Visual Feast

In its attempt to promote the best and brightest Alberta artists, Visual Arts Alberta Association (VAAA) Gallery has featured a year-round assortment of art installations, presenting a wide variety of media and material since its inception nearly nine years ago.

For an example of its eclecticism, one need only look at its lineup for the fall. In September, the gallery will host the intricate tapestries of the Hand Weavers, Spinners and Dyers of Alberta. This 30-day exhibit in honour of the United Nations International Year of Natural Fibres will feature work from spinners and dyers across the province, in forms as varied as wearable fibre to woven table and wall covers.

“It’s very beautiful, and of course everything will have to be made of natural fibres,” says Visual Arts Alberta Association (VAAA) executive director Allison Argy-Burgess, who describes the work as “breathtaking.”

Next up the gallery shifts gears with a painted exhibition by Calgary-based artist Wade Stout. Following on the heels of past installations, which Stout based on Shakespeare masterpieces Macbeth and Hamlet, the Oct. 15 to Nov. 14 exhibition will cover the gallery in paintings depicting the Bard’s The Merchant of Venice. Argy-Burgess describes Stout’s work as “huge paintings” that depict both the events and mystical element of the play.

“He’s got all the hidden meaning in all of Shakespeare’s plays,” she says. “It’s like walking into a graphic novel.” Thirteen large paintings will drape the walls of the gallery, which, because of its relatively small size, will make patrons “feel like [they’ve] walked into the play… like parts of a storybook,” says Argy-Burgess.

Following Stout’s display and a brief interlude for the annual art auction and gala, the gallery focuses on photography. From Nov. 28 to Dec. 19, the work of three photographers — none of whom know each other, but whose work complements one another’s — will populate the gallery. Though all three focus on the world around them, each employs unique methods of presenting their respective visions.

Aaron Falkenberg’s representations of the Canadian landscape will share the space with James Gaa’s focus on human-made objects like structures and machines. These will compare, complement and perhaps at times contrast TJ Mclachlan’s focus on neighbourhoods and forgotten spaces. The result, says Argy-Burgess, will be a photographic exploration of the world at large. •

For more information on the Visual Arts Alberta Association Gallery and the association’s mandate, visit visualartsalberta.com.