Jill Allan
Dolores Bender Graves
Todd Gunnar Billmark
Peter Bowles
Jane Bruce
Anne Clifton
Taygan Crapo
Robert Lewis
Jim Norton
Natali Rodrigues
Brad Turner
Gordon Webster

TERRA INCOGNITA
june 07 - july 21, 2013

exhibition opening reception
friday june 07, 2013
7:00 pm - 10:00 pm

curatorial talk by Natali Rodrigues
saturday june 08, 2013  |  3:00 pm 

Terra Ingognita is a group show that explores a variety of hybrid practise.  Each of the artists in this exhibition are making work in the interstices between disciples, art, design, craft, and science.  The work they have created defines new ways of making and thinking about glass as a material.

april 19, 2013 - june 2, 2013

Ellinor Stenroos was born and raised in coastal Finland until she as a 21 year old moved to England to study silversmithing, goldsmithing and jewellery design. Having grown up as a Swedish speaking Finn, English was introduced to her as a third language around the age of 10. She became fully submerged in an English speaking culture during her university years. The oddities of sayings and idioms always fascinated her, and how different cultures have their own unique ways to express themselves. After 3 years in England she moved to Canada and found that the British English language she now spoke fluently was often misunderstood. Certain sayings and idioms were no longer translating and expressing what they were supposed to. The Swedish speaking Finn culture the artist grew up in often express quotes and idioms through very dark topics, ‘to fail or error’ would often lead to one’s demise or death. There is a harshness and bluntness that culturally doesn’t translate, despite how the words themselves easily might. Ellinor Stenroos has a fascination with poetry, the power of the written word and how it can emit emotion that transcends countries, cultures and timelines.

This exhibition is equally an exploration of our concepts of what jewellery should represent, the actual weight and size contradicting the idea of jewellery being wearable, as well as a voyage into the realm of the written word physically being worn.

‘Statement’ is a series of jewellery art-pieces exploring how we express ourselves with the clothing and accessories we choose to wear. In a highly materialistic society, jewellery is no longer a mere symbol of a gift or a promise, but has evolved into a perceived “impression of wealth”, “ the depth of someone’s love” and “sincerity of a commitment”; we are constantly seeking approval and acceptance from our society. When the statement we are wanting to make to our peers and our society becomes anchored in a price tag or the size of ‘the rock’, whether we can afford such statements or not, we are forgetting everything that a piece of jewellery traditionally used to represent. 

‘Statement’ is a conceptual exploration of wearing a physical label based on -not our successes and fortune- but our insecurities. Jewellery normally is a symbol of happiness, milestones and celebrations. This series examines the opposite, the physical notion of wearing each and every insecurity and burden, not just quietly experiencing them. This exhibition is not crafted to overshadow nor cast dismay over the beauty we find in the jewels we regularly treasure, but to embrace the thought of ‘wearing our hearts on our sleeves’, whether in-love, over-flowing with excitement or drenched in grief.

We continuously label each other and ourselves. The label we choose to wear and the one others put on us are at times conflicting. With 10 oversized necklaces, displayed in wall-mounted box frames, statements and labels that we all internally battle are crudely mounted for anyone to see and judge. The weight of the chains suspending each statement are relevant to the weight we as human beings often experience as we carry our feared shortcomings and burdens around with us on a daily, and sometimes lifelong, basis.

Every ‘Statement’ is a window into the darkest corners of our subconscious and ego. By recognizing and acknowledging the fears we hide inside of us, we may grow brave enough to see beauty in the weight we allow to hold us down, that ultimately also strengthen us.

This series is an expedition into the artist’s self-consciousness, and an observation of our inhibitions. It is an acknowledgement of the labels we wrongly put on ourselves, hide deep inside and prevent anyone from proving them wrong. The artist wants to convey the emotion of lifting these necklaces off our shoulders and cathartically mounting them in space outside of our inner selves.


opening reception (artist in attendance)
friday april 19, 2013   |   7:00 pm
artist talk
wednesday may 15, 2013   |   6:00 pm

ONE NIGHT ONLY 
thursday february 21, 2013

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
DaDe ART & DESIGN LAB   |   1327 ninth avenue SE Calgary.

Process: Reclamation Landscapes 
CLAYTON DIDIER 

continually exploring the juxtaposition between the self and the authentic self; or to explore the relationship between the subjective and objective perspectives of self. 
  
