The Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art

Taken from Mar-Beth Laviolette’s Review for the Calgary Herald:  

The third edition of the Alberta Biennial stretches its fingers in many directions. The 25 artists featured are wide-ranging in age, training, and exhibition experiences. They come from Alberta communities (Banff, Lethbridge, Edmonton, Cold Lake, Calgary, Delburne, and Grand Prairie) that, as far as their own local art-making histories go, are quite different form one another.  

Likewise, for much of the artwork. Although the focus is on recent contemporary art, it’s a body of work that has been served up on broader terms: it makes room for the eccentric stories of folk painter George Tosczak as well as the fantastic “blob” creations of out-of-fashion abstract painter Graham Peacock.  

This kind of latitude is a highly enjoyable aspect of the Biennale, organized by the Edmonton Art Gallery curator Catherine Crowston and Banff’s Allan Harding Mackay, who chose many of the participants through a province- wide call for submissions. 

Artists: 

Showing at Art Gallery of Calgary: Robin Arseneault, Edward Bader, Allen Ball, Ken Doren, Karen Dugas, Amy Gogarty, Darci Mallon, Lisa Murray, Maria Anna Parolin, Candice Tarnowski, George Tosczak, Brian Webb, John Will