Energy will be high once again at this week’s unveiling of the latest survey of secondary school art talent.
High Energy kicks off tomorrow with all city high schools sending many of their best and brightest art students to the Art Gallery of St. Albert to show off not only their individual creative skills but also their artistic abilities within group settings.
Every year, the schools host a challenge project to get the creative juices flowing. For Paul Kane Grade 12 student Nicholas Hertz, the project is not like other more onerous high school assignments.
“Instead of just thinking of the process of what we were going to make, we had to think about the installation as well. It was about taking found or discarded objects and reworking them into something beautiful,” he described, adding that the end result “looks supercool!”
The school’s entry features a glass case, which will be positioned in front of a window, making it the perfect pseudo-planter display of repurposed scholastic literature. The students took used books and redesigned them with natural forms, like flowers and plants, as the inspiration.
PK art teacher Colleen Hewitt noted that the students even researched botanical specimens to make sure that they had the right visual cues. They came up with all kinds of great ideas, she said.
What’s more, she said being involved in high school art is a way of fuelling her own paintings.
“It’s one of those old sayings but it’s true: when you teach somebody how to do something, you learn so much yourself. It does inform your work.”
The opening reception for the event will be held tomorrow from 6 to 9 p.m. Many of the artists will be in attendance. The show runs until May 23.
The Art Gallery of St. Albert is located at 19 Perron Street. Call 780-460-4310 or visit www.artgalleryofstalbert.com for more information.
The Visual Arts Studio Association, or VASA, is also raring to go with its own, opening tomorrow. With more than 150 artists now in the fold, the artist collective is bigger than ever, a detail that means there needed to be some constraints for submissions in the fixed size exhibit space at the Hemingway Centre.
“It’s a free for all, “enthused representative Miles Constable.
“We had to limit the artists to two paintings each otherwise we couldn’t hang them all,” he explained, noting that there are more than 60 paintings by more than 30 member artists now on display. Each submission could only be 2’ x 2’ as well.
One of the newest members and exhibitors for this show is Marina Alexseeva, a tattoo artist who emigrated from Russia who also works at Embedded Tattoo shop on Perron St.
“A lot of tattoo artists are artists in their own right and they’ve just gone into tattooing as a somewhat more reliable business stream,” he laughed.
The opening reception for the event will be held tomorrow from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with many of the artists in attendance. The show runs until May 29.
VASA is located at 25 Sir Winston Churchill Ave. Call 780-460-5990 or visit www.vasa-art.com for more details.
Tony Overweel has a series of pastel works on display at Gallery 7 in the Bookstore on Perron until June 1 and some of the highly creative staff members at the St. Albert Public Library have decided to show off their artistic talents for a display unlike any other art show they’ve put on before. The works will stay up all month as a precursor to the ArtWalk season, starting June 4.
