The Art Gallery of Alberta respectfully acknowledges that we are located in Treaty 6 Territory and Region 4 of the Metis Nation of Alberta. We respect this as the traditional and contemporary land of diverse Indigenous Peoples including the Plains Cree, Woodland Cree, Beaver Cree, Nitsitapi/Blackfoot, Métis, Nakota Sioux, Anishinaabe/Saulteaux/Ojibwe and Dene Peoples. We also acknowledge the many Indigenous, Inuit and Métis people who make Alberta their home today.
Elizabeth Verhagen started drawing and painting at an early age. Highly self-motivated, in her twentieth year she decided to dedicate her life to art and has consistently pursued that goal with passionate determination.
She spends the warm months bicycling extensively throughout Alberta, drawing at every opportunity; the winter season is devoted to painting in her Edmonton studio.
She is continually inspired by the vibrant intensity of the Alberta countryside. The pure colours of the landscape and brilliant hues of the sky are vividly expressed in her paintings. A major part of her artistic activity consists of creating constructions, innovative works that combine painting with pasted and mounted objects and materials. She also creates paintings of faces based on her drawings of individuals sketched in public places.
Jim Vest was born in Durham City, England. He studied at the Sunderland College of art, and at the Manchester College of Art and Design. He immigrated to Edmonton, Canada in 1969 and taught art at Jasper Place Composite High School. After 10 years of teaching, he left teaching in 1980 to put a full time focus on his painting. Throughout his career, Vest has established himself as a respected artist in western Canada. His work is found in many public and private collections both in Canada and internationally. He continues to paint and exhibit his work.
Jim Visser was born in Holland. After the Second World War he immigrated with his family to Canada, settling into farming near Edmonton. In 1999 Jim retired from operating a seed potato farm and became a full time painter. From 1975 through the early 1990s, he studied drawing, printmaking and both watercolour and oil painting at the University of Alberta. In 2002 he attended an artist residency at Emma Lake. Visser is a member of the Alberta Society of Artists, Visual Arts Alberta—CARFAC, as well as The Canadian Artists Representation of Canada. He is represented in corporate and public collections, and has been featured in solo shows in Edmonton, Red Deer, St. Albert and Stony Plain.
Peter von Tiesenhausen is a multidisciplinary artist based in Demmitt, Alberta. Over the course of his twenty-eight years as a full-time artist, his practice has continuously eluded categorization. His work has found form as sculpture, painting, video, ephemera, performance, land art, community action, and installation.
