In the Time of COVID: Works by Members of the Red Deer Arts Council Visual Arts Members

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Lorene Runham, "Covid Bubbles," 2020

mixed media, 16" x 24"

PANDEMIC AESTHETICS: ART IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19

When disasters strike, scientists and emergency workers are at the front of the response. But when the world needs to record, memorialize, and interpret the emotions of the experience, it turns to artists.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, artists have been producing inspired work that interprets their reactions to the fear, loneliness, and frustration of coping with the isolation, powerlessness, sickness, and death that have accompanied the global crisis.

These interpretations are reflected in this special Arts Council’s Visual Arts Members juried exhibit, In the Time of Covid, being held online through our social media pages and website. The works range from literal representations of loneliness in Marlene Kallstrom-Barritt’s works about a young girl seeking companionship, to abstract, emotive pieces such as Covid Bubbles by Lorene Runham, or Gordon Klassen’s fantasy work, The Ferryman’s Burden, responding to the deaths caused by COVID. All 21 works in this exhibit reveal that, one way or another, this pandemic has struck close to home.

Whether through musicians holding online concerts or virtual visual art exhibitions, we believe artists have shown their strength to help their communities through this time. We hope the community will respond by visiting the gallery and supporting our local artists. (Safe health restrictions apply.)

Red Deer Arts Council is pleased to present In the Time of COVID: Works by Members of the Red Deer Arts Council Visual Arts Members. If AHS pandemic safety restrictions allow for the reopening of the Kiwanis Gallery inside the downtown branch of the Red Deer Public Library, we will install and host the exhibit in person as well. More information will be communicated if this installation is able to take place.