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Feeling Gothicky by Lauren Mikols, Larry McDowell, Jessica McCarrel & Kim Neudorf
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Friday, February 22 - Sunday, February 24

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809 Gallery

Calgary galleries are rampant with new exhibitions. Last Friday, February 22 saw several openings, including In the Headlights, featuring the work of Jakub Dolejs at Truck Gallery, di-stort, an exhibit showcasing several third-year Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD) students at The New Gallery and, finally, Feeling Gothicky, located in the lesser known, proudly alternative, artist-run 809 Gallery.

Lauren Mikols, Larry McDowell, Jessica McCarrel and Kim Neudorf functioned as the masterminds behind Feeling Gothicky, a mixed-media, multi-disciplinary exhibition inside the makeshift and strangely appealing garage gallery of 809 (5 Ave. N.W.). Approaching 809 for the first time is a shock to the well-honed art addict’s system, dead opposite to the elitist traditional art venues of downtown Calgary. 809 is, literally, located in a little green garage just off a gravel alleyway in Kensington. Brandon Dalmer, one of the founders of the space (which has functioned as a gallery for the past year and a half), credits a trip to Chicago as the inspiration for the obscure facility. According to Dalmer, a freshly graduated ACAD painting student, in Chicago, innovative and alternative exhibition spaces are relatively commonplace, and he thought, “Why couldn’t we do this back home?”

The result is 809 Gallery, a tiny but increasingly popular stage for the works of up-and-coming local visual artists. One such artist is Lauren Mikols, a drawing major in her third year at ACAD. Working with both two-dimensional and three-dimensional imagery, Mikols’s macabre and haunting portfolio utilizes materials similar to those employed by David Altmejd and Jan Svankmajer. To many at ACAD, Mikols is known as “the girl who makes things out of human hair.”

While 809 played host to Mikols’s work during the opening of Feeling Gothicky, di-stort, at The New Gallery, also features three slightly older drawings by the artist. A University of Calgary juried and curated exhibition, di-stort functions under a theme of warped perception and obscured understanding. Mikols’s piece The Pack #1 depicts, on three separate sheets of paper, delicate and eerie wolf-like creatures, rendered with hair-fine precision that manages mysteriously to be both dangerous and beautiful. While the creatures are animal-ish, the viewer still looks with uncertainty at what they perceive; some alienated by the scene and others enticed by the fluidity of form and shape to continue staring, despite the discomfort of conjecture.

Mikols’s work fits comfortably into the context of the exhibition, which also features work by Kiki Barua, who toys with animal-human hybrids and Pamma FitzGerald, an artist displaying a series of ghostly images entitled The Burden of Memory. The 809 Gallery, while lacking certain elements of dignity present in The New Gallery space, allows the viewer to approach Mikols’s work in a very different way.

In 809, Mikols displays both a drawing and a sculpture. In the small space, one is forced to stand somewhat close to the sculpture, which was built from branches, hair, honeycomb and (presumably) animal fur. Like the piece in The New Gallery, Mikols’s drawing depicts a wolf-like creature. Paired with the gently moving hair and graceful swoop of the branch sculpture, the drawing gains a further element of depth and movement. The limited space of 809 distracts slightly from the overall effect of the piece, however.

Oddly enough, 809’s smallness adds a certain charm and warmth not found in more expansive, polished venues. The artists displaying within 809 acknowledge that the space is, in fact, a garage, and accept the venue at face value. It’s a place to display their work. The New Gallery, as a slightly larger space more than 30 years 809’s senior, should and does have a more refined esthetic, evident in di-stort. One thing is certain: whether it’s located in a downtown shopping market or a garage, for Lauren Mikols and other artists like her, having a venue available and willing to display student work is a rare and exciting opportunity.