Curated by Natasha Chaykowski and Yasmin Nurming-Por
2017 Alberta Foundation for the Arts Emerging Curator Fellows
Small unidentifiable spheres dot the ground at almost regular intervals, and various tropical birds hold court in the sky, while an elderly cowboy extends his lasso, which like the snake, is curiously straight, in the direction of three surprised looking cattle. The horizon is obscured by undulating hills, and a strange melange of deciduous trees and cacti—both in morphing shades of green, from neon to forest—push through the arid ground throughout the composition. A surreal tour de force, and indeed, a conceptually compelling meditation upon the strangeness of landscape, Alan’s drawing serves as the launching point of Dear Alan; it speaks to a persistent interest in issues pertaining to landscape, methodologies of collecting, and mythologies of Alberta, writ large.
This exhibition represents 32 artworks by 31 Alberta artists:
Alan*
Kay Angliss
Bruce Bentz
Robert Burcher
Edward Burtynsky
Joane Cardinal-Schubert
Douglas Curran
Primrose Diakow
Gisela Felsberg
Velma Foster
Roland Gissing
Alexandra Haeseker
Faye HeavyShield
Barbara Rose Hicklin
Wally Houn
Esther How
A.Y. Jackson
Kablona
Illingworth Kerr
Jim Logan
Rita McKeough
Bryce Meyer
Janet Mitchell
Arthur Nishimura
Anne Patrick
Walter Phillips
Harry Savage
Robert Sinclair
Peter von Tiesenhausen
Sylvain Voyer
Doris Zahariuchuk
*Unknown artist
Image courtesy the Alberta Foundation for the Arts