The Southern Alberta Art Gallery is excited to launch two new exhibitions on Friday, June 22 at 5 p.m.: Milutin Gubash’s Remote Viewing: True Stories and Marcus Coates’ Stories From the Lower World.
Milutin Gubash’s Remote Viewing: True Stories is part of a collective effort with four other arts organizations to examine the last 10 years of the artist’s practice. Each curator worked with a particular focus, be it Gubash’s sustained use of family and friends as subjects, or in SAAG’s case, his adoption and adaptation of the sitcom and other media formats.
In light of reality television, YouTube, Facebook and other contexts where intimate narratives are played out in mass media, Gubash’s work participates in a timely discourse about the construction and performance of our identity, our history and the relationships that bind them.
For the month of June artist Marcus Coates is participating in the Southern Alberta Art Gallery’s Intersection Residency program at the Gushul Studio in the Crowsnest Pass. He’s joining us from UK, where he lives and works, to spend the month in the Alberta Rockies recording natural sounds to further his exploration of human relationships with the animal world.
Central to his work is a rich investigation of the spiritual and social potential of art. Stories from the Lower World features three of Coates’ most significant works to date: Journey to the Lower World, The Plover’s Wing and Kamikuchi each featuring the artist as shaman, who with an earnestness to lend a hand, addresses problems that move from eviction and illegal bicycle parking to the politics of the Israeli/Palestinian crisis.
His work is revealed as a serious endeavour reflecting on humanity and our ontological conventions as they surface through our connection with others (animals).
Remote Viewing: True Stories and Stories From the Lower World are on view at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery from June 22 to Sept. 9, 2012. The opening reception is Friday, June 22 at 5 p.m. Admission is free.
More information at www.saag.ca
— Submitted
