This is a busy weekend for arts in the city, and not just because of the 20th anniversary of Night of Artists at the Enjoy Centre.
The three-day expo features dozens of visual artists and performing artists plus the unveiling of the Canada 150 Mosaic on Sunday at 1 p.m. The massive art project contains hundreds of small square paintings, each individually painted by a different person. Together, they form a larger image as if it was a large-scale jigsaw puzzle. It's all meant to celebrate the country's sesquicentennial.
Entry during the day is by donation at the door. Tickets for tonight's gala event are $25 in advance or $30 at the door.
Visit www.nightofartists.com for more.
Big Lake Artists' Studio open house too
Just a few blocks down from the Enjoy Centre is the Big Lake Artists' Studios, where the group will be having its annual open house with show and sale today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The collective's 10 artists include Doris Charest, Carol Donald, Sandra Gonek, Becky Holuk, Lynn Lawson Pajunen, Bette Lisitza, Martina MacFarlane, Janice Peters, Ros Schell and Bruce Thompson. They will all be on site to display their artworks and do demos.
The studio is located at 33 Rayborn Cr. on the second floor. Admission is free and there will be door prizes as well as a silent auction to support the St. Albert Food Bank. Food donations will also be accepted plus 10 per cent of all sales will go to the charity. Visit www.facebook.com/BigLakeArtists for more.
Art in the church as well
Artist Marian Dubrule has an art show of her portraits and landscapes in oil, acrylics and other media. It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it event from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. today only. The St. Albert United Church is located at 20 Green Grove Dr.
Campbell's massive, immersive Cyclorama
Blaine Campbell has a small exhibit opening at the Art Gallery of St. Albert this weekend. It's small because there are only two photographs in the show.
It's also a big exhibit: you should see the size of these things.
His large-format photograph Cyclorama is described by curator Kristy Trinier as "an immersive look at the panoramic transformation of landscape during suburban development."
"The image documents the process of land modification as a study of both the displaced soil created as new communities are structured in the prairie landscape, but also how the scale of these temporal mounds alter the sight lines of the horizon."
Campbell visited a developing subdivision north of Spruce Grove with an 8 x 10 film camera he uses to get some very large images with a lot of detail. How large? Think 2.5-metres tall and the first one 5.5-metres long and the other 9.25-metres long. Standing in front of the works is meant to give the viewer the sense of being in the landscape but with heightened vision of it as the detail will be incredible. It will be a perfect viewpoint for one to ponder how we change the world to suit our purposes.
"As an extension of the artist's series Transient Architectures for New Tomorrows, Cyclorama is indicative of Campbell's technical photographic process and also points to the complex and monumental constructs at play in the repurposing of farmland into a new community: stripping away the stratigraphic fertile spoil to make way for new redevelopment," Trinier continued in her curator's statement.
Cyclorama opens today and runs until Sunday, May 28. The Art Gallery of Alberta is at 2 Sir Winston Churchill Sq. in Edmonton. Call 780-422-6223 or visit www.youraga.ca for more information.
