Past Exhibitions

Down The Rabbit Hole: The Whimsical World of Pop Surrealism

Dates: February 10, 2012 to April 7, 2012
Artists: Eric Louie, Pilar Mehlis, Landon-Jon Ference and Heather Watts
Gallery: Main, Top, Mezzanine and Tall Galleries

The AGC continues to push the boundaries and explore new fields of expression with its Winter 2012 exhibition, Down The Rabbit Hole. This contemporary group show features artists Eric Louie, Pilar Mehlis, Landon-Jon Ference and Heather Watts and probes the delightfully weird, wacky and whimsical world of Pop Surrealism. For more information read our online catalogue.

Diana Thorneycroft: A People's History

Dates: February 10, 2012 to April 7, 2012
Artists: Diana Thorneycroft
Gallery: Main, Top, Mezzanine and Tall Galleries

The AGC is proud to feature the work of photographer Diana Thorneycroft and her latest and controversial series, A People's History. Thorneycroft's photography is comprised of carefully staged scenes set against the backdrop of historic Canadian atrocities.

Calgary Collects

Dates: Friday, September 9,2011 to Saturday, January 28, 2012
Artist: Over 90 Artworks
Guest Curator: Jeffrey Spalding
Medium: Painting, Drawing and Photography
Gallery: Main, Top, Mezzanine and Tall Galleries

Calgary Collects celebrates fine works of contemporary art acquired by avid and knowledgeable private and corporate collectors from Calgary. This unique exhibition traces the roots of modern and contemporary art and its evolution in local collections; it also exposes the public to rarely seen artworks. Calgary Collects deals with the impetus behind collecting art and the characteristics of Calgary's contributions to the direction of Canadian art.

For more information read our online catalogue.

The Pile Project

Dates: Friday, February 4, 2011 - Saturday, April 9, 2011
Artist: Katherine L. Lannin
Curator: Marianne Elder
Medium: Photography
Gallery: Main
(Part of Exposure 2011: Calgary-Banff-Canmore Photography Festival)

Katherine L. Lannin’s photographs in Pile Project are the evidence of space at play. Reordering chairs, desks, plants, and bric a brac into piles, Lannin dislocates the familiar object’s function, leaving the purpose of the space in question. These spaces, or rooms, normally operate within the confines of what is expected: four walls, a floor, a ceiling and a purpose. Living rooms act as a private space of comfort or a show space for prestige. A lecture hall without neatly rowed seating becomes chaotic in its reach for definition. Piles of objects that once defined a space now dislocate its accepted classification; Lannin’s photographs capture the artist’s intervention. Her Piles reorder the assumption of a space’s purpose and question its inherent need to be defined.Questioning structure, classification and materiality, Lannin shatters assumptions and allows new interpretations to form. Achieved through playful reordering of what is expected, Lannin’s photographs serve as the evidence of a space that is emancipated.

Lannin received her MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London and her BFA Honours from the University of Windsor, Ontario. She currently lives and works in Toronto.

Dream Home and Swimmers

Dates: Friday, February 4, 2011 - Saturday, April 9, 2011
Artist: d.bradley muir
Curator: Kayleigh Hall
Medium: Photography
Gallery: Tall
(Part of Exposure 2011: Calgary-Banff-Canmore Photography Festival)

Two series by photographer d. bradley muir, Dream Home and Swimmers analyze the ideal domestic environment and nostalgic experiences, explored through constructed components and organic elements. Dream Home explores the social constructs of an idealized interior and the relationship to its encompassing natural environment through photographic staging. muir actively questions the way in which our sense of identity is formed through designing ‘flats’ as domestic spaces, half-built within the rugged Canadian landscape. In his photographic essay Swimmers, the artist illuminates leisure within the context of water, visually distorting solid mass through the lens while revealing nostalgia as an experience related to a dream, a dance and/or death.

d. bradley muir holds a BFA from Concordia University, where he studied photography and sculpture, and an MFA from the University of Victoria.

Min Hyung

Dates: Friday, February 4, 2011 - Saturday, April 9, 2011
Artist: Min Hyung
Curator: Marianne Elder
Medium: Painting and Sculpture
Gallery: Top Gallery

Min Hyung uses present-day society, allegory and historical art records of culture to inform her multilayered practice. Hyung’s work depicts a wonderland, a fantastical place that questions accepted status quos and is cognizant of history and possible futures. Vividly constructed with intense colour and imagery, her paintings and sculptures challenge presently held notions of normalcy and complacency within society. Deeply informed by historical culture and art works, Hyung uses references from Michelangelo to Bosch to challenge current beliefs and allow for new definitions, ideals and fantasies to take root. Carnival-like in their intensity, Hyung’s creations investigate society’s depravity and insist on a new interpretation of acceptance.

Originally from Seoul, Korea, Min Hyung graduated with a BFA from the Ontario College of Art and Design and has exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions.

