Art galleries are places to exchange ideas, share creative experiences and explore contemporary art and culture. How do you take in the arts in the city you live in? We took a trip to the Art Gallery of Alberta to experience current exhibitions and get immersed in large abstract paintings, sculptures and the overall architectural atmosphere of the building.
We want to invite you to do the same, which is why we're sharing our experience as well as giving away guest passes for you to look at the artwork first hand.
To enter, visit us on Instagram @TheHelmClothing. Tell us your most memorable encounter with art this past year, tag a friend who you would like to visit the gallery with or simply send us a direct message to be entered. We will make a draw for the complimentary guest passes to visit the Art Gallery of Alberta on Friday, December 10.
Explore in style
Whether it's a lunch hour or a weekend, find the time to explore your local galleries and museums. This is a great way to refresh your energy for the week by gaining new inspiration and insight. Broaden your appreciation for art and share your experience with your friends.
Take a closer look
Soak, Stripe, Splatter is a striking exhibition, from the use of vibrant colours to the scale of the works. When you go into the gallery space you can expect to see large abstract paintings and experiments in colour photography. All of the works in this exhibition are from the gallery's collection, with a focus on local and international artists. The space tells a story through artworks with vivid and bright colours to artworks with more soft, muted palettes.
This really is an exhibition that a viewer can walk into and experience solace in art, taking time to ground themselves in a space primarily filled with large abstract paintings. What colours stand out the most to you, as the viewer?
Insight from the Curator
Chief Curator, Catherine Crowston, answered some key questions about the gallery's current exhibition Soak, Stripe, Splatter.
Q. Talk about the title. What do the three words represent?
A. The title Soak, Stripe, Splatter refers to different ways that paint can be applied to a surface – aside from traditional uses of a brush. Soak also makes reference to dark room based photographic practices, in which exposed film and paper are soaked in solutions for developing the image.
Q. This exhibition features various works from the Art Gallery of Alberta's Collection. Artworks with vivid and bright colours to artworks with more soft, muted palettes. What brings it all together for you?
A. The exhibition features works that focus on colour as their primary element or property. In selecting the works, I was interested in looking at different ways that artists apply paint, Most people think of painters using a brush, for many of these works, the paint is applied through other means, like dripping, splashing, staining, using a palette knife or roller, spray gun or even a piece of string, I was also interested in how artists use colour to create illusions of depth, of receding and protruding space, as well as optical effects such as movement and oscillation.
Q. What can you share about some of the streams of expression that are unfolding in these artworks, in particular with the colour palettes that the artists are working with?
A. I was interested in exploring the idea of Colour as a sensation, a reaction that arises from our senses, emotions, experiences and knowledge. Some of the artists in the exhibition also use colour symbolically, as can be seen in Alex Janvier’s work Lubicon (1988), in which he has substituted his normal white back ground for red as a way to make a statement with respect to the moment when the Lubicon Lake Nation in Alberta was in conflict with the federal government and the oil sector about resource extraction on their territory.
Soak, Stripe, Splatter is on view until January 30.
Notable exhibitions and experiences
Each of us experiences art differently—what was your most memorable encounter with art this past year? Visit us on Instagram @TheHelmClothing and enter to win guest passes to the Art Gallery of Alberta!
