Bow Lake
 

Colin Smith's Bow Lake is this week's Work of the Week. Smith turns his 1976 Boler trailer into a homemade camera obscura. Smith builds on location camera obscuras and creates projections that produce highly saturated, breathtaking imagery.

This work was acquired as part of the AFA’s Art Acquisition by Application program.

About World Photography Day

World Photography Day is the global celebration of all types of photography. Each year features an optional theme to focus on. The World Photography Day 2023 theme is Landscapes.

World Photo Day is founded by Korske Ara to commemorate the patent of the daguerreotype process and to inspire others to take meaningful photos.

About the artist

Quietly embedded in Alberta’s film community for over 20 years. As a Film technician and stills photographer Colin has worked on numerous projects for local and international productions.

Congruently working as a self taught photographer. Recognized with awards for travel and fine art photography, including multiple project grants from Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Colin has proudly exhibited his photography in several galleries including:

• Whyte Museum
• Art Gallery of Alberta
• Esplanade Art Gallery
• Illingworth Kerr Gallery
• Peter Robertson Gallery
• Christine Klassen Gallery.

Today is International Dance Day! Established in 1982 by UNESCO International Theatre Institute, International Dance Day falls on April 29 of every year, commemorating the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre, a distinguished French choreographer that brought about significant changes in ballet production.
 

Check out what's happening from Alberta Dance Alliance calendar of dance-related events.

About the artwork:

The drawing was acquired by donation to the AFA art collection from the estate of Steven Mack. The AFA was approached by the estate in 2009 to review the holdings and offered first selection. The AFA purchased five artworks at the time including a painting of a dancer posed by the artist’s favourite model, named Kathryn.

In 2016 the AFA continued to work with the estate and reviewed artworks from a commercial gallery that had closed. The artworks were from the same Dancer Series, including two paintings and two drawings that were preliminary studies for the paintings. 

The painting that is featured in the slide was an AFA purchase. The painting was part of the interdisciplinary performance piece he executed with the model and musician Amir Amiri at The Grand Theatre in Calgary.

Check out 13 artworks by the artist showcasing the mediums of painting and drawing, ranging in date from 1993 – 2007 on the AFA's Virtual Museum (click button below).

About the artist:

Steven Mack studied at University of Alberta, Universitty of Calgary, Sorbonne University in Paris, and completed graduate work at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts. Mack occasionally taught at Mount Royal College, and the Alberta College of Art & Design. Mack passed away on August 26, 2009 at the age of 46.

The AFA's collected works by Steven Mack collection reference the moments when objects become brushstrokes, and brushstrokes become identifiable objects. 

Image description

The first image shows a black and white sketch drawing of a dancer. The dancer is wearing a short sleeve shirt and pants where she has one arm raised up as she is posing.

The second image is a colour painting of the same dancer. She has short, tied-up black hair, and is wearing a green tank top and dark greyish-blue pants. She is in a dance studio and has one hand holding onto the wooden ballet barre (handrail). The background is a mirror showing her reflection and a black rope hanging from the ceiling.

Former Alberta artist, Henri van Bentum, passed away peacefully in Victoria at age 92. 

Immigrating from the Netherlands to Canada in 1957, Henri practiced in Alberta, Ontario, and B.C., as well as internationally. His work is included in more than 200 private and public collections, and he has had solo exhibitions in galleries in Paris, New York, Banff, Mexico City, Toronto and Montreal.
 

An obituary is published on the McCall Gardens website. Our condolences to his wife Natasha van Bentum, and his family and friends. 

About the artwork

The AFA has one artwork by Henri van Bentum in the AFA Art Collection: Spatial Rhythms (1982). This artwork is representative of a major transition in the artist's practice, as explained in his obituary:

While painting ‘en plein air’ at Moraine Lake, two faculty members of the Banff School of Fine Arts came upon him unexpectedly. When they saw what was on his easel, Henri was invited to attend the school’s summer session (which he didn’t know existed). Having no money, they waived the usual fees.

Ironically it was in the Rocky Mountains that Henri discovered he was a born abstract painter, and left representational art behind, never turning back. (...)

Later, back in the Rocky Mountains 1980-85 where [his wife] Natasha worked at The Banff Centre, Henri embarked on a new series in watercolour, “Spatial Rhythms” and gave a solo exhibition at the Peter Whyte Gallery.

