The Southern Alberta Art Gallery explores western cowboy culture for two new exhibitions which open tonight, June 27.
In “Performance with Two Sculptures” Winnipeg born, Toronto based artist Mark Neufeld looks through the lens of what could be termed western vernacular to forge eccentric connections between painting, performance and sculpture. Neufeld presents a number of objects for consideration: a series of small oil on canvas paintings, collage-assemblages and a scripted performance for local actors employing as props two bronze sculptures by the well known “cowboy artist” Frederic Remington.
All of the works in the exhibition play with aspects of western iconography often associated with southern Alberta, but do so in ways that aim to de-familiarize these well-known tropes of the west. The concept of ‘the frontier’ for instance is generally acknowledged as having played a significant role in forging a western identity founded on seemingly unlimited opportunities, unbridled optimism, and a sense of entitlement that remains embedded in our culture to this day. For Neufeld, the bronzes Mountain Man and Bronco Buster reflect an aesthetic embodiment of this ideology, one which the artist deconstructs through a series of playful interventions including paintings, collages and assemblages that reanimate and recontextualize Remington’s iconic sculptures. Scripted performances utilizing these objects as props appropriate a host of sources ranging from westerns by John Ford to Canadian geological data, all intended to probe at questions of place, time and repetition, within the complicated context of “The West.”
Mitch Robertson is a conceptually based artist using photography, sculpture, the internet, installations and drawing to create work that considers the intertwined paths of religion and superstition with globalization and consumerism. He has shown across Canada and New Zealand as well as in the USA, Switzerland, N. Ireland, England, Germany, Scotland and Australia in public, artist run and commercial galleries. He is based in Toronto and is represented by Birch Libralato.
The other exhibition at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery is “As The Story Goes,” by Toronto artist Mitch Robertson. It examines the concept of western folklore and old west romanticism. It consists of a few different installations. “ The Most Photographed Barn in America”— a series of images of the same barn over 10 decades of the twentieth century.
“Superstion Mountains (Volume 1-5) was inspired by the 150 year old legend of a lost Arizona gold mine which is a riveting tale of murder, lost maps and riches. The series explores the different variations of the legend.
Similarly inspired, “Dying Mouse ( In the Style of Remington) recalls a childhood event in which a mouse was killed by a toy suction cup dart with pins stuck through the rubber, a tale which expanded over repeated telling.
Mitch Robertson is a conceptually based artist using photography, sculpture, the internet, installations and drawing to create work that considers the intertwined paths of religion and superstition with globalization and consumerism. He has shown across Canada and New Zealand as well as in the USA, Switzerland, N. Ireland, England, Germany, Scotland and Australia in public, artist run and commercial galleries. He is also participating in SAAG’s Intersection Residency program at Gushul Studio in the Crowsnest Pass.
The opening reception for both exhibits is 5 p.m., June 27. They will be at the SAAG until Sept. 8
