As things start getting back to normal, that means there will be new art exhibits and openings happening downtown.
The Southern Alberta Art Gallery focuses on architectural styles for their four new exhibits, which officially open, Saturday, July 3 with an opening reception at 7 p.m.
“That is deliberate. We like to have programming with a special connection and a similar theme. these exhibits feature modern projects involving architecture,” summarized interim curator Adam Whitford.
There will be some familiar images in the upper gallery as Vancouver and Vienna based artists Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber’s “Performing Educational Modernism” features images of works of Arthur Erickson, who designed the University of Lethbridge main building as well as Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
“They explore egalitarianism and optimism from the ’50s-’70s,” he said.
“It’s how these open community spaces allowed students and faulty to gather and cross -pollinate.”
The downstairs gallery features Edmonton sculptor Catherine Burgess‘s “Almost Actual.”
“She’s a senior Alberta artist. Her work plays with spatial orientation, form and void and the basic method of delineating three dimensional space,” he said, adding burgess works in steel and stainless steel. The names of the works are an essential component as are the effects of the shadows the make on the walls.
“ She’s exhibited here three times. The first time was in the ’90s,” he said.
Another Edmonton artist Morgan Melenka’s “There Are No Walls, Only Shimmering Membranes,” is on the walls of the SAAG library gallery.
“We like to focus on emerging Alberta and Southern Albertan artists in the library,” Whitford said.