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"Urban Landscape/Family"
Ron Kostyniuk, "Urban Landscape/Family," 1993, machine aluminum. Collection of the artist. Photo courtesy the artist.
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"Form-Space-Concept-Metaphor: Contemporary Alberta Sculpture"
Installation shot of "Form-Space-Concept-Metaphor: Contemporary Alberta Sculpture," at the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, Calgary
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"Urban Landscape/Family"
Ron Kostyniuk, "Urban Landscape/Family," 1993, machine aluminum. Collection of the artist. Photo courtesy the artist.
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"Untitled"
Roy Leadbeater, "Untitled," 2003, bronze. Collection of the Glenbow Museum. Gift of Maureen M. Phillips.
FORM-SPACE-CONCEPT-METAPHOR: Contemporary Alberta Sculpture
Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts (Museum of Contemporary Art - Calgary)
Ends September 3, 2005
By Douglas MacLean
Often I think the best comes out in summer, contrary to the popular belief that galleries go to sleep. A perfect example isTriangle Gallery’s venture to tell us the story of sculpture in Alberta. Jacek Malec is fast proving to be one of our best, hard-working, investigative curators; his depth of discovery for this exhibition is available at www.trianglegallery.com.
Form-Space-Concept-Metaphor is ambitious, endeavouring to bring us, in one swell swoop, an overview of sculpture in our province. Malec even mixes in masters of sculpture — it is not often we see the works of Moore, Caro, Lipschitz and Arp combined with some of our local familiar names, but Malec rightly tries to connect the dots. Possibly a bit ambitious, but education is the key, and learning is there for the asking. A wonderful quote is presented in the statement for the exhibition: “the history of sculpture, is the history of innovation.” Keep that in mind; it reveals itself.
One moves through the oddly sculptural space of the Triangle Gallery seeing how each artist uses physical definition through various mediums to define their personal concept within space. The exhibition is quite large, but slowly each work evolves and one can easily pick favourites. Is it cast bronze, new experimental mediums, welded steel, sculptural aluminum or clean soft wood? The variety is all there, professionally handled and presented. It’s an incredible adventure in visual art, possibly conservative in some eyes because of the lack of projected images, words and visual screens, but still completely relevant.
The works I prefer are many, by people I have followed for years plus a couple of surprises. The biggest and one of the best works is by Alex Caldwell, a secret artist toiling away in Southwest Calgary. Is it influenced by Frank Stella? Look at the curious quiet ‘table’ work by Catherine Burgess, always subtle, beautiful and odd. It’s great to see Malec pull in Faye Heavyshield, giving us a piece of her world, and Tim Watkins, from upper New York state, with his quirky movement machines. The innovator of Alberta College of Art & Design sculpture, Katie Ohe, is represented with Mr.Upman, a cast aluminum work that she told me was “impossible” to build, yet there it is — finished and wonderful.
Hope you can take in this timely exhibition of art that is usually squirreled away in sculptors’ studios. People need to see more and know more about these artists’ incredible process-orientated devotion to materials and ideas.
