2015 Alberta Biennial Artists Announced

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Future Station image

Future Station: 2015 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art (January 24 - May 3, 2015) is an examination of the creative practices at work with Alberta artists and ultimately an expression on what it feels like to be an artist in Alberta. The title is derived from an abandoned transit platform located under the civic centre of the province’s capital, Edmonton. Future Station is in reality both a physical and allegorical place of transition and stasis: part urban mythology and part monument to the banality of dormant infrastructure. It serves as a metaphor for the status of contemporary visual culture in Alberta – it exists and functions as a potent vacancy awaiting due recognition.

The exhibition will be presented in three spaces of the Art Gallery of Alberta, Enterprise Square Galleries and will include off-site installations. Since 1996, the Art Gallery of Alberta has presented the Alberta Biennial as a survey of contemporary art from across the province.

The 42 artists selected are:

Arbour Lake Sghool, Calgary

Ashleigh Bartlett, Calgary

Kyle Beal, Calgary

Brittney Bear Hat, Calgary

Devon Beggs, Edmonton

Nika Blasser, Edmonton

Christian Bök, Calgary

Steven Cottingham, Calgary

Hannah Doerksen, Calgary

Joseph Doherty, Edmonton

Brenda Draney, Edmonton

Gordon Ferguson, Calgary

Jason Frizzell, Red Deer

Sarah Fuller, Banff

Jude Griebel, Sundre

Aryen Hoekstra, Edmonton

Dara Humniski, Edmonton

Mary Kavanagh, Lethbridge

Kristen Keegan, Edmonton

Robin Lambert, High Prairie

Mathieu Lefèvre, Edmonton

Tyler Los-Jones, Calgary

Amy Malbeuf, Rich Lake

Travis McEwen, Edmonton

Brendan McGillicuddy, Calgary

Jay Mosher, Calgary

Yvonne Mullock, Calgary

Wil Murray, Calgary

Brad Necyk, St. Albert

Ali Nickerson, Edmonton

Erik Osberg, Edmonton

Josée Aubin Ouellette, Edmonton

Giulliano Palladino, Edmonton

Evan Prosofsky, Edmonton

Scott Rogers, Calgary

Erin Schwab, Fort McMurray

Sergio Serrano, Edmonton

Leslie Sharpe, Edmonton

Jill Stanton, Edmonton

Alma Louise Visscher, Edmonton

Adam Waldron-Blain, Edmonton

Nicole Kelly Westman, Red Deer

Several themes unite an approach to contemporary art practices in Alberta: psychology, natural forces, detritus and austerity.

Psychology was a dominant topic aligning the work of numerous current explorations in both creative methodology and the effect on a viewer: ranging from depictions of anxiety to futility, heartbreak and devotion to an other.

Natural forces, represented as an omniscient and omnipotent generator of new work, reference several of the dramatic natural events that occurred across the province’s terrains over the last few years: floods, wildfires and drought. Even the predictability of extreme cold and darkness has an impact on the production cycles of artists, developing a pattern of creative output and collaboration induced by retreated positions.

Detritus is a theme related to the influences of post-recession art indicative of surviving within a creative climate of wealth and boomtown economic disparity. With a focus on entropic decay and its symbolism, artists are making do with little and finding much in the remains of what is left behind.

Austerity as an aesthetic, in and of itself, emerges as a clear and dramatic reference to the beauty and devastation of the post-industrial landscape and a self-depreciating social habitat for artists. This manifests as a unique visual vocabulary employed in both material choices, brute presentation and applied delivery of artistic experience.

Future Station: 2015 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art is curated by Kristy Trinier and organized by the Art Gallery of Alberta