Exposure Photography Festival 2020

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Angeline Simon, "stay/there," 2019

courtesy of the artist.

*Temporarily Closed*

Dear Friends,

It has been a few weeks since we announced the temporary closure of Contemporary Calgary to do our part in response to the COVID-19 crisis and the need to keep our employees and our visitors safe. Contemporary Calgary will remain closed to the public until further notice, and we remain committed to keeping you updated and informed. 

In light of the current situation surrounding COVID-19 and the need for self-isolation and quarantines, there is urgency around developing arts engagement on multiple platforms that in most cases exclude physical locales. Already museums, galleries, and other cultural organizations are rapidly offering a dizzying array of ways to encounter art.  

While online programming is far from new, the acute reliance on it now is creating new opportunities. Our team has been hard at work creating and repurposing existing content and we look forward to launching our own initiative in the coming week offering experiences and ways to engage with art, artists and the Contemporary Calgary community online. Through this, we are chiefly thinking about ways we can directly support artists and the social wellbeing of our community. We look forward to sharing more with you soon.

These are unprecedented times, and they provide us the opportunity to reflect. I know I have been thinking a great deal about the things in my life that I appreciate. A government that cares about its citizens, amazing healthcare professionals who risk their wellbeing in support of ours, the importance of friends and family, and technology that helps us to connect and share ideas. 

I’m also reminded of the important role that museums, ballets, theatres, symphonies, music centres and art galleries all play to enrich our lives here in Calgary. We stand in solidarity with our friends and peers who all need your support, who all look forward to welcoming you back through their doors, and who all believe—more than ever—that art has the ability to transform lives. 

We thank you for your continued support and hope this note finds you well.

David Leinster Chief Executive Officer, Contemporary Calgary

Exposure is an annual festival that celebrates photography, hosting thoughtfully curated exhibitions that showcase internationally renowned practitioners alongside emerging and established talent from Alberta. Through its programme of exhibitions, portfolio reviews, artist talks, discussions and events, Exposure 2020 explores what photography is, what it can be, its current place in contemporary art, and the future of the medium. Exposure’s outdoor exhibition, The Fence (and our own Western Canadian Edition), makes its annual appearance in Calgary. Exposure provides an exciting, innovative meeting place for practitioners to connect and communicate with curators and industry professionals from around the world.

This year marks the sixteenth edition of the festival and promises an exciting programme, with festival headquarters located at Contemporary Calgary. Displayed within its dramatically bold brutalist spaces are the three festival feature exhibitions: International Open Call, Emerging Photographers Showcase and 2019 Emerging Photographer of the Year, Boon Ong’s, Our Closets.

The exhibitions show a broad range of works, from photojournalism to photocollage, abstract photography to politically-engaged work, from the social to the personal, along with visual explorations of identity and personal narratives.

Exhibiting artists in the Exposure 2020 International Open Call include Anne Tapler White (Calgary AB), Peter Greendale (Cochrane AB), Patrick McCloskey (Canmore AB), Angeline Simon (Lethbridge AB), Arianne Clément (Montreal QC), Denis Wong (Montreal QC), Sunny Strader (Los Angeles CA USA), Sandra Chen Weinstein (Lake Forest CA USA), Ala Buisir (Dublin Ireland), Graeme Oxby (Lincoln UK), Emma Wilson (North Humberside UK), Mark Murphy (Birmingham UK), Philip Harris (Derby UK), Lucky Keller (Derby UK) and Robert Lie (Kepri Indonesia). Exhibiting artists in the Exposure 2020 Emerging Photographers Showcase include Wilmer Aburto, Jayden Daniels, Manikarnika Kanjilal, Liam Kavanagh-Bradette, Jake Kimble, Sasha Lavoie, Michelle Lazo, Nahanni McKay, Zachary Morris, J. Ashley Nixon, Lily Pavle, Andres Porras, Colleen Rauscher, Toni Reed and Nicholas Taylor.

Exposure Festival’s opening weekend runs January 31 to February 2 and includes exhibition openings and a host of events. See www.exposurephotofestival.com for more information.