| Ryan Ford is a busy guy. He’s a doorman at the HiFi Club, works behind the counter at Sloth Records and can be found spinning beats at Tubby Dog on Friday nights. However, Ford is not merely a career-oriented bouncer with a backpack full of records and a love for Oscar Meyer. He’s also a third year painting major at the Alberta College of Art and Design, with a vision of bringing high art to Calgary’s mainstream community.
Ford cuts through the typical gallery experience by organizing shows that embrace humour and urban culture. His most recent show, titled My Perogative: A Tribute to Bobby Brown, and held at the Alberta College of Art and Design, featured work from artists within the college who submitted portraits of the hip hop icon. The works were stacked high on the wall, next to a 15-foot mural illustrating the word "Bobby" in giant bubble letters (which was Ford’s personal contribution to the show), combining spoof and musical culture to create an exciting and accessible experience for any individual with a sense of humour and a closet admiration of early ’90s R&B. Despite the show’s cheeky and satirical flavour, My Perogative was a notable step in bridging the gap between the spheres of fine art and the mainstream.
Ford admits that arts communities within a metropolitan city like Calgary often seem separate and inaccessible to your average individual – they generate work and cultural experiences targeted at other artists and not the general public as a whole.
Ford finds creating a "gallery" experience that embraces aspects of mainstream culture accomplishes two very positive things for the viewers of art and the artists involved. "First off, you are giving viewers the opportunity to experience art in a comfortable environment, and secondly, you are challenging artists to create work in areas outside of their usual boundaries."
An artistic and culturally enriching experience can be achieved beyond the white cube. "I think that art can assimilate into society through ways other than galleries. Look at John Truch’s Tubby Dog, or Jolie Bird’s Birddog Video. They’re both graduates of ACAD, contributing to the cultural makeup of the city."
Ford notes that although cultural experiences integrated within society are an interesting way to make the art world accessible, they’re also a necessity in a city without a major venue for contemporary art.
"The commercial galleries really only care about selling art. Why would they promote it to the average citizen? The artist-run centres are non-profit, so it’s not feasible for them to promote it. It’s up to government services and that hasn’t happened yet – with governments at provincial and municipal levels refusing to invest in a space strictly for viewing contemporary art, how can the average Joe get involved?"
With the success of My Perogative on his palette, Ford has already organized a new exhibition with his friend and fellow ACAD student Tyler Los-Jones. The show, titled Heavy, will open at the HiFi Club on Saturday, April 1. The show’s mandate, according to Ford, is to encourage artists to show their work outside of the "safe environment" of a gallery space, in order to "make fine art available to a public audience that may not have or want access to it."
Heavy will showcase an eclectic variety of local emerging artists, ACAD students and recent graduates, as well as a few "big names" in the art community, such as Chris Cran, Mark Mullin, Bill MacDonnell and Brad Harms.
All are invited to attend – and don’t worry if you can’t name the Whitney’s most recent exhibition off the top of your head, or whether you mix up the word "installation" with that pink stuff that keeps your house warm. Maybe a few art stars can learn a thing or two from you.
But would you mind not spilling your beer on the performance artist? Dada and AGD simply don’t mix. |
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