Honouring Black History Month
Postcards, playful work and pop art
There are an abundance of new art exhibits at the city's galleries this month, including two that celebrate Black History Month.
First, Jed Irwin's collection of African masks, and his paintings inspired by them, will be on display until March 2 at the Afrikadey! Gallery (second floor, 924 - 6th Ave. S.W.).
Meanwhile, an Exhibition of West-African Art opens on February 16 at 6 p.m. with a celebration of music, tales and dance at Alliance Française (in the Memorial Park Library building at 1221 - 2 Street S.W.). Pieces from the collection of David Thiaw will be available for viewing until March 3.
In other pursuits, two artists currently showing at The New Gallery explore societal perceptions of masculinity. In the main gallery, Lee Goreas presents Driving, a video installation that encourages audience participation in order to analyse competitive instincts. In the front space, EVERYMANnerism, by Richard Smolinski, is a series of black and white paintings that depict stereotypically negative male behaviour. The two exhibitions continue until March 2.
Playful Thoughts, showing at Paul Kuhn Gallery until March 2, is an attempt to expose the work of emerging, contemporary Alberta artists to new audiences by placing it in a commercial setting. Lisa Murray’s small, colourful sculptures are toy-like, but their shapes reference elements of sexuality. Photographer Angela Yee produces abstract digital images of the spaces between individual leaves on a tree and Maria Anna Parolin collects and packages sticks and twigs. Luanne Martineau contributes organic knitted forms and Diane McGeachy offers portraits of porcelain animal figurines that she found at garage sales and flea markets.
At the Nickle Arts Museum, Shelly Ouellet’s project Wish You Were Here consists of replicas of Niagara Falls, Lake Louise, and Quebec’s Saguenay River constructed from thousands of gleaming plastic beads. Basing her work on early paintings of each site, the artist is concerned with representations of our landscape that have been packaged and marketed throughout Canada’s history. Visitors can contribute to the project by submitting their own paintings, drawings, photographs and collages on postcard templates available at the gallery and online at www.wishyouwerehere-canada.com. The show is up now, but the opening reception will take place on Friday, February 15 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. As well, Ouellet will talk about her work at the Nickle on Thursday, February 28 at 7:30 pm.
Also opening on February 15 at the Nickle is Garry Neill Kennedy: Work of Four Decades, a retrospective that also includes new site-specific pieces. Kennedy is known for paintings that interrogate the significance of painting itself – the materials and techniques used, as well as its place in our art institutions.
Pop Revolution opens at the Glenbow Museum on February 16 and will continue until May 26. The exhibition will investigate several themes of the post-Second World War era and will include a print of Andy Warhol's Marilyn. |
