Work of the Week

This week's Work of the Week is "Distant Mountain" by Annemarie Schmid Esler. 

Today is International Mountain Day! Designated in 2003 by the United Nations, International Mountain Day calls attention to the importance of mountains to life around the world. For example, did you know that mountains are home to 15% of the world's population and host about half of the world's biodiversity hotspots? They also provide freshwater for everyday life to half of humanity! Mountains are truly amazing, and Albertans are incredibly lucky to have one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in the world right in our province - the Rocky Mountains!
 

About the Artist: Annemarie Schmid Esler

The daughter of German immigrants, Annemarie Schmid Esler was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

She had an interest in art from an early age, attending Saturday classes at the Winnipeg Art School, but studied sociology at university. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Manitoba in 1959, and travelled in Europe for a year before enrolling at the University of Munich for additional courses in sociology. Returning to Canada in 1961, she worked for a year as a social worker and in 1962 enrolled at the Winnipeg College of Art in the ceramics program. In 1968, she completed a degree in ceramic sculpture at the Alberta College of Art (now the Alberta University of the Arts).

Her work expressed a highly developed knowledge of ceramic technique, and she utilized a variety of tools, including pencils, airbrushes, stencils, decals and photo-transfer to create her often humorous and ironic ceramic sculptures. She was interested in the opposing approaches of Modernist and Post-Modernist art, and also had a strong preoccupation with American blues music which, with its focus on themes of isolation and concern about the social condition, she saw as presenting an affinity with her own art.

Annemarie Schmid Esler's work was exhibited widely throughout Canada, the US, and Europe. A highly-regarded instructor and lecturer, she received several major grants and awards, and her sculptures are included in over two dozen public collections.
 

This week's Work of the Week is Opening Night by Petr Honcu.
 

On this day 128 years ago, one of the most famous ballets in the world had its opening night in St. Petersburg, Russia! Now a holiday tradition in many countries, including Canada, The Nutcracker made its debut on December 18, 1892. It was choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

In Canada, the National Ballet of Canada has been performing The Nutcracker for nearly 70 years! Learn more about the history of the National Ballet of Canada performing The Nutcracker. 

Closer to home, the Alberta Ballet has made The Nutcracker a holiday tradition in our province for the past several years now. While you won't be able to see the Alberta Ballet's annual performance of The Nutcracker this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, you can still enjoy this short film featuring Alberta Ballet Dancer Jennifer Gibson as The Sugar Plum Fairy.

Video courtesy of Alberta Ballet..

This week’s Work of the Week is Fifty-51 by Edmonton artist Alayne Spafford.
 

Alayne Spafford is an abstract artist whose work attempts to reconcile her natural tendency to organize and polish, with her strong desire to reject those principals in favour of chaos and disorder. Her paintings begin with a spontaneous and unstructured first layer of collage, drips, and spray paint. In the second layer, Spafford adds more depth and mark-making, then tries to find the shapes within. Her process mirrors her internal struggle to find balance between the opposing but complementary aspects of life.

This artwork came into the AFA’s collection via the Art Acquisition by Application (AAA) program last year and is now on loan, through the AFA’s Extended Loan program, to the new, award-winning YW Hub facility in Calgary.

About the Artist: Alayne Spafford

Alayne Spafford received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking and drawing from the University of Saskatchewan. After studying textiles at Concordia University and the Centre des Metiers d’Art en Construction Textile (CMACT) in Montreal, she worked for many years in the costume department of Cirque de Soleil, dying, printing, and hand-painting costumes.

Spafford was awarded a Pouch Cove residency in Newfoundland in 2019 and has exhibited throughout Western Canada and the USA including Moberg Gallery in Des Moines, Iowa, Sopa Fine Arts in Kelowna, Zinc Contemporary Arts in Seattle, and the Front Gallery in Edmonton. Her work is in the collection of the University of Saskatchewan, the University of Alberta, and the PCL Corporation. Spafford resides in Edmonton, and concentrates on painting full time.

