| Calgary's artist run centres are a model of co-operation. Banding together to share resources in the face of larger, better funded spaces, three of these non-profit organizations hold simultaneous opening receptions that result in infamous gallery crawls every four to five weeks. The latest shows at all three ARCs continue until June 23.
Curiosity surrounded The New Gallery opening in particular, as its current show is the first to take place in its new location in Eau Claire Market. After being evicted from its 9 Avenue S.W. digs due to construction of a new office tower, gallery staff and the board scrambled to find, then renovate a new space. The new, New Gallery is a clean, bright space – an impressive accomplishment after only six weeks of closure.
In TNG's exhibition Through the Gilded Looking Glass, artist Brendan Tang employs an impressive array of decorative ceramic techniques to create a series of subversive pots, vases and plates. Joyfully bright and kitschy, Passenger's Paradise is a celebration of the mindless modern spectacle, incorporating plastic toy flowers, chirping motorized birds and plenty of gold trim.
At Truck, we find Hound's Tooth, Forsooth! by Hazel Meyer, an installation that pits pattern against pattern in a sports arena complete with stadium-style seating and strings of fairground flags. The floor is laid entirely with black and white linoleum tiles laid in a hound’s tooth pattern. This is counteracted with two small zebra sculptures – one black on white and one white on black – heading towards each other from opposite ends of the gallery like some sort of graphic duel.
Stride hosts Said and Done, a project created by ACAD alumni Dustin Koop and John Antoski. A North America-wide network of artists who exchange images and ideas over the Internet and through the mail, this exhibition consists of 225 digital prints created through this collaborative system.
Trepanier-Baer's current show, Chorus (After Montreal), continues until June 23 and features local artists from the dealer's roster who are receiving national attention. Five artists – Chris Cran, David Hoffos, Luanne Martineau, Evan Penny and Ryan Sluggett – were all selected for the 2007 Biennale de Montreal.
The front window space is dotted with the latest paintings from Cran's Chorus series. A collection of circular, neon-painted panels, each one features a close-up image of a face in Cran's familiar pop-art-inspired style, like a cast of characters taken from vintage newspapers.
Hoffos is also inspired by vintage graphics – in his case, cookbook photographs. With the series Japanese Cooking, Hoffos continues to employ low-tech visual effects to play with perceptions. Images of sushi and barbecue are cut and folded to produce a pop-up book effect, then placed in black wood shadow boxes and topped with a magnifying sheet. The result is food that seems to jump out at you in glossy, lurid Technicolor.
Penny is also known for playing with viewers’ perceptions. His sculptures of people are startlingly realistic – made from silicone, pigment and hair. Enlarged though, they are disquieting – every mole, freckle and wrinkle is on vulnerable display. Penny's figures also hover in a strange perceptual space between two and three dimensions. Standing before Back of Dave (2007), the man appears to be properly proportioned. But by moving to one side, it becomes clear that the figure is almost flat – no more than 30 cm thick.
Martineau's felted wool sculpture Parasite Buttress is built around a base of mattress foam – a long strip that stretches from the ceiling down the wall and halfway across the floor. Layers of dark grey, soft pink and stripes of warm ivory wool are fused to the padded form. Along one side, the pink wool is matted into a ruffled edge, like a frilly bedspread. At the bottom though, little stubs of black wool are scattered like a growth of wild mushrooms. Alarmingly, two stubby yellow felt fingers peek out from underneath the piece, nailed through the knuckle to the wall. The artist has taken elements of comfort and prettiness and made them ominous – like the contents of a little girl's bedroom left outside to rot.
Young art star Slugett has several drawings in the show, but the most interesting piece is his recent animation project, Diderot's Indulgent Vistas. The artist's quick, lively drawing style comes alive here, as drawings and paintings are de-constructed and re-built, layer by layer, in a flurry of colour and texture. The vignettes are compelling as paper characters inhabit a series of cardboard rooms, streets and complex relationships. Especially memorable is the disco scene, built entirely from black paper and tinfoil. |
Copyright ©2007 FFWD. All rights reserved.