June 27, 2024 –June 18, 2025
‘More than beautiful ornamentation, adornment is a visual language expressing the joy of creativity, pride in attention to craftsmanship, and the desire to share with others. Above all, it honors oneself as well as one’s people by doing a thing well.’
Sherr Dubin, Lois. North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment; Harry N. Abrams, Inc. New York. p11,12,18
Early adornment provides a sense of knowledge about our ancestors that reflect the natural world in which they lived. The seasonal round of birth and rebirth shape our world view in a circulatory way as everything is interdependent. Through European contact and trade metal goods, cloth and glass beads were incorporated into the repertoire of the maker. Even as the use of trade materials increased, traditional styles of embellishment remained with the use of these traditional materials still being utilized to this present day, maintaining connection to ancestors, and cultural traditions. ‘Contemporary artists/artisans are keenly aware of their responsibility as guardians of traditions from which their imagery and inspiration derive.’
The exhibition ᐊᐧᐃᐧᓯᐦᒋᑲᐣ wawisihcikan-adornment features works by Elaine Alexie, Erik Lee and Carmen Miller.
Curated by MJ Belcourt and organized by the Art Gallery of Alberta (TREX Region 2). This exhibition was generously funded by Syncrude Canada Ltd.
March 6 –June 18, 2025
The exhibition 40 is the new 20! is a story of celebration, recognizing both the 50th anniversary of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA) art collection and the recent 40th anniversary of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts TREX program. Since 1986 the Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA - formerly the Edmonton Art Gallery) has been affiliated with the TREX program and so this exhibition, presenting twenty works from the AFA collection, celebrates these anniversaries by re-visiting TREX exhibitions produced by the AGA over the past twenty years. Exploring an eclectic mix of themes, genre, art styles and media, this exhibition expresses the vitality of the visual arts in Alberta and the roles of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and Art Gallery of Alberta in supporting the arts in the province.
Curated by Shane Golby, Art Gallery of Alberta (TREX Region 2).
September 5, 2024 –February 27, 2025
Montageries is not a term you will find in a dictionary. Rather, it is a combination of ‘montage’ and ‘memories’ with the meanings of the two packed up into one word. One online dictionary describes a montage as being “any combination of disparate elements that forms or is felt to form a unified whole, single image, etc.” And, according to the same dictionary source, the word memories is a plural form of ‘memory’ – recalling impressions and facts, embodying remembrance, and recollections of times past.
This exhibition features a concise selection of nineteen artworks from over 8,000 objects of visual art held in the extensive permanent collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA). Compositionally, each of the artworks selected were created by uniting many varied components – montages of sorts – metaphorically highlighting that every artwork stands as a small part of a much larger whole (the AFA collection). Multi-layered and complex, the works included in Montageries are flashes of memory and times past that we can now take a moment to reflect on and remember as we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts’ permanent collection in the year 2022.
On September 29, 1972, the collection was officially legislated. From that date on, the AFA Art Collection has annually acquired artworks from Alberta’s visual artists and is a continually evolving exemplification of the history, development, and achievements of our provincial visual arts community. In the very first annual report from the Alberta Art Foundation (now renamed the Alberta Foundation for the Arts), Chairman W.B. McMullen wrote, “I trust that the nucleus has now been established for a collection which will continue to grow in every way.” There is certainly evidence of growth within the foundation as we look back on the past fifty years, and there is much to look forward to as we look ahead to the next fifty years.
Some key visual metaphors present themselves throughout the exhibition which hint broadly toward expansions, multiplicities, and fragmentations. Whether intentional or not, John Hall’s woodcut Untitled (n.d.) and Robert Dmytruk’s mixed media painting Touch S. B. W. S. D. W. C (2003) visually nod towards the idea of an ever-growing nucleus. Meanwhile Brenda Jones-Smith’s monoprint Place to Gather (2001) and Chris Cran’s Cleveland Portrait #1 (2013) use pixels or dots of paint to montage formal elements together into meaningful compositions. Close contemplation while viewing the artworks in Montageries reveal glimpses of Alberta’s art history but more importantly will encourage viewers to consider the ‘bigger picture’ of what each artwork might represent within the context of a fifty-years-young permanent art collection.
Curated by Ashley Slemming, the Alberta Society of Artists (TREX Southwest).
September 5, 2024 –February 27, 2025
All the Time in the World presents a collection of artworks that chronicle the story of an imaginary summer road trip. Borrowed from the Alberta Foundation for the Art’s permanent collection, audiences are sure to encounter familiar sites and scenes in this broad array of artworks: a 1980’s photograph of RVs parked in the picturesque Tunnel Mountain campsite; a woodcut image of bathers enjoying the upper hot springs in Banff. Journeying on and on, we encounter the Bow River, an icon of our province’s landscape which begins deep within the Rocky Mountains and winds its way into the foothills and onto the prairies. A painting of man and his two children fishing on the Bow, a photograph of a cowboy posed in front of glacial Lake Minnewanka, this exhibition longs for the easy days of summer spent driving endless roadways, sleeping in pop-up tents and marveling at a diversity of flora and fauna. This imaginary road trip offers a respite from the busy modern life and hopes to act as a reminder that there is more than enough time to breathe in all the goodness of the world.
