| Now that the holiday season is loosening its grasp on Calgarians, it’s time to once again turn our attention to art.
A good place to shrug off turkey-brain is at the Art Gallery of Calgary (117 Eighth Ave. S.W.), where a selection of 18 colour photographs from Susan Dobson are on display until March in an exhibition entitled Open House.
The Ontario-based photographer offers up lush colour photographs that show in detail the interiors of various suburban rooms. Borrowing a page from the book of famed American photographer William Eggleston, Dobson points her camera into the quiet corners of suburbia in an effort to enlighten us about how we live in the comfort of our own homes.
Over at the Nickle Museum (on the University of Calgary campus) is the Faculty Art Show from the university’s art department. This annual event gives the under-appreciated faculty an opportunity to show off their own works to students, staff and the public alike.
Despite the lack of a civic art gallery in Calgary (Ralph, are you listening?), many institutions try to fill the void. One of the most active and successful in this regard is the Triangle Gallery (800 Macleod Trail S.E.). Jacek Malec, director of the Triangle, has worked tirelessly to reach out to Calgary’s creative community to form partnerships that range from book readings to lectures. The year 2005 will be no exception, with a full slate of activities planned, including a Winter Art Stroll and several events in late January in co-operation with the 2005 International Festival of Animated Objects. For more information on IFAO events, go to the festival’s website at www.animatedobjects.ca.
The Art Stroll happens from January 20 to 22 at locations across Calgary, including Paul Kuhn Gallery and Newzones Gallery. This winter walk explores the many forms of figurative artwork and will also help bring attention to Triangle’s upcoming exhibition Figuratively Speaking, a collection of works from international and Canadian master artists that will be at the gallery from January 20 until March 5. Among the work that will be on hand is the photography of the late Robert Mapplethorpe. For a short period of time he turned his erotic imaginings into striking figurative studies that spawned international controversy before his death from AIDS in 1989.
On January 20 at Skew Gallery (1615 - 10th Ave. S.W.) the exhibition A Foreign Film opens, featuring six sculptural works from Calgary-based artist Bake Senini. These massive "wall sculptures" begin as ink drawings, which are then transformed into 3-D works.
January also marks the beginning of the first-ever photography festival for Banff-Calgary. Exposure 2005 is being spearheaded by Craig Richards of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff. The Whyte has three exhibitions of photography from January 15 until March 20: Folio Gallery: Revisited, Through the Lens: A Retrospective and Sound and Light: Dianne Bos.
Look for more information about Exposure 2005 in the coming weeks including details about a lecture and book signing by Mary Ellen Mark, one of the most celebrated documentary photographers working today.
And if you need another fix of photography, check out Path of Promise: Tibetan Nuns Exhibition. This show, in the lobby of the Max Bell Auditorium at The Banff Centre, features the work of Jeffrey Davis, who has documented the lives of Tibetan nuns who live in Dharamsala, India. |
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