This week’s Work of the Week is January by John K. Esler.

Did you know: The month of January is named after the ancient Roman god Janus? Janus was the god of beginnings and transitions. He also had two faces – one looking forward into the future and one looking back towards the past.

About the Artist: John K. Esler (1933 – 2001)

John K. Esler was born in 1933 in Pilot Mound, Manitoba and attended the School of Art at the University of Manitoba, graduating in 1960. He continued studies there, receiving a Bachelor of Education degree in 1962, and in 1964, after a period of travel in Europe, took a teaching position at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary (now the Alberta University of the Arts). He joined the faculty of the University of Calgary in 1968 where he taught intaglio printmaking, staying there until his retirement in the 1980s.
 

Esler was well-known in the Calgary arts community, and did much to raise the profile of printmaking in the province. He played a major role in the expansion of the printmaking department at the Alberta College of Art and Design and at the University of Calgary and in partnership with artist Ken Webb, established Trojan Press to provide a facility for local printmakers to develop their skills. Esler's works were exhibited widely throughout Canada and abroad and he is represented in many public and private collections. His awards included the C.W. Jefferys' Award from the Canadian Society of Graphic Arts and the G.A. Reid Memorial Award from the Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers.

John Esler had an irreverent, somewhat Dadaist sensibility which he expressed in his art and in his teaching methods. He encouraged his students to experiment, to make art with a mind open to unexpected possibilities. A series of artworks that offered a typical example of his approach were called Relics of the Twentieth Century and involved the use of cast-off garbage and refuse that he ran through the press to create relief prints. Objects that became fodder for the creative process for this series ranged from a squashed lunch box to the flattened chassis of a television set.

This week’s Work of the Week is Ancestor by Indigenous artist Florence Shone.

About the Artist: Florence Shone

Florence Shone is a mother of two and self-taught artist who uses acrylic and canvas as her medium.
 

She is originally from the Piikani Nation in southern Alberta, but has resided in Edmonton most of her life. She has a degree in Native Studies from University of Alberta in Edmonton. 

Shone says that she has always been an artist. She began drawing at an early age, but it was only when she was almost finished university that she took an art class and learned that painting allows her to visually express and release her emotions onto canvas. Subjects include Blackfoot people from archival photographs, portraiture, landscape work and other intuitively created pieces.

She regularly participates in local exhibitions in Alberta and has had work on display at the Royal Alberta Museum.

This summer, we are excited that three short films from our art collection will be showcased as part of our AFA travelling exhibitiong (TREX) program in Southeast Alberta - Medicine Hat.

Plan your visit:
 

View it for free in-person: TREX Southeast art gallery: 2, 516 3rd Street SE, Medicine Hat, Alberta

But wait, it gets better ... the films will be projected on the outside of the building for the month of August where it's visible from the sidewalk. Note the gallery will be closed for internal operations the month of August so this provides an alternative for the public to access art on the exterior of the building.

Media Arts:

The Little Deputy

Trevor Anderson, The Little Deputy, 2015, video, 0:8:51 minutes, Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

• Trevor tries to have a photo taken with his father.
• World Premiere: Sundance Film Festival
• Trevor Anderson is a writer, director, actor and former video store clerk whose short films were presented at a variety of international festivals. 

Dark Horse

Yvonne Mullock, Dark Horse, 2016, video, 16:28 minutes, Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

• Dark Horse uses symbols synonymous with cowboy culture; the Stetson hat and horse, as tropes to explore Calgary’s long and entwined history of ranching and the city’s historic annual Stampede event. Using print, video and sculpture Dark Horse explores an innovative horse-centric printmaking method and invites viewers to delve into cowboy identity and Western mythologies that hover over the history and collective memory of folklore traditions in Calgary.
• Yvonne Mullock received an AFA International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) Residency in New York Funding in 2017. Her artwork was selected in numerous exhibitions in Alberta and world-wide. 

