| It’s that time of year again, when cowboy hats are dusted off, leather boots get a much-needed polish and country music invades the streets of downtown Calgary. Yes, it’s the return of the Calgary Stampede, which officially kicks off July 6. The Stampede’s mandate might be to preserve western heritage and values, but it can sometimes end up looking like one big excuse to party continuously for 10 days. This year, add some extra culture and heritage into your Stampede celebrations by participating in some of the many art openings, performances and other events around town that have been inspired by The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.
The cultural hoedown starts at 5 p.m. on July 5 with a western-themed First Thursday at Art Central. To put you in the boot-stompin’ mood, The Ruby Twos, featuring Jacqueline Drew and Penny Sanborn, will play live vintage country music with a fresh new twist. Art Central’s third Great Western Hat Stir-up will get you even more wrapped up in the festivities with its bold and quirky display of painted and sculptured cowboy hats. If you don’t own a cowboy hat yet (or even if you do), now would be the perfect time to get one that’s truly unique. These masterpieces created by local artists have been on exhibit since June 7 and will be auctioned off from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on July 5, with all donations going to support the Alberta Cancer Foundation’s Tom Baker Centre. An awards ceremony recognizing the most innovative hats will commence at 6:30 p.m.
For chic urban cowgirls looking to stand out during Stampede season, make sure to mosey on down to Looks Could Kill Art Boutique in Art Central for some Wild Wild West wearable art. Jennifer McCaw, artist and owner of said gallery-boutique, has created the funkiest sterling silver rings made to resemble miniature saddles that cinch around your finger with a leather band. You will also find painted western skirts picturing dueling gunfighters and horses created by artists from across Canada. Leather bags made with brass hardware and authentic rifle slings by designer Sarah Shell are also available.
For those less into fashion and more into art, Trépanier Baer Gallery’s latest exhibition, entitled Roll-up: How the West was Really Won, has more to offer the viewer than just paintings about cowboys and horses. The whole concept of this group show, a reflection on what it means to live in Alberta, formerly a western frontier land, was inspired by Oenone, a gigantic painting (it’s nearly eight metres wide) that Ron Moppett created in 1987. Also included in this show are works by Vic Cicansky, Liz Magor, Danny Singer, Fred Herzog, Micah Lexier, Bill Eakin, Martin Bennett, Geoffrey James and Neil Wedman. This show about place and local vernacular runs until July 28.
Trépanier Baer isn’t the only gallery that knows how to put on a western-style show. On July 7, Newzones Gallery pays homage to the contemporary North American cowboy with the opening of the group show G’ddy up! Many of the works presented are made specifically for this themed exhibition, although artists Joe Andoe, Kevin Sonmor, Dianne Bos and Russell Young regularly play around with horse imagery in their work. Bos’s atmospheric pinhole photographs of the Stampede Midway are also included in this show. Photographing the busy nightlife of the Stampede grounds through a tiny hole with lengthy exposure times, the artist creates images with such a surreal quality that it becomes hard for the viewer to believe that it’s an untouched photograph of reality and not a shot of plastic miniature models or a distorted, oddly coloured oil painting.
Our last stop on this cultured Stampede jaunt brings us to the No.1 Legion landmark building located on 7 Avenue S.W. on July 9 at 7 p.m. With the help of the Legion’s unique and traditional ambiance, Matt Masters and the Gentlemen of the Rodeo, accompanied by Toronto’s NQ Arbuckle, will transport you back to a simpler time with their classic western melodies played through an old PA system. Like a subtle performance piece, the spectators will be immersed in a bygone era of Calgary. Masters is also busy collaborating with the Illingworth Kerr Gallery to create a western cabaret musical called Don Coyote that will be performed at next year’s Calgary Stampede. Loosely based on Don Quixote, the 17th century classic Spanish novel, Don Coyote is a 21st century southern Albertan troubadour who roams the land of rural Alberta singing songs and righting wrongs. |
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