ESKER FOUNDATION: NEW ALBERTA CONTEMPORARIES EXHIBITION

(image credit: Esker Foundation)

The first exhibition of the newly opened Esker Foundation, The New Alberta Contemporaries celebrates 47 emerging artists from Alberta, who were selected based on the fluency of their practice in a post-disciplinary and post-studio world.

Curator Caterina Pizanias writes:
The New Alberta Contemporaries exhibition is a snapshot of a cultural moment in the province of Alberta. It is neither representative nor thematic, although a series of "themes" have emerged. While one will not see the grand geopolitical issues that play out on the international stage in the exhibition, one will instead see elements of the artists' personal histories becoming staging grounds for exciting explorations in areas such as landscape/geography, gender, sexuality, the body, memories, and ecology

With the range of materials and theoretical approaches employed by the artists, the works can be seen as a series of possible conversations between artists, interweaving various common approaches found in their work. The exhibition is a travel story of sorts—across Alberta's institutions and faculties of art, artists' studios, and galleries alike—providing a window into the future of contemporary art in the province. Variety and commonalities have been found in the "temperaments" of the various institutions and the balance they have attained between studio practice, theory, and scientific research. 

For the next ten weeks, the Esker Foundation will become a platform for this burgeoning class of art graduates, assisting them in developing their practice and allowing them to professionally exhibit their work at a time when both the market and government funding are shrinking.

The exhibition opened on June 15th, and will run until August 29th, 2012.

Read more:
The New Alberta Contemporaries at Esker Foundation