Curated by Genevieve Farrell, Esplanade Arts & heritage Centre (TREX Southeast)
September 5, 2024 –February 27, 2025
Jude Griebel’s solo exhibition Land Eater invites reflection on human interactions with land and our impacts on the natural ecologies of the world. While the artworks conceptually explore consumption and degradation, they invite a whimsical and open-ended curiosity into how we define land and our relationships with it. There is an uncanny tension present in Griebel’s anthropomorphized landscapes, and his protesting insect sculptures, where important questions arise around who (or what?) is truly holding the proverbial ‘talking stick’ in our current conversations around climate change and consumerism – if the land is talking, what is it saying? If the various organisms we share the earth are bearing signs of resistance, what specifically is the root of their dissent?
Each of the artworks in Land Eater contemplates incredibly complicated and nuanced relationships that humans navigate related to environmental stewardship. The questions raised here allow viewers to speculate on possibilities and encourage curiosity toward what the future may hold – not just for humans, but for all natural organisms – the living earth.
Curated by Ashley Slemming, the Alberta Society of Artists (TREX Southwest).
September 5, 2024 –February 27, 2025
“Atikotc eici tepwetamak, eici apitentakwak, kitci kikinowamatisowak kapena ktci mino witciiaiekki mino mantominan acitc ka tepentciketc kitci apak ka ici makopisowak, kitci nimiak tac iimikana, ka ici moseek eka maci awiakok ka ici pikopotowatc.”
“Regardless of our beliefs, what matters is to learn to commune with our spirit and with the Great Spirit to free ourselves from our suffering and to dance freely on this path that has not been burnt by the modern world.”
– Dominique (T8aminik) Rankin and Marie-Josée Tardif (co-founders of the Kina8at-Together Indigenous Organization)
The exhibition ReconciliACTIONS reminds us that reconciliation is an ongoing process, a chain of care and repair, not a one-and-done event. Decolonizing our relationships with one another and drawing new pathways of understanding based on mutual respect is empowering for all of us. Indigenous, settler, immigrant, and refugee alike all play an integral role in enacting reconciliation, and as Dominique
(T8aminik) Rankin and Marie-Josée Tardif describe in the quote above, what matters most for everyone regardless of beliefs is that we free ourselves from suffering by learning to dance on the path that has not been burnt by the modern world. What is meant by this quote? Perhaps it encourages everyone to rebuild balance and harmony into our lives together – a dance free of the shame, self-importance, greed, and noise of modern life. These modern world attributes have clouded our ability to see each other, inhibiting the repair of our relationships both individually and societally. We cannot move forward in reconciliation if we do not listen and dance with patience and vulnerability.
ReconciliACTIONS invites viewers to contemplate how they can show up with care both individually and collectively in actively carrying reconciliation forward. All persons have the agency to create ripples of change, and the Indigenous artists who are included in this exhibition are contributing to this change by educating the public and sharing their knowledge and experiences through visual forms. As you look at each artwork, consider its story, consider the artist, and consider how your own actions can be instruments of change in the ongoing process of reconciliation.
Curated by Ashley Slemming and Diana Frost, the Alberta Society of Artists (TREX Southwest).
September 5, 2024 –August 27, 2025
The noun ‘collision’ implies the forceful coming together of two or more things. All artmaking involves a collision of materials and whether putting things together or tearing them apart, the act of creation transforms the materials used.
Prior to the 20th century, most two-dimensional artmaking in western Europe and America involved applying paint (or other media) to a surface. In the early 1900s, however, these traditions were dramatically challenged by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque who focused on a new kind of pictorial construction. Central to this was collage.
This collision between external signifiers, real life and painting – the acts of collage and mixed media – was revolutionary. In playing with the difference between art and illusion, collage and mixed media work expand the definition of painting and question existing notions of surface and dimensionality. These techniques also introduce external meaning to an art piece.
The exhibition Collision Course investigates the use of collage and mixed media in artmaking as expressed in the work of three contemporary Edmonton artists. Exploring various approaches to collage and mixed media, this exhibition invites reflection concerning the materials used and the possible meanings of the images created.
Curated by Shane Golby, Art Gallery of Alberta (TREX Central & Northeast)
September 5, 2024 –August 27, 2025
Supernatural transformations, mysterious settings, unusual juxtapositions and bizarre events have stirred the imagination of humankind for eons.