In the AFA's 2020-25 Collection Development Plan, one of the selection criteria of artwork by artists assessed to be core to the collection, includes "strong example of the artist's work [...] reflecting the pinnacle of a transition or paradigm shift in an artist's oeuvre..." (page 11).

In this respect, Spatial Rhythms is a good example of how the AFA uses its collection to help tell the stories of the artists who have lived and practiced here, and contributed to the development of visual arts in Alberta. 

• learn more about the AFA's collection development policy

Image description

Five rows of pink, purple, lavendar and blue painted lines on a light pink background. While the lines on the top row are mostly vertical, the rows below include lines painted at different angles, giving the impression of movement or of falling.

The AFA was saddened to learn of the passing of former board member and Alberta artist, Harry Kiyooka, on April 8, 2022. 
 

From the news posted on the Kiyooka Ohe Arts Centre:

Born in Calgary in 1928, Harry overcame prejudice and poverty to become an artist. He eventually received four degrees, including a Bachelor of Education, a Bachelor of Fine Arts, a Masters of Art, and a Masters of Fine Arts, all before turning 30 years old. In 1958, Harry left Canada to study art in Italy. Upon his return to Calgary in 1961, he began a teaching position at the new University of Alberta, Calgary campus. In 1988, Harry retired from the University of Calgary after 27 years with the rank of Professor Emeritus of Art.

Harry co-founded the Kiyooka Ohe Arts Centre in 2007 with his wife, sculptor Katie Ohe. 

The AFA's connection to Harry Kiyooka

Harry served on the board of the Alberta Art Foundation (AAF) from 1977 through 1981. The AAF was one of three government art foundations that were eventually combined to form the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA) in 1991. (Learn more about how the AFA was founded.)

The AFA Art Collection currently holds 17 artworks by Harry Kiyooka, and the Government of Alberta holds an additional six of his artworks in provincial art collections.

The two artworks featured on this post are from the AFA Art Collection:

• SKY SCAPE (serigraph) is estimated to be created during the late 1960’s
• RED CONTIGUOUS was painted in 1972

Harry was heavily influenced by the 'Op and Pop' art movement during this period. He was one of the first artists in Canada to use the medium of serigraphy in  a contemporary style. The artworks employ bold colours, hard edges and geometric shapes to create an optical experience.

Visit the AFA's Virtual Museum (click button below) to view the rest of Harry's works in the AFA's collection.

Sky Scape will be included in the upcoming Alberta Society of Artists (ASA) Travelling Exhibition (TREX) entitled, Montgeries: Montages and Memories from the AFA Collection. The exhibition is scheduled to begin touring in September 2022 and will travel throughout Alberta for three years. The theme of the exhibition is based on the AFA Art Collection's 50^th anniversary.

Image descriptions

Sky Scape - The image is dominated by block of solid bright yellow colour, interrupted by a series of vertical bands of different widths and colours to create an uneven rectangle. The bands of colour include peach, green, orange, grey and blue, and there is also a thin horizontal line of blue placed across the top of the yellow block. 

Red Contiguous - The image contains a series of red, maroon and grey horizontal bands of colour with gaps of space in between each band. A vertical band of dark grey runs through the middle of the painting, which disrupts the horizontal gaps, causing them to diverge in a variety of angles.

The AFA's Work of the Week celebrates the first day of spring.
 

While we wait for days with above 0° temperatures and prolonged time in the outdoors without fear of the elements, we can look to Jean Peters' Spring Thaw, to help us manifest a seasonal transition on this first day of spring.

About the artist

Jean Peters was born in Edmonton, Alberta and has lived in the area all her life. Her childhood years were spent in a rural community and it was there that she developed her sensitivity to natural beauty.
 

She started painting in 1975 and it developed into her passion. She has exhibited in Calgary since 1987, participating in many two or three person shows over the years. 

Jean is a Senior Member of the Society of Western Canadian Artists (SWCA) and is also a member in good standing with the Artists Borealis Group.

Jean's work may be found in galleries in Edmonton and Calgary as well as private and corporate collections in Canada and the United States.

Peters has been teaching acrylic painting since 1998 and enjoys the interaction with her students.

Image description:

An acrylic landscape painting of a wooded pond, light blue sky, melting white snow, leafless and fallen trees and brown grass.

In celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD), we share the work of artist Miruna Dragan.

IWD is a time for us to recognize, celebrate and reflect on the achievements, stories and creativity of the many unique women of our past and present.