Clayton is an artist, optical illustrator, conceptual photographer, designer, and is the founder and creative director at the Didier Creative Group. 
  
he has been a practicing artist for over twenty years, working primarily in the photographic medium for the last ten. Clayton only started specializing in “optical illustration”, which now is his primary focus, after completing the bachelor of design in photography program at Alberta College of Art + Design in 2005. 
  
friday november 9, 2012

7:00pm for an eye opening journey of reclamation. 
8:00pm the artist talk. 

Each of us has memories, and we are all driven and affected by our memories in particular, peculiar ways, holding them dear as something uniquely personal to ourselves. How can we resolve the condition of memory’s ineffability or subjectivity with the fact of its central situation in the formation of knowledge? Put another way, if our childhood experiences are contained within the “vessels” of memory, however do we reach to adulthood? With a double-series (acrylics and oils) of paintings inspired by her early childhood years spent in Brandon, Manitoba, Calgary-based painter Danielle Bartlette creates visual journals, celebrating her connection to her memories and exploring how the adult mind processes and reconciles the diverse, subjective impressions of childhood.

en·vi·ron·ment

1. the aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences; surroundings.
2. the air, water, minerals, organisms, and all other external factors surrounding and affecting a given organism at any time.
3. the social and cultural forces that shape the life of a person or a population.
 
Taking inspiration from minimalism & modernism, Darcy creates one of a kind, thought provoking, and often environmentally conscious abstract works.  Repurposing collections of normally overlooked objects into finished pieces, taking various forms from canvas, sculpture & installations.
 
DARCY lundgren  |  august 02 - sunday september 16, 2012
 
opening reception  
thursday august 02  |  7:00
 
featuring
Village Ice Cream (selling ice cream sandwiches) & Café Xaragua (sampling ice coffee) 

Making art, for me, is done out of necessity. I am addicted to it, and need it like a junkie needs a fix. I honestly find myself going through ‘art withdrawal’ if days go by without painting or drawing, or art-making in some form. I have been drawing since the first day I was able to hold a pencil, and painting for just as long.

If I’m able to alleviate people’s minds from whatever concerns or issues are troubling them, I do it with a sense of whimsy. Humor plays a major role in my work, even going so far as to poke fun at art itself, as though it were a living, breathing entity. It’s my way of keeping art in check, and a reminder not to take myself too seriously.

My latest work has been dealing with random patterns and textures, which I create myself, as well as a sense of detachment from any pre-conceived or planned ideas for works I may create. For years I have been using found imagery such as clip-art, comics, or advertisements as the starting point for my work. Lately, with my “Drawn Collage” series, I have been creating my own imagery, and drawing or painting it in a style that mimics the look of a ‘cut and paste’ collage. You could say, I’m going backwards from my usual approach to art…which is good. Playing around with different styles and mediums is important to me, as it keeps things fresh. I have no desire to become the master of any one particular genre; that is to regimental for my taste, and there are far too many different approaches to art making that I would like to try. The creative ideas in my head are like problems or puzzles that need to be solved… and the answer to these puzzles dictate the style and mediums I will choose to complete them.

Paul Zacharias was born and raised in Manitoba, graduated in 1998 from the University of Manitoba Fine Arts Honors program. He lived in Montreal for some years traversing the country to plant trees in British Columbia seasonally. He has exhibited across Canada and in the United States. He currently lives in Winnipeg where he also works as an artist in Film, Theatre, Ballet and the Opera.   

Loneliness haunts these paintings. Sharply-detailed, solitary characters traverse surreal, endless landscapes.  The hunger of artists, the sex lives of revolutionaries, and the secret love and loss that travellers carry within.  Zacharias paints on wood, the grain of which is a dimension onto itself.  One that ebbs and flows from background to forefront, from watery skies and cavernous walls, to the texture of tools, and skin.  A familiar glue binding the narratives together, as dark matter, the smoke that all things swim in.

opening reception friday june 08, 2012
7:00pm

* artists will be in attendance

DaDe ART & DESIGN LAB in collaboration with the Alberta Craft Council, will showcase unconventional, contemporary works, from 10 contemporary fibre artists from around North America.  FABRICated will be on display and available for sale from April 20 to June 3, 2012.
 
featuring
Ilse Anysas-Salkauskas, Arlee Barr, Margie Davidson, Deborah Dumka, Connie Fraser, Matt Gould, Luke Haynes, Mary Holdgrafer, Jill Nuckles & Dana Roman
 
opening reception Friday April 20, 2012
7:00 pm