During the late 1800s, these concerns became of primary importance to many artists in Europe. Opposed to the preoccupation of Realist and Impressionist artists with recording the exterior world, these artists believed that art should represent absolute truths that could only be described indirectly. Words such as ‘mystery’, ‘suggestion’ and ‘dream’ were often used to describe their creations, expressed in what is known as Symbolist Art.
While symbolist concerns influenced several European art movements in the 20th century, Canadian art during the same period emphasized either representation of the landscape or modernist abstraction. Despite this, however, an interest in the ‘inner eye’ and imagination has long existed in Canadian art.
This exhibition focuses on the fantastical, mysterious and surreal as they have been expressed in the works of Albertan artists over the past fifty years. Presenting works from the collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, this exhibition invites viewers to go beyond ordinary existence, shifting perceptions of reality and encouraging us to question the ’truths’ of everyday life.
Curated by Shane Golby, Art Gallery of Alberta (TREX Central & Northeast)
September 5, 2024 –August 27, 2025
For most, the world is a riot of colour. One of the principal elements of art and design, colours describe everything around us; direct our attention and actions; and affect and symbolize our emotions.
Riot on the Walls! explores colour as it is used by three contemporary artists: Gibril Bangura, Clay Ellis and Zachery Reid. The paintings and mixed media artworks in this exhibition are united in their use of vibrant, bold colours. The reasoning behind the choices these artists make, however, is very different. Both Gibril Bangura and Zachery Reid are storytellers who use colour to create a mood and accentuate the story related. Clay Ellis, on the other hand, is an actual part of the ‘story’ he creates. Seeing himself as an explorer, Ellis utilizes abstraction to investigate materials and processes. In this exploration, colour allows him to introduce a spatial quality to a piece and create a sense of animation in his works.
Whether creating ‘representational’ works or investigating abstraction, the artists in this exhibition use colour to express their aims and extend the moment of looking. In the process, they create a conversation with viewers, enabling them to learn about themselves and the world around them.
Curated by Shane Golby, Art Gallery of Alberta (TREX Central & Northeast)
March 6 –August 27, 2025
This group exhibition from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts’ Permanent Collection features a selection of expressionist works which together raise the question, what do you see at first glance? As studies show, when a viewer looks at a piece of art for the first time, the eye is drawn to an initial focal point, but if one looks away and then back again at the piece, the eye is often drawn to a different point.
The paintings in this exhibition use minimal gestural brushstrokes, vibrant colours and line work to draw the viewer in for a momentary presence into the scene the artist has created. As a viewer, you generate a global impression, or a gist, of a painting with the first glance at it. Everyone’s eye may be drawn to a different focal point, and we may all see something the next viewer doesn’t see right away. That is what is so fascinating about art, we all interpret it differently. Some paintings in this exhibition may look like abstract landscapes at first glance, but when you spend more time studying the work, you may see an animal, a boat, a bus or a tree.
At First Glance features the works by sixteen Canadian artists, Bradley R.Struble, Tom Hamilton, Ron Gust, Art Whitehead, Mary Joyce, Pattie Trouth, Audrey Watson, Leslie Pinter, Susana Espinoza, Niina Chebry, Maureen Harvey, Robin Smith-Peck, Les Graff, Kristen Keegan, Mark Mullin, and Daniel May.
Curated by Jamie-Lee Cormier, The Art Gallery of Grande Prairie (TREX Northwest).
March 6 –August 27, 2025
Folklore and legend are entangled and twisted; one climbs upon the other like vines on a trellis, each stretching to reach the sun and flourish. Lore itself flourishes when stories are whispered behind curtains and around crackling fires. When children pull covers up to their chins, eyes aglow, legends permeate little minds and each story gains strength. The tales are handed down, passed along in the great relay of life, and like wood worn by the sea, they transform into new shapes. The folktales and legends that survive the tests of time are often the tales of heroes and villains. Our heroes are bold and brave, fierce, and powerful, absorbing the self. We see ourselves in the protagonist, making the villains, the monsters, the grotesque obstacle into the other.
So often the heroes of tales have been the courageous, valiant masculine characters whose foes are the monstrous other; often deformed, demonized, and feminized. What is it about the feminized body and the female presenting persona that evokes terror and disgust? What becomes of her when we seek to connect with her monstrosity? The artworks in this exhibition seek to examine the feminized body as the monster in fable, folklore, and literature.
Curated by Jamie-Lee Cormier, The Art Gallery of Grande Prairie (TREX Northwest).
March 6 –August 27, 2025
Patch Portraits showcases the work of Michelle Sound and Raneece Buddan, two artists who employ fabrics and materials of cultural heritage to explore the genre of portraiture and identity. Stitching, patching, and collaging together found and fabricated textiles, the resulting bodies of work by each artist showcase multiple ways in which threads and fabrics can be deployed in contemporary art practices.
Curated by Genevieve Farrell, Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre (TREX Southeast).