Dramatis Personae
A Solo Exhibition of:
Photography
Artists
Exhibition Dates
Venue
Opening Reception
Opening July 11th, 2023
7:00 to 8:00 PM
Followed by a preview of the zany musical comedy “AUSTENTATIOUS” Directed by Barbara Mah
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
The Alberta Society of Artists is proud to present a group exhibition featuring the work of Alberta artists E. Ross Bradley, ASA.
This exhibition coincides with the play, “Austentatious.” An outrageously funny musical about an amateur theatre troupe’s “creative take on Jane Austins, “Pride & Prejudice“. This production runs from July 12,-23, 2023, at the Walterdale Theatre, 10322 83 Ave. NW, Edmonton, Alberta.
There will be a public opening on Tuesday, July 11th, 7 pm-8 pm, followed by a free preview of Walterdale’s production of “Austentatious.” The exhibition is free and open to the public when the theatre is open.
It is not unusual for pictures of the cast and crew of a theatre production to be mounted in the lobby. These are usually the traditional glossy 8 X 10s that theatre people include with their resumes. For the first part of my exhibition, I was fortunate to work with the team to create a series of portraits that will greet the audience in the lobby as they enter the theatre.
For more than 30 years, my studio practice has focused on the human figure. I have been working with the model in the studio, drawing, sculpting and photographing. When Covid hit, my studio work, with the model came to a halt. Before the pandemic, a former model asked to see the photographs I had taken of him that he might be able to use in a performance he was developing. I was happy to share the images, but there were hundreds of them, and they existed, unedited in digital form. I decided to create a photo book with a selection of the best of a collection of edited images. This was so successful that I decided that, since I couldn’t create new images with models, I would tackle 15 years of archived photo shoots and create a series of books for each model I had worked with. Since getting back into the studio, I have continued the process and published the images of each shoot.
Although my work with models deals with the full figure, I have found that more and more of the shoots included a focus on portraits. In the past, all my work with Wallterdale has always tried to link the work with whatever is happening on the stage. In keeping with this tradition, It seems like to make sense to combine the two ideas and come up with a portrait exhibition. As everyone plays a role in their own personal drama, the spirit of the title could be applied to everyone.
The Artist – E. Ross Bradley (ASA)
About
A graduate of the Ontario College of Art and the University of Guelph, Ross Bradley has exhibited nationally and internationally for more than 40 years. Upon arrival in Alberta in the late 1970s , like many before him, he focused on the prairie and mountain landscape. But his early interest in the figure soon took over and the human form took over. For the past 35 his studio practice has focused on working in the studio with the model in drawing, sculpture and photography.
For 36 years he worked as a curator and arts development Consultant with the Alberta Government and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. He has taught adult education programs, including figure drawing over the past 20 years at the Kootenay School of the Arts, Medicine Hat Cultural Centre, EPCOR Center for the Arts and Harcourt House Arts Center. He is a life member of the Alberta Society of Artists and Harcourt House Artist Run Center and has served on the Alberta and Canadian Craft Council.
Artist Statement
In grade three, I was asked to draw a picture of myself as a grownup, and I drew a picture of a painter at an easel painting on a mountain sunset. Much to my parents’ dismay, my strength in High School was in the arts, not engineering, law or medicine. At Art College and University, I first encountered working with a live model in both drawing and sculpture, and somehow, that experience has influenced my art-making ever since.
For a few years after my studies, I worked primarily in landscape painting, with a very strong focus on the abstract design elements of the subject. But I soon found the human figure invading the landscape until the body became the landscape. Up to this point, I worked with photographic references, so I had to return to the studio to rediscover the wonders and challenges of working directly with the model. Since then, my practice, regardless of the media, has continued this exploration.
About the Land
Dramatis Personae, is on display at the historical Walterdale Theatre building, originally the Strathcona Fire Hall Number 1 built in 1910, in what is currently known as Edmonton, Alberta.
The Walterdale Theatre acknowledges that our theatre is located on Treaty 6, a traditional territory of the Cree and has been an important trading place of the Saulteaux, Blackfoot, Nakota Sioux, Dene, Saulteau, and Métis peoples of western Canada for many thousands of years. We also recognize and honour that we are Treaty people and therefore seek to uphold the spirit and intent of this Treaty of Peace and Friendship.
The Alberta Society of Artists (ASA) acknowledges that what we call Alberta, where our organization has found its’ home, is the traditional and ancestral territory of many peoples, presently subject to Treaties 6, 7, and 8. Namely: the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) Confederacy (Kainai, Piikani, and Siksika), the Nehiyawak (Cree), Dene Tha’ (Slavey), Dane-zaa (Beaver), Denesuliné (Chipewyan), Saulteaux, Nakota Sioux, Iyarhe Nakoda (Stoney) (Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley), and the Tsuu T’ina Nation and the Métis People of Alberta. This includes the Métis Settlements and the Six Regions of the Métis Nation of Alberta within the historical Northwest Metis Homeland.
Are you interested in learning more about the First Peoples who call and have called Alberta home?
native-land.ca has an interactive map showcasing many of the Territories, Languages, and Treaties that impact Alberta, Canada and other parts of the world.