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Interiors

A Travelling Group Exhibition of: Visual Artworks

Crowsnest Past

Dates

July 15, 2023 – August 13, 2023

 

Venue

Crowsnest Pass Public Art Gallery

Located on Highway 3, Frank

Crowsnest Pass, AB

14737,  20th Ave.

 

 

Drumheller

Dates

October 1, 2023 – October 31, 2023

 

Venue

Western GM Drumheller Art Gallery

80 Veterans Way

Drumheller, AB

(Located in the Badlands Community Facility)

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

The Alberta Society of Artists is excited to present “Interiors,” a traveling exhibition of visual artworks from a varied selection of Alberta Artists. This exhibition will be displayed at the Crowsnest Pass Public Art Gallery and the Western GM Drumheller Art Gallery. All presented works were selected from submissions to the Alberta Society of Artists’ call by a blind Jury.

“We all live in interior spaces whether it be in an urban or rural environment. We probably spend half of our lives there. We also observe the exterior of other people’s interior environments. These experiences can become metaphors for ourselves whereby we examine our interior spaces.”

The Artists

Artists are listed alphabetically by First Name. Artist’s name followed by “ASA” denotes a Juried or Life Member of the Alberta Society of Artists (ASA).
  • David Harrison, ASA

  • Deborah Lougheed Sinclair, ASA

  • E. Ross Bradley, ASA

  • Jack Blair, ASA

  • Mary Whale, ASA
  • Megan Green
  • Megan Klak
  • Olivia Shegelman
  • Pam Baergen
  • Rob Furr
  • Savannah Tries
  • Sayo Ajet
  • Sharon Lensen, ASA
  • Simon Wong

See the exhibition works, including the Artists’ statements, below. Use the arrows on the left and right sides to navigate through the 17 works, or use the small dots below the images to jump forward.

Inside an Isometric Interior

I chose overlapping isometric grids of various sizes and colours serving to create an interior space of growing visual complexity.

Inside an Isometric Interior, 2023
David Harrison, ASA
Coloured Pencil 
14 in. x 12 in.

Looking Out Looking In

Most of the time our interiors are hidden from others. One can see glimpses of our interiors through our windows as we can see into theirs. Such views are selective and incomplete in that they only reveal a small portion of one’s interior spaces and the lives lived there. Here I have digitally altered a view from a downtown high-rise condominium complex to reveal to the viewer some of my own family’s interior spaces. Still, the view is curated and some of the many “rooms” are closed to outside view.

Looking Out Looking In, 2023
Deborah Lougheed Sinclair, ASA
Digital Image
24 in. x 18 in.

House of Mirrors

Anyone who has visited a traditional circus has probably experienced the fun confusion of the old time House of Mirrors. Today in a museum visitors can be seen moving through a maze of panels that has their image reflected from surface to surface. Unlike the interior that uses the mirror to expand the feel of its space, these mirrors can also cause the illusion of a restricted confusing space.

House of Mirrors, 2023
E Ross Bradley, ASA
Archival Digital Print
14.5 in. x 21 in.

Front Row Seats

There is something magical about an old traditional theatre. Even if it has been updated, it still carries the history of decades if not centuries of tradition. After almost 3 years of Covid these elegant old structures are brushing of the cobwebs and opening their doors to new audiences looking for the experience and excitement of live theatre.

House of Mirrors, 2023
E Ross Bradley, ASA
Archival Digital Print
20 in. x 15 in.

A Family Lived Here

“An old wooden house out on the prairie that is falling down. A still common, but disappearing scene. In this house the evidence of life remains—the disintegrating chair. This must have been the living room. This house was once alive with a family. They were probably hard working, all contributing to making the farm a success. Hopefully it was. Soon this interior will disappear as the house completely collapses. Somewhere there probably are still some folk who can tell stories about the life in this home, with the comfy chair in the living room.”

A Family Lived Here, 2023
Jack Blair, ASA
Photography
21 in. x 30 in.

I Will Wait for You

“The building architecture at the University of Saskatchewan includes classic buildings from the early 1900’s and well-designed present-day buildings. In the enclosed centre courtyard of the modern Agriculture building a man sits on a bench in perpetuity. He waits for anyone and everyone. Behind him the glassed-in yet exposed elevator whisks students to their next class. Quiet moments are not common here, but this is one of them.”

AI Will Wait for You, 2023
Jack Blair, ASA
Photography
30 in. x 24 in.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Personal interiors are private; hidden from the outside world until expressed through thoughts and behaviours. A standard screening test for cognitive assessment is the clock drawing test, where the person is asked to draw a simple clock face and to set the time as 11:10. The image shared exposes the interior functioning of an everyday task. We can lose ourselves to another reality that is interpreted by others as confusion and perhaps dementia. I knew this person for a lifetime as who she presented to the world. Now, living with dementia, she has a life known only to her expressed with a ready smile and a song.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow, 2023
Mary Whale, ASA
Watercolour
15 in. x 20 in. 

Living Room Decor

The work attempts to exist between conceptual art and home decor. The fabric featured in the piece is from a 1970’s colonial revival couch, and the wood carving references the aesthetics of Canadian kitsch. The LED strip surrounding the carving recalls lit signage. The artist is interested in regional domestic spaces related to mining and how they illustrate and conform to the imaginary of our Canadian petroculture, her practise is informed by having spent her formative years in Fort McMurray, Alberta, a city known for its proximity to the Canadian oil sands.

