for the time being: 2017 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art

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for the time being: 2017 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art Invitation

Description

In late 2015, curators Peta Rake and Kristy Trinier travelled extensively across Alberta for studio visits. Then, in summer 2016 they invited artists to collaborative workshops in Banff. This informed the Alberta Biennial’s 2017 theme and title for the time being: what it means to be in between spaces and times.

This 10th Alberta Biennial teams the Art Gallery of Alberta with Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity’s Walter Phillips Gallery to bring viewers never-before exhibited works by 24 Alberta artists, showing concurrently in both locations.

Curator’s statement

for the time being: 2017 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art approaches the political implications of self-organization and wayfinding in new and unknown territories, that may or may not be visible. Spread over two sites—here at the Art Gallery of Alberta and at Banff Centre’s Walter Phillips Gallery—the Alberta Biennial investigates the distribution of wealth and labour through the provisional practices of 24 artists from across the province. In conversation with the artists, the curators acknowledged common threads that emerged relating to interstitiality and site—albeit physical or virtual—and a preoccupation with language and echoes, that reflect the way in which artists see reverberations within larger discourses in their communities.

The cohort of 24 artists met at Banff Centre in the summer of 2016 for the Alberta Biennial Sessions to further develop their artworks and expand upon the exhibition themes together with the curators. Two international guest curators, Kendal Henry and Lorenzo Fusi, led an intensive series of workshops with the artists and facilitated an open conversation on the status of biennials and their impact regionally and internationally. This was the first time that artists have been brought together in such a way prior to the opening of the exhibition.

Since its inception in 1996, the Alberta Biennial has presented new and exciting works by a total of 222 artists, promoting Alberta artists across the country and bringing national attention to Alberta’s art scene.