88 Constellations for Wittgenstein

Dates: Friday, February 4, 2011 - Saturday, April 9, 2011
Artist: David Clark
Curator: Kayleigh Hall
Medium: Interactive Media/Video Installation
Gallery: Media Gallery

Media artist and filmmaker David Clark tells the life story of Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein through a series of animated vignettes in this interactive, non-linear work. Clark considers questions that the philosopher pondered in his career: logic, language, the nature of thinking, and the limits of knowledge in relation to our contemporary digital world.

Born in Calgary, Alberta, Clark received a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1985 and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1989. He currently teaches film and media arts at NSCAD University in Halifax.

softcore HARD EDGE

Dates: Friday, September 10th – Saturday, January 22, 2011
Artists: Philip Argent, Tim Bavington, Billy Al Bengston, Karl Benjamin, Ingrid Calame, Alexander Caldwell, Eric Cameron, Dave and Jenn, John Eisler, Bradley Harms, Harry Kiyooka, Allison Miller, Lee Mullican, Mark Mullin, Wil Murray, Candace Nycz, Monique Prieto and Laurel Smith.
Curator: Marianne Elder and David Pagel
Medium: Painting/Sculpture/Video
Gallery: All Galleries

softcore HARD EDGE features artwork by eighteen artists from Calgary and Los Angeles co-curated by art critic for the Los Angeles Times, David Pagel, and The Art Gallery of Calgary’s Senior Art Curator, Marianne Elder. Debuting in Calgary at The Art Gallery of Calgary on September 10, 2010 and continuing to Los Angeles on August 29, 2011, softcore HARD EDGE will bring together 60 artworks that question similarities of contemporary art practice created in these two very different cities.

The premise of softcore HARD EDGE originated from Elder’s observation of similarities of tone, palette, and brushstroke in contemporary painting between Los Angeles and Calgary when she moved back to Canada from Southern California. In conversation with longtime colleague David Pagel, she began exploring possible connections of influence and history that led to such similarities.Curating the artworks independently but in conversation with one another, Elder choose nine artists from Calgary with Pagel choosing nine artists from Los Angeles.Exhibiting all 18 artists together, softcore HARD EDGE examines the possibilities of what visually connects these works and the underlying relationships of history and influence on these two art centers.

Exhibiting at:
The Art Gallery of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta - September 10, 2010 to January 22, 2011
East and Peggy Phelps Galleries, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California - August 29, 2011 to September 23, 2011

Traditions Illuminated: Celebrating the Halls

Dates: Friday, April 29, 2011 to Friday, August 19, 2011
Artist: John Hall, Joice Hall, Janine Hall and Jarvis Hall
Curator: Anne Ewen
Medium: Painting
Gallery: Main, Top, Tall and Media Galleries

“Traditions Illuminated: Celebrating the Halls” showcases one of Alberta’s most established and active family of artists: John Hall, Joice M. Hall, Janine Hall and Jarvis Hall. Organized by Guest Curator, Anne Ewen, this Spring/Summer exhibition will highlight the talents of all the artists and their stylistic approaches and practices within Realism, including Jarvis Hall’s highly regarded, frame-making practice. Each artist will be featured in a separate gallery space and audiences are encouraged to draw conclusions about the similarities and differences among the Halls’ individual body of works.

The work of John and Joice Hall and their children, Janine and Jarvis Hall comprise artistic techniques and applications which exemplify modernity yet personify tradition. John and Joice, both born and raised in Edmonton, met and married while at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Art, now the Alberta College of Art + Design. Soon after Janine and Jarvis were born in Calgary. Janine studied fine art at ACAD while Jarvis studied theatre at the University of Calgary, later going on to hone his skills in frame-making. John Hall’s large-scale acrylic paintings depict modest, everyday objects and memorabilia with an uncanny ability, illuminating the world in unexpected ways. Joice M. Hall’s panoramic landscapes record specific moments in time by capturing scenic impressions and phenomena. Janine Hall’s oil painting resonate with spiritual icons and ethereal connotations in her landscape, portraiture and still life works. For his skillfully crafted frames, Jarvis references historical motifs through sketches and mathematical calculations. Based on the traditions of the Renaissance to19th century European frame-makers, he crafts and colours his frames to exemplify the picture’s subject matter.

The work of John and Joice Hall and their children, Janine and Jarvis Hall comprise artistic techniques and applications which exemplify modernity yet personify tradition. John and Joice, both born and raised in Edmonton, met and married while at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Art, now the Alberta College of Art + Design. Soon after Janine and Jarvis were born in Calgary. Janine studied fine art at ACAD while Jarvis studied theatre at the University of Calgary, later going on to hone his skills in frame-making. John Hall’s large-scale acrylic paintings depict modest, everyday objects and memorabilia with an uncanny ability, illuminating the world in unexpected ways. Joice M. Hall’s panoramic landscapes record specific moments in time by capturing scenic impressions and phenomena. Janine Hall’s oil painting resonate with spiritual icons and ethereal connotations in her landscape, portraiture and still life works. For his skillfully crafted frames, Jarvis references historical motifs through sketches and mathematical calculations. Based on the traditions of the Renaissance to 19th century European frame-makers, he crafts and colours his frames to exemplify the picture’s subject matter.