Chris Cran, “After the Flood #9,” 2013, inkjet print (courtesy of the artist and Herringer Kiss Gallery)
Flood Inspires New Exhibition for Calgary Artist
The flood of June 2005 wasn’t the biggest flood that Calgary has ever had. That would come in 2013. But it did up-end lives — including that of artist Chris Cran. His house was destroyed when floodwater filled it from the basement to the rafters.
In the ensuing clean-up, one of Cran’s friends found and saved some of his Polaroid photos, drying them out despite the damage. A few years later, Cran found them in storage and “was struck by both the damage and the beauty...and the fine line between abstraction and representation.”
The following year, coincidentally the year of Calgary’s biggest flood, he began printing them. A new project was born.
Part of the 20th annual Exposure Photography Festival, After the Flood is on view at Herringer Kiss Gallery now through March 2. Cran will be in attendance at the opening reception on Feb. 10 from 2 to 5 p.m.
Cran’s work is found in public and private collections around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Glenbow Museum, the Nickle Arts Museum and the Art Gallery of Alberta. He is represented by TrépanierBaer Gallery in Calgary, Clint Roenisch Gallery in Toronto and Wilding Cran Gallery in Los Angeles.
Toni Onley, “Georgia Strait from Cabbage Island,” 2002, watercolour, 11" x 15" (courtesy of Madrona Gallery)
Never-before Exhibited Works of Toni Onley on View Now
There are still a couple of days left to see Toni Onley: Master Watercolourist at the Madrona Gallery in Victoria, B.C. It’s on view until Feb. 10.
The new exhibition features some of the late Manx-Canadian artist’s works that have never before been shown in public. The collection is themed around his love of travel and includes landscapes from Europe and across North America. Born on the Isle of Man, Onley came to Canada in 1948 and lived for a time in Ontario and then in Penticton, B.C. In 1961, he was one of seven artists who represented Canada at the Paris Biennial, and his work is found in major collections around the world, including the Vancouver Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Ontario, National Gallery of Canada, Musée d'art contemporain, Seattle Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Kablusiak, “Going to the Grocery Store,” 2023, felt and embroidery floss (courtesy of the artist and Norberg Hall)
Exploring What It Means to be an Alberta Inuk
Mitchell Art Gallery at MacEwan University in Edmonton is hosting -miut, an exhibition that includes painting, textiles, 3D works, video and jewelry from five Inuit artists living on Treaty 6 and 7 lands.
Artists include Atsinak Bishop, Alberta Rose w./Ingniq, Sarah Whalen Lunn, Yvonne Moorhouse and Kablusiak, who was recently named the 2023 Sobey Art Award winner.
The exhibition is on now through March 28.
“Found in Inuit languages across dialects, the suffix ‘-miut’ means ‘people of’ when attached to a place name. The identifier subverts constructed lines between people and land,” according to the news release.
“As an Inuk who has lived in the prairies for my whole life until recently, I hope to build community and make connections surrounding that shared experience,” said the show's curator Ooleepeeka Eegeesiak in the release. “I want to show how the artists in -miut narrate being here in this land in individual and intersecting ways as Inuit.” ■
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