New Casa exhibits examine space and movement

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Two new exhibits at Casa explore the concept of space usage.

Darcy Logan examines one of Mandy Espezel’s works from her Pine Cones in Soft Mouths at Casa. photo by Richard Amery
 Kelsey Stephenson’s exhibit Divining and  Mandy Espezel’s “Pine Cones in Soft Mouths” opened on the weekend and run in the Casa gallery until  April 15.


“Kelsey Stephenson is a local artist who just graduated with an MA in Fine Arts  from the university of Tennessee,” said Casa curator Darcy Logan.


  She explored  the idea of topographical maps painted on dozens of sheets of Japanese mulberry paper.
“It combines print and painting to evoke topographical maps reflection of geological impact of erosion,” Logan said, observing she used  a map of the Drumheller badlands as the base for her exhibit. The individual frames move as the viewer move pst them enhanced by a spooky soundtrack composed by  Alex Gray which plays in the gallery.


“They are actual topographical  maps of Drumheller badlands, but they are supposed to be altered  to look like aerial photographs. The badlands were her inspiration,” logan said, adding she worked off actual maps and created the works on Japanese mulberry paper, which is the toughest paper produced, the the movement won’t  harm it.

 Logan noted  Stephenson started talking to him three years ago about an exhibit as she was beginning  her program at the university of Tennessee.

 


In the other room of the gallery, Mandy Espezel wanted to include the gallery as part of her exhibit of oil on canvass paintings Pine Cones in Soft Mouths rather than just as a place to hang paintings.


“So motifs and colours  in the paintings are repeated on the walls themselves,” Logan said, adding one of the works is painted directly on the  wall.


“It spills out onto the gallery walls. So you really  get the idea of space,” he observed.
“It’s an integral part of the experience,” he said.


“She has really been part of the Lethbridge arts community as a  board member and as an artist,“ said Logan of Espezel, who has also been part of group exhibitions at Casa.


The third new exhibit at Casa celebrates Canada through a series of  photographs from the Lethbridge Photography Club.
They are in the concourse gallery on the second floor of Casa.
“They celebrate the landscapes that make Canada unique,” Logan said.
 All three of the exhibits run until April 15.

— by Richard Amery, L.a. Beat editor
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