"Open Spaces: Windows to a View"

Open Spaces: Windows to a View

Barbara Sutherland and Dean Stanton Kick Off Latest Exhibition Line Up

Open Spaces: Windows to a View presents two new installations now on view at the 7th Avenue and Centre Street LRT platform. Local artists Dean Stanton and Barbara Sutherland explore memory and social history, and represent the first two artists to be featured as part of the 2012/2013 Open Spaces program. 

Dean Stanton's installation includes a series of five photographs incorporating objects and images from the 40's and 50's. "I wanted a mix of modern and vintage in the final product as homage to thrift stores and junk shops." 

Born in 1967, Dean began making art around the same time he learned how to talk. Dean is a graduate from the Alberta College of Art and Design. His whimsical style can be seen in and around Calgary in a variety of media, from murals and large painted signage to logos, typefaces and advertisements.  

Swag by Barbara Sutherland is comprised of two ceiling-mounted sculptural forms . One represents over 20 years of accumulation of fibre remnants arranged in chronological order around a steel hoop. The other is made from neutral cloth and thread, existing as a ghost or counterpoint. 

According to the artist,"While working with cloth I think about its history as part of our intimate lives, but also of its place in the development of the spaces around us; the architectural forms within which we live, work and play." Barbara's work references the form of a chandelier to evoke a sense of grandeur. "In this new form, the fabric takes on new meaning, no longer folded away in a closet, the cloth is imbued with new life, and still holds memories."

Barbara Sutherland is an MFA graduate from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Along with her research and studio practice, she is currently an instructor in the Fibre Department at the Alberta College of Art and Design. 

With support from McLennan Ross LLP, the Open Spaces program celebrates the diversity and quality of local artists while enlivening the downtown 7th Avenue transportation corridor. 

These works are on view now through July 21, 2012.