"The New Alberta Contemporaries" Esker Foundation, Calgary June 15 - August 29, 2012

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Image courtesy of Esker Foundation, photo: Christian Grandjean

"New Alberta Contemporaries" installation view

"New Alberta Contemporaries" installation view

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Photo: Dick Averns

Lindsay Knox, "Poem for a Homebody", 2009

Lindsay Knox, "Poem for a Homebody", 2009. Installation detail

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Photo: Dick Averns

Eveline Kolijn, "Sublime Waste", 2011

Eveline Kolijn, "Sublime Waste", 2011. Installation detail

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Photo: Dick Averns

Colin Lyons, "Automatic ruin #26", "# 14", and "Industrial Palimpsest", 2011.

Colin Lyons, "Automatic ruin #26", "# 14", and "Industrial Palimpsest", 2011.

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Photo: Dick Averns

"New Alberta Contemporaries" opening night Front: Jamie Gray, "Redeemed", 2011

"New Alberta Contemporaries" opening night Front: Jamie Gray, "Redeemed", 2011

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Image courtesy of Esker Foundation, photo: Christian Grandjean

"New Alberta Contemporaries" installation view

"New Alberta Contemporaries" installation view Left: Richard Smolinski, "Draw a Blank", 2012; right: Galia Kwetny, "Promised", 2011; with “the nest” (gallery meeting room) above

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The New Alberta Contemporaries

Esker Foundation, Calgary

June 15 - August. 29, 2012

By Dick Averns

Fifteen years in the making, 15,000 square feet of ‘A’ grade exhibition space, and considerably more than $15 million dollars: just some of the history behind Calgary’s newest major gallery project, the Esker Foundation. Brainchild of Jim and Susan Hill, a Calgary couple whose success in the energy industry has enabled legacy-scale philanthropy, this stylish non-commercial space has demonstrably raised the quality of art and culture for Calgary and its visitors, as well as providing new opportunities for international talent.

Choosing the right approach for a premiere exhibition in any new facility is a hard task, and it is refreshing that Esker didn’t opt for contemporary art stars or a blockbuster show from the historical canon. Instead, The New Alberta Contemporaries is comprised of artists selected via an open call for recent graduates from the province’s various post-secondary institutions; not just undergraduates, but also master’s level and PhD.

In discussing the outcome, one critique I heard wondered if we really need another grad show, and suggested the art is lacking in quality. Certainly, with such a stunning gallery (designed by Kasian Architecture) it could be said that the seductive architectonics automatically enable the art to look its best. But with a curatorial premise based on a survey of mostly emerging talent, through one curator’s eyes, interest focuses on both the process and potentially prickly protocol of profiling new art from newer artists.

With 47 artists in the show, there’s a wide range of media encompassing broad subject matter. Caterina Pizanias’ curatorial statement advises that viewers “will not see the grand geopolitical issues that play out on the international stage [instead seeing…] exciting explorations in areas such as landscape/geography, gender, sexuality, the body, memories, and ecology.” Of course, these are many of the grand issues, invariably political, that have, or will continue to have, international relevance. Similarly, such themes have been articulated creatively in Alberta for a considerable time. As such, one could just say the show simply encompasses the ‘glocal’.

Within this framework, a number of artists grapple critically with our place in the world. Lindsay Knox’s wall sculpture, Poem for a Homebody, proffers deep red felted folds, drawing in one’s gaze. The human-sized form creates a life-like cushioning for inward and outward emotions, and while the door handle at the centre may not be totally necessary, it’s a handy signifier for a binary of entry/exit. Eveline Kolijn’s latticed Styrofoam containers offer a simple black and white dynamic, but are a beautifully executed and moving appropriation of fast food and excess, implicating anyone indulging in such acts of consumption.

Another artist looking to implicate audiences is Richard Smolinski, whose Draw a Blank gives visitors the opportunity to sit down and literally draw or write on a stack of clean pages. Whether one likes or dislikes his minimal starting point, in considering Frank Stella’s adage of “what you see is what you see,” audiences here can at least exert more control on what they ultimately get. And even if they decline, they still draw on something: their own blankness. Other worthy mentions include Colin Lyons’ Industrial Palimpsest and Automatic Ruin, demonstrating both aesthetic and intellectual considerations while juxtaposing the machinery of art, and Raina Enss’ drawn-out video installation.

In conclusion, just as a natural esker – a post-glacial deposit of gravel, rock and soil – has taken many moons to carve its place in the world, only time will tell which of these artists leave their mark. In the meantime, the graceful and gracious Esker Foundation, with its prominent Inglewood location, free entry, convenient hours and legacy endowment, has undoubtedly remade the grade.