Be:Hive, Sydney Lancaster and Jenny Keith-Hughes, Cafe Select South, July 7, 2007

Image courtesy of Jenny Keith-Hughes, 2007

Born from a playdate between Hughes and Lancaster in the latter's studio some months back, these two Edmonton-based artists are exploring their sense of mixed media represenation through the use of wax. Although not an entirely new form, or even exclusive within Edmonton (Jennifer Berkenbosch is just one other), the pairing between Lancaster and Hughes provides a complimentary view of nature itself. While Lancaster applies 3D objects, from bones to feathers, directly onto her canvasses, Hughes continues her whimisical drawings of nature's creatures sometimes caught out of their element (Although Hughes is new to the medium, she is extending her form into the abstract, a new mode of expression but one that is entirely promising) .
Where one is abstract, the other is vividly concrete. Where Hughes provides a story of nature, Lancaster places the actual object directly before the audience.
The use of wax can't help but give off a sense of warmth, and fragrance, as the beeswax is not only visually and olfactorially pleasing, but also haptically engaging. More apparent than most paintings, the sense of the artist's hand in wax is evident in its tracings and uneven porous nature.



Image courtesy of Sydney Lancaster, 2007

Ka-Pow! Group Show, Profiles Gallery July 5 - 28, 2007

Image used with permission from Profiles Gallery, Tony Baker, Bly, 2006

Originally slated as a Tony Baker exhibition, artists Murray Allen, Kib (aka, Tristian McClelland) and Christopher Zaytsoff ended up rounding out the Ka-Pow! show. Baker, who was classically trained at the University of Alberta and has since relocated to Toronto, continues on the lineage of stripping down the 2D representation of his world into the basic rudimentary lines and colours that we associate with children's drawings. The product is often "childlike," but upon closer inspection, his training of relearning how to draw and see the world, his keen sensitivity shines through--perhaps childlike as well . . . but with great depth.
The curator's decision to add the other artists to the show was based on the observation that all of them were working in very similiar veins. Murray Allen, making mini wall sculptures and diaramas using kitschy scraps (everything from old barbie doll parts to novelty license plates and anything you would imagine in a well-stocked junk cellar), does indeed have an extremely playful quality that may be construed as either a child's mishmash or a commentary on waste and commodity. There is undeniably an aura of darkness to Allen's modules, as the same can be said of Kib and Zaytsoff's pieces, all explosive depictions of fantastical creatures emanating a profound sense of alienation.
At first, the attachment of the extra artists felt cheap and a gesture of disrespect to Baker's pieces, which in themselves are visually strong and were threaded a loose character narrative. Baker alone could carry a show, but on second thought, the mixture of Baker and the three outsider artists, and how all their works were indeed visually similiar even if they arrived from opposite directions, was an interesting contrast.



Image courtesy of Profiles Gallery, Kib and Christopher Zaytsoff, Secret Doors, 2007


At this point in all of their careers, probably spanning some forty years in age from oldest to youngest, they are all at the same juncture of expressing a similiar aesthetic voice. And although the title of the exhibition may express something fun and childish, the effect of the exhibtion overall is much more demure.

Final Impressions: The Works 2007

Throughout the past 13 days, visits were made to the square repeatedly to catch glimpses of "live" art. From the theatre troupe in all white and drowned out by the stage music, to the tin foil sculpting of figures and tree trunks, to the fun but slightly disappointing painting of the entry arches, the artistic demonstrations were less interactive and more observational. Not that it was all bad. Providing the festival with a glimpse of genius and beauty, pianist James Carson along with Mile Zero Dance's large ensemble cast in all black evening wear lulled down the interior marble stairs of City Hall and sustained their 30 minute set into the outdoor wading pool. The imagery of bodies in dance, all black against white, slowly rising and falling, fit in well with a visual arts festival and audience; but in conflict for the second year in a row, dance became the strongest visual feast in both 2 and 3D offerings.

Rounding out the last few Works-curated shows, catching (or almost missing if I wasn't puprosely looking) the glass works inside BMO and the Fairmont Hotel MacDonald, Jeff Collins at Sutton Place, the Grant MacEwan student show at Alberta College, the multimedia exhibit at Concrete, it was Gerry Rasmussen and Roger Garcia's "Stripped Down" at Rigoletto's Cafe that demonstrated what this festival may be at.



Image courtesy of Roger Garcia, 2007

Taking the often flippant form of cartoon and applying their sensibilites to the traditional nude form, local cartoonists Garcia and Rasmussen stretched their craft in very impressive ways. The pieces themselves may be the best works by either artist; Garcia known for his work in local weeklies and Rasmussen best known for his syndicated cartoon, Betty. Although each artist brings their distinct line and characteristic shadowing techniques to the human body, neither hyperbolize or caricaturize the body and expresses a deft sense of restraint and sensitivity.



Image courtesy of Gerry Rasmussen, 2007

The result offers a very rough and honest representation of a form that often gets yawned over. Peering over the perturbed shoulders of noon hour diners, the exhibit was exceptional. It also revealed that the festival, for all its quirks and ongoing faults, does not cater to a canonical representation of visual arts, but embraces all artists at all levels and art forms. Public art in alternative spaces may no longer hold true; but alternative art in public spaces still has resonance. Panning through all the exhibits, there turned out to be a few hidden gems--but within context, you really have to wade through it all to find the good stuff.