual nature of art-making. You may also wish to explore the history and intrigue of ukiyo-e prints from the permanent collection of Banff’s Whyte Museum until September 11 with the exhibit From Morse to Whyte: Legacy Transcends. A context for Sharaku’s most esteemed works can be provided where, according to the Whyte Museum, "Edo’s finest artists have beautifully depicted the Japanese culture." While you are at the Whyte, why not take in the celebration exhibition of the works by Jon Whyte in Keeper of Place? This acclaimed Canadian poet and writer (1941 - 1992) is also recognized as a legendary curator, filmmaker, historian and environmentalist. Whyte would have probably considered himself a poet and as such his works include visual poems, sound recordings, photographs and film footage in this exhibit co-curated by Carol Black and Craig Richards. For more information check www.whyte.org or call 403-762-229 (ext. 313). Original Treasures, an exhibition from the collection of the Nickle Arts Museum, will be available for viewing beginning June 30. Co-curators Eric Cameron and Diana Nickle mine the history of the museum as well as the collection that established it, in order to understand and show the starting point of this museum on the U of C campus. Calgary has a diverse and active art scene, from the recently resurrected contemporary Alberta Biennial 2000 to 121 udderly ridiculous painted cows grazing our cement streets. Since the cows first hit the streets in May, over 20 assorted acts of violence have injured these life-size bovines. A "Safe Cows" initiative has been launched by Crime Stoppers. Constable Phil Hambrook of Calgary Police Service says, "Partnering with Udderly Art will allow us to help protect some of those crazy cows... after all, the cows are fund-raisers for charity." All Calgarians can get involved in protecting the cows for the remainder of this six-month exhibition, says Bonnie Laycock, director of Udderly Art. To help the local-cow-care-herd-tenders call Andrea Timmer at 701-0922 or the Crime Stoppers hotline at 262-8477. ART on the Avenue is a summer-long project for visual and performing arts on the 100 west block of Stephen Avenue Walk. It is an always-changing outdoor studio and display area for emerging and established artists, art organizations, and students. Creating and displaying their work this week are photographer Slavek Czarny and fibre artist Tarrissa May Lorenzetti. Fluid, irregular and always changing, check www.albertahotel.com or www.studiocalgary.com for updates.

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