 |
Operated by the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society November 15 – December 18, 2008 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Home
|
Artists' Circle of Calgary: Looking Back, Looking Ahead The development of the visual arts community in Calgary during the past six decades parallels the transition from late modernism to what is frequently called post-modern doctrine. Particularly, the last thirty years – characterized by a shift from regionalism to the forefront of national and international scenes – have witnessed a dramatic expansion of various stylistic approaches and new media. Conceptual, stylistic and philosophical pluralism have served as the driving force of contemporary creative production in this city, while the willingness to participate in the larger art scene has allowed artists from Calgary and other art centres in Alberta freedom to explore and develop.
The notion of “diversity” is very much reflected in the nature of the creative output by Calgary-based visual artists, architects and designers and their colleagues from other art centres in Alberta. The artists themselves, with their different backgrounds, styles, philosophical and conceptual approaches, have created unique milieus not only in Calgary, but also in other cultural centres of this province. Many of them are individuals who have dedicated their lives to the arts, first in the places they were born, and then bringing with them a richer, creative potential to the artistic scene of this growing, cosmopolitan city. Others, who have been educated here in the art schools, have begun shaping the local art scene and making significant contributions to the cultural fabric of the city and the region. The Artists’ Circle of Calgary – a group of the Founding Members of the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society in 1982 and strong supporters of the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts in its formative years – is indicative of the stylistic and conceptual pluralism in the visual arts milieus of this city and the region. 2008 marks the 20th Anniversary of the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts and the Artists’ Circle. What is the Artists’ Circle? The Artists’ Circle of Calgary was created in 1988 by the group of eminent senior Calgary and out of province artists and architects (the earliest Founding Members of the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society/CCAS), to provide financial support for the cultural initiatives of the CCAS and the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts. It is very encouraging to note that 62 of Calgary’s and out of province senior artists have immediately supported the Triangle
The viewer of this exhibition will be able to examine and analyze each work from several points of view: the artist’s control of space and form, the questions and issues informing the work, visual articulation of the subject matter, and the craftsmanship employed with particular tools and techniques – all of which have had an impact on the physical reality before them. These exemplary works, alluding to basic truth, draw from human experiences which are condensed into fundamental visual metaphors and signs. Through their works, the artists were able to provide viewers with a range and richness of visual perspectives and visual experiences, each speaking to us in a different, yet expressive way. Jean LaPointe Mihalcheon, the Guest Curator for the 1994 Artists’ Circle Exhibition stated that “… art galleries and art places are founded by visionaries – that rare breed of people – whose energies and entrepreneurial spirit create such organizations as the Alberta Society of Artists, the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society and the Triangle Gallery …”. The exhibition, “Artists’ Circle of Calgary: The New Generation” helps us to realize that the past and current chapters of the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts could not have been written without their vision and support of the strong hands that guided our pen. Jacek Malec This 20th Anniversary Special Art Exhibition Project has been researched and organized by the Curatorial Panel: Linda Craddock, Brent Laycock, RCA, Kathy Laycock, Harry Kiyooka, RCA, and Jacek Malec, with the administrative assistance of Rhonda Barber.
List of Images (left to right, top to bottom):
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| Home | Exhibits | Events | Boutique | Information | Sponsors | Contact Us | Site Map | |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This pluralistic tendency has also been reflected in the innovative and conceptually challenging exhibition programs of Calgary’s major public art institutions: Glenbow Museum, Illingworth Kerr Gallery at the Alberta College of Art & Design, Nickle Arts Museum, Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, Art Gallery of Alberta, and local artist-run-centres. This variation and experimentation established Calgary as a centre of visual arts throughout Western Canada. 
Gallery and its program of exhibitions since the Gallery’s inauguration in September of 1988. Artists and architects, such as: Douglas Motter, Janet Mitchell, Illingworth Kerr, Marion and James Nicoll, Roy and Harry Kiyooka, Katie Ohe, Fred Valentine, Leo Bushman, John Kenneth Esler, Ray Arnatt, Nicholas Roukes, Ron Kostyniuk, Eric Cameron, Peter Deacon, Bill Laing, Bill Duma, John Chalke, Richard Halliday, Thomas Lax, Brent Laycock, Jean and George Mihalcheon, Helen Mackie, Noboru Sawai, Bruce Head, Tony Tascona, to name just a few, have not only become household names in the history of Western Canada’s visual culture, but also gave unstinting support to the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society and the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts during the formative years of both organizations. The invaluable support and encouragement of Artists’ Circle Founders in 1988 provided a solid foundation on which to build a future of our arts organizations. This legacy is being continued through the unwavering support of the eminent Calgarian and Western Canadian artists (The New Generation), who have recently been nominated to the Artists’ Circle, and whose works are currently featured in the 20th Anniversary special art exhibition at the Triangle Gallery. 
The exhibition “Artists Circle of Calgary: The New Generation” features a vast scope of artistic trends and stylistic approaches in the work by 38 leading Calgarian and Western Canadian artists: the new members of the Artists’ Circle. These cultural animators were selected not only for their outstanding contributions as productive, innovative and celebrated professional artists and art educators, but also for their critical role in shaping intellectual and cultural fabric of the communities in which they live and work, and for providing inspiration for the younger generation of the artists. Four of the exhibiting artists: Anderson, Cran, Owen and Webber are members of the prestigious Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. This impressive roster of work ranges from the post-modern symbolic landscape found in the paintings by Jean Pederson, David Cadman, Dave Casey, Karin Richter, Barbara Amos, Dale Kirschenman, Angelique Gillespie and Gregory Pyra, and in the photographs of George Webber through the neo-expressionistic figurative works by Robert Pierce, Rose Braun, and Steven Mack to the post-structuralist sculptural projects by Adrian Cooke and Graham Page. The “Western Canadian School of Abstraction” is represented by the rich and impressive works of Chris Cran, Seka Owen, Errol Lee Fullen, Julie Chapdelaine, Ray Van Lune, and Verna Vogel. The aspect of metaphor and symbolic notation are discussed in the jewellery design by Jackie Anderson, in sculptural projects by Sue Godfrey and Rick Calkins, in the paintings by Susan Fraser-Hughes, Linda Craddock, Susan Menzies, and Carl White, and in the graphics of Jeremy Mayne and Gary Olson. These works are strategically balanced with the neo-minimalist works of Christopher Willard, Marjan Eggermont, Laurel Smith and Tanya Rusnak, and the elements of Eastern philosophy and symbology in the works of Simon Wong, Honsun Chu, Lap Lam, Myken Woods and Isabelle Hunt-Johnson. 
