TIMELAND: 2010 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art

May 29-August 29, 2010

Visit the TIMELAND: 2010 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art website for detailed information about the artists and exhibition history!

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Paul Bernhardt
Ken Buera
David Cantine
The Cedar Tavern Singers (AKA Les Phonoréalistes)
Jason de Haan
The Einstein's Brain Project
Robert Geyer
Kristin Ivey
Kristopher Lindskoog
Wednesday Lupypciw
Walter May
Rita McKeough
Chris Millar
David M.C. Miller
Ron Moppett
Lyndal Osborne
Scott Rogers
Danny Singer
Justin Waddell
John Will
Chris Willard
Clint Wilson

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“Timeland” speaks to a geography of the past and the future, the old and new. As a theme for the 2010 edition of the Alberta Biennial, curated by Canadian Art Editor and independent curator Richard Rhodes, it is also a conceptual guide for an exhibition that blends both emerging and established generations of artists to create a snapshot of the vitality of the contemporary Alberta art scene.

Reflecting the diversity of the Alberta landscape, where space can be measured in geological, durational and cultural timeframes, the exhibition presents twenty-five artists working across the spectrum of contemporary art making modes from painting and sculpture, to installation, video and performance. Presented in the new Art Gallery of Alberta, it marks the beginning of both a new decade and new possibilities for contemporary art in Alberta. Its cross-generational mix of artists is a statement that underscores the commitment and continuity of art making, which is an ecology without time limits where the new intersects with the established on a sustained creative basis.

The theme Timeland also engages the heightened sensitivity to time that has shaped the first years of the 21st century, a period where the achievements and securities of established modernism are challenged by the new globalism that, via information technologies offers access to an expanded consciousness of world views, histories and cultures. The scale of this globalism subsumes the idea of the local but it thrive as the lifeblood in a world where provincialism dissipates and a new information-fed internationalism reflect the complexity a multi-dimensional world culture.

“Timeland” mirrors this multi-dimensionality. It bridges Alberta communities by highlighting the shared achievements of their art and presumes the art’s continuity with developments in contemporary art elsewhere, both in Canada and abroad. Contemporary art is made in recognition of the realities of the 21st-century one-world planet, realities made pressing by the shared facts of climate change and the congestive effects of economic development. Made by emerging artists and established ones, the art is alive to its times and ever-alert to the need for imagination.

Guest curated by Richard Rhodes
Organized by the Art Gallery of Alberta

Presented by ATB Financial



History of the Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art
Since its inception in 1996, the Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art has presented new and exciting works by over 115 different Alberta contemporary artists. As the only exhibition of its kind in Canada, the Alberta Biennial has brought national attention to the AGA and helped to promote Alberta artists. The Art Gallery of Alberta (formerly The Edmonton Art Gallery) has played a leadership role in the development of this exhibition, which has been presented in partnership with other provincial arts organizations including: the Illingworth Kerr Gallery at the Alberta College of Art and Design, the Nickle Arts Museum at the University of Calgary, the Art Gallery of Calgary and the Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre, over the last 14 years.

Richard Rhodes
Rhodes has worked in the Canadian art scene since 1979, as a curator, writer, editor and teacher. From 1990-1993, Mr. Rhodes was Curator at the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto, prior to which he produced independent projects such the 1982 exhibition Alternate Photography and 80/1/2/3/4 Toronto: Content and Context in 1984. Mr. Rhodes also served as Canadian Commissioner for the 1985 Sao Paulo Biennale. Since 2002, he has developed an on-going series of one-day changing exhibitions called The News at Five for the Toronto International Art Fair. He has also shared this experience and knowledge as both a writer and lecturer. Mr. Rhodes founded C Magazine in 1983 with artist Dyan Marie and was the magazine’s Editor and Publisher until 1990. He has taught at the Ontario College of Art and Design and Ryerson University, and has been in his current position as Editor of Canadian Art Magazine since 1996.