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.
Megan Stein is a visual artist and printmaker living in Edmonton, Alberta. Her artistic practice encompasses collage, relief, silkscreen and hand drawn typography. She uses language, repetition, comparisons and concealment as tools to communicate narrative, empathy, and small glimmers of celebration. Megan often uses colour, plants, water, light, reflections and ribbons as metaphorical language in her work.
Virginia Stephen has an MA in Visual and Performing Arts Education and undergraduate degrees in both Art History and Arts Education and is a graduate of the Getty Museum Leadership Institute. She has over 35 years of experience as an arts educator, museum educator and senior arts administrator. Stephen began her career as a visual art teacher in Ontario and British Columbia secondary schools.
The work here is about shifts in landscape over time, partially due to human intervention and partially based on the effects of water and ice each year. ‘Light through water’ examines erosion through river channels, showing abstract marks that mimic water basin landmarks from above. ‘Bow Cirque, 1902’is an older image taken from the Archives of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (photo by Byron Harmon), redrawn carefully in high detail, and then paired in ‘This is now Bow Glacier Falls’ with my own photo imagery, re-photographed in the same spot over 120 years apart in time.
My first love is black and white photography. That probably has to do with the fact that I started out many years ago sloshing around in a makeshift darkroom set up in my parent's basement bathroom. In the last few years I’ve transitioned from shooting large format film, almost exclusively black and white, to a digital slr which allows me to produce colour as well. Regardless, whether the final image will be black and white or colour, I'm always drawn to scenes with strong compositional elements and strong lighting.
Jeff Sylvester explores, through his work, the occupation of natural landscapes by modern infrastructure. Common elements include communication towers, neighbourhoods, roadways and flocks of birds. These themes are sometimes found working together in his compositions, other times, isolated in their own haunting simplicity.
Meticulously hand-cut stencils are made to apply Sylvester’s imagery between layers of thick resin. Light passing through the layers provides the viewer with a sense of depth heightened by the tonal application of the paints.
His paintings can be seen in private, public and corporate collections across Canada and the U.S.
He works and lives in Edmonton, AB.