Living Room Decor, 2022
Megan Green
Sculpture
30 in. x 18 in. x 2.5 in.

Lit Up

“I seek to depict figures with interior worlds that are inaccessible to the viewer. In this diptych, a woman is surrounded by warm light and colour, but she is engrossed by her screen. For me, interiors can be lonely spaces, where we spend time by ourselves, glued to technology. Despite the brightness around her, the woman is invested with a certain melancholy, a sense that her world is both rich and opaque, a mystery to the viewer. I strive to create paintings that leave space between the painted figures and the viewer – a space for reaction, connection and emotion. “

Lit Up (Dyptich), 2022
Megan Klak
Oil paint on paper
14.6 in. x 11 in. 

This is it?

This is It?”, is an introspective piece detailing my personal mental interior environment when struggling with depression. It explores a thoughtful juxtaposition of hopelessness and mundane optimism in questioning the restricting bounds of my outlook on life. The contending values of finding comfort in the sadness and a desperate desire for something new.

This is it?, 2022
Olivia Shegelman
Digital Printed on Paper
8 in. x 11. in

Invertigo

In the last few years, there has been an unprecedented series of advancements in the practical use of artificial intelligence (AI) in many industries such as the field of Art and Design. Invertigo, a collaborative mixed-media work, is a hand-built collage that employs imagery created using two different text-to-image AI services (Midjourney and DALL-E 2). Invertigo is an exploration of AI as a new source of strangeness in our world, and speaks to the impact that technological advancements are having on the lives and work of visual artists.

Invertigo, 2023
Pam Baergen
Mixed Media on Panel
10 in. x 10 in.

Trinity

Trinity is an attempt to work through abuse and emotional scarring by objectifying the wound as a person and a print. By making the pain external to the self, hopefully, the interior might heal.

Trinity, 2020
Rob Furr
Digital/Mixed Media

28 in. x 28 in.

Sinking

In “Sinking,” the bed is explored as a deeply personal interior space that can evoke complex emotions, particularly during grief, illness and disability. Common language, such as “bed rest,” “sick bed,” and “bedridden,” capture the bed’s dual nature as both a refuge for rest, and recovery, but also a place of confinement, restlessness, and isolation.

Sinking, 2021
Savannah Tries
Digital Image
9.5 in. x 9.5 in.

Reaching

Of all the spaces in a house, the bed is perhaps the most intimate. It is an interior sanctuary where we rest, reflect, and reach for the parts of ourselves that we keep hidden. It’s a space of vulnerability, introspection, and memories, where nostalgia and dreams reside.

Reaching, 2021
Savannah Tries
Digital Image
9.5 in. x 9.5 in.

Semidetached

Semidetached homes are like identical twins. Similar on the outside, with vastly differing interiors.

Semidetached” is inspired by Ibeji, the Orisha (Yoruba Deity) of twins and duality. Ibeji teaches us that opposites have a lot of similarities and that there is always more than meets the eye.

Semidetached, 2023
Sayo Ajet
Ink and pastel
26 in. x 22 in.

Inside Out

Standing in the window looking outwards. Inside her house, inside her head – feeling polarized. Deconstruction of the inside is complete, a blank slate of possibility. Dismantling was the easy part. Putting things back together, meshing the inside with the out is daunting. Lingering a while longer in the hazy, indistinct shades of gray that now paint the quiet storm within, drawn to the light that is without. This is, for me, a metaphor of what life and loss has been like for me the last few years. Although still a little intangible, out of reach, reconstruction is now underway.

Inside Out, 2019
Sharon Lensen
Acrylic on Canvas
36 in. x 30 in.

My Studio

My studio is the most important part of my life. It is my world, a place where I can create. In a small space, paints, paper, brushes, and canvases form the chaos of creation. Time to tidy up. I look to the outside and translate what I see. Humanity is meant to create, not destroy. I’m inspired by Picasso’s “Guernica” and used it as an anti-war symbol for the background, using my favourite painting techniques to keep me hopeful. In the foreground, I placed realistic brushes with bright colours as a reminder of the goodness of creation

My Studio, 2023
Simon Wong
Ink, colour on rice paper
21.75 in. x 26 in.

About the Land

Interiors features works from all over Alberta, with many Artists having connections to cultures and lands worldwide. This exhibition will be travelling between Crowsnest Pass and Drumheller.

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.

The Crowsnest Pass Public Art Gallery (located in Frank) is the first host of this exhibition and is located on Treaty 7 territory, a traditional gathering place for diverse Indigenous peoples, including the Blackfoot Nations (Piikani [Peigan], Kainai [Blood], and Siksika [Blackfoot]) and the Tsuu T’ina. This area was also traditionally used by the K’tunaxa (Kootenay) people, who now reside in southeastern British Columbia.

The Drumheller Public Library (the facilitating organization in Drumheller) and the second host of this exhibition respectfully acknowledges that we are on Treaty 7 territory, the ancestral and traditional territory of the Blackfoot ConfederacyKainai, Piikani, and Siksika — as well as of the Tsuut’ina First Nation and the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, and on the traditional territory of the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3. We recognize the land as an act of reconciliation and gratitude to those on whose territory we reside. https://nctr.ca/

Are you interested in learning more about the First Peoples of Alberta?

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.

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