About the artwork

The artwork's title, When We Stand On the Threshold Between Two Worlds Our Soul Is Engulfed With Dreams, is a direct quote from Iconostasis, a book by Russian Orthodox theologian Pavel Florensky.

The artist, Miruna Dragan, responds to observed synchronicities towards subjective re-imaginings of archetypal myths and potent landscapes. Her work thematically reflects dispersion and transcendence. This artwork, like her others, offers itself as a tool for mystical experience while challenging assumptions about nature and culture.

About the Artist

Miruna Dragan, born in Bucharest, received an MFA in painting/printmaking from Rhode Island School of Design in 2001. She has been an Associate Professor at the Alberta University of the Arts since 2009. Dragan is a post-conceptual artist whose work investigates themes of locality and transcendence.

About IWD

International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8 around the globe. IWD has been celebrated globally since 1911 and is an important day that highlights the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

There are many great women storied and unsung that have greatly influenced Alberta’s art scene, helping to make it what it is today. We encourage you to celebrate women by taking part in an IWD event near you.

To acknowledge both Indigenous Veterans Day (November 8) and Remembrance Day (November 11), the AFA's Work of the Week is Untitled (Soldier Sask Airport Mural Drawing) by James Nicoll.

About the artwork
 

This drawing is part of a series of sketches that were used to develop a mural at a Saskatchewan airport. There is another James Nicoll drawing of a Paratrooper in the AFA Art Collection, and the artwork includes the following text: “Drawing Series for Mural – Royal Canadian Air ABM, Saskatchewan airport.”

AFA staff have been unable to identify for which airport in Saskatchewan these drawings were created. (Any tips can be sent to afacontact@gov.ab.ca.)

About the artist

James (Jim) Nicoll was born in Fort Macleod, Alberta in 1892, and he primarily grew up in Nelson and Fernie, British Columbia. He served during World War I.

Jim started painting in 1930, while he was working as an engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Nicoll met his wife, well known Calgary artist Marion Mackay [Nicoll], at the Calgary Sketch Club in 1931. They married in 1940 and, in 1945, they settled in Bowness, a village just west of Calgary.

Jim was a realist painter, who worked primarily with oils. He was a self-taught artist who believed in representing the correct anatomy of objects, architecture, and people. Like his wife, Nicoll was important to the creation of the art scene in Alberta and Calgary. Read more about the artist. 

The AFA currently holds 389 different artworks by Jim Nicoll, which can be viewed on the AFA Virtual Museum. 

This week’s Work of the Week is Sunset on Boot Hill by Delia Cross Child.

Cross Child’s acrylics, such as Sunset on Boot Hill, are stunning evocations of colour that might be mistaken as psychedelic by anyone who had never witnessed the rolling prairies of southern Alberta. Her landscape scintillates with reds, ambers, and blues that rise like smoke into a sky aflame.
 

About the Artist: Delia Cross Child

Delia Cross Child is a Blood and Peigan artist and teacher who fuses historical and contemporary art traditions of Turtle Island and Europe to inspire her communities and educate the public about First Nations issues.

Born in Pincher Creek and raised in an one-child family on the Peigan Reserve at Brocket, Cross Child was fascinated by the landscape and its changing seasons, whose mountain-view hills and Old Man River valley she explored with her parents and siblings. The experiences became foundational to her later paintings; she describes “a performance… of ever-changing colour, sight, and sound” that was “only a part of the territory that… the Blackfoot Confederacy… had occupied for a long time. [It was] a place of solace during the times when my world appeared to be chaotic and confusing,” a world whose legacy included the mass-trauma of forced assimilation, residential schools, and “hunger, sadness, and abuse.”

Cross Child later attended the University of Lethbridge where she earned her B.A. in Art and Native American Studies (1996) and her B.Ed. in Art (2002). To motivate her students at Kainai High School on the Blood Reserve near Standoff, Alberta, she integrated traditional visual literacy into her teaching

Cross Child’s work has been exhibited at the Glenbow Museum, Walter Phillips Gallery, and Southern Alberta Art Gallery, and lives in the public collections of the University of Lethbridge, the Blood Tribe Administration, and the Glenbow Museum. Cross Child has received several academic and art awards, including membership in the University of Lethbridge’s Alumni Honour Society (2009), the Blackfoot Fine Arts Award (2008), and the Gerald Tailfeathers Art Scholarship (1996).