Wake Up!

​Jessie Ray Short, Wake Up!, 2015, experimental film, 5:57 minutes, Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

• Wake Up! highlights the legacy of eighteenth-century Métis political leader Louis Riel and raises questions about colonialism.
• Jessie Ray Short is a filmmaker, multidisciplinary artist and independent curator. Her work touches on Métis history and visual culture.

Click the arrow icons ( < or > ) above to scroll through images.

Image descriptions:

• image one: a black and white image of an older man is sitting and is wearing a cowboy hat, and vested suit. Beside him is a young boy wearing a cowboy hat, vest, jeans and his side pocket holds a gun in a gun belt.
  
   
• image two: A brown hair person is hidden behind a brown horse. A blonde woman wearing a white artist apron and long sleeved black shirt, where she is holding a mono-print of a cowboy hat in front of the horse
  
   
• image three: A young man with curly brown medium length hair and moustache. He is wearing a white shirt and brown vested suit.

This week’s Work of the Week is Blue Picture Stand by Sidney Kelsie.
 

About the Artist: Sidney Kelsie (1928 - 2000)

A Black man of Caribbean heritage, Sidney Kelsie was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia in 1928.

He joined the Canadian Navy at the age of 16, before going to work at logging camps. After suffering serious injury to his legs in a logging accident, he went to work as a house painter. He had to give that up in 1979 due to his old injuries, and at the age of 53 and retired, he started fashioning cut-out wood shapes which he painted in colourful hues and hung in the yard of his Edmonton home. Passersby began taking an interest in the hanging artworks and would occasionally ask to buy individual pieces. Kelsie would often comply and in this way could supplement the meagre income that he shared with his wife Louise. Gradually, his art began to attract attention from serious collectors as well as art dealers.

Completely self-taught, Kelsie would accurately be described as a “folk artist.” His art was a product of his own imagination, although critics have pointed out connections to other “yard art” creators. Mostly African-American, it is speculated these individuals may have been carrying on a traditional West African practice of hanging charms in trees around the home in order to protect the home-owner and provide healing and spiritual affirmation. Kelsie didn't have much to say about such theories, however, and, in fact, was reluctant to even call himself an artist. Nonetheless, what he made was appreciated by long-time art collectors and by ordinary people with no knowledge of art.

Kelsie's art did receive its share of official art world recognition, including in 1996, when some of his pieces were included in a major show of folk art at the McMichael Collection of Canadian Art in Kleinburg, Ontario, curated by Calgary art critic Nancy Tousley.

Exhibition:

Check out the "Sidney Kelsie: Right in your own backyard" exhibition at AGA in-person to see the artwork that we have loaned out until August 1, 2022. Free admission to AGA in Edmonton is the last Thursday (4-7pm) of every month. Get your free ticket to a community tour of Kelsie's exhibition with David Staples July 28, 2022 event.

Or listen to the audio documentary to learn more about the artist, what art meant to Kelsie, and how his legacy lives on.

Explore the AFA's Virtual Museum to see other works of Alberta artists.

This year, National Indigenous Peoples Day also coincides with Summer Solstice on June 21. It is a great way to celebrate the unique culture and achievements of the First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples of our country.
 

During National Indigenous Peoples Day and June's National Indigenous History Month, explore:

• amazing artwork by Indigenous artists in the AFA's collection
• upcoming events throughout the province
• resources and events across Canada

About the artwork:

Poitras enjoys working in a variety of media including painting and mixed media collages that incorporate historical and contemporary symbols, newspaper clippings, and painted elements. In her work, 'Legacy of a Liberated Culture', she uses mixed media to create a colorful collage to highlight her diverse culture.

View the artwork in Augmented Reality. And click on the pink 'AFA virtual museum' below to discover other artworks by Poitras from 1984 to 2019.

About the Artist:

Jane Ash Poitras was born in the northern Alberta Cree community of Fort Chipewyan. Even though it was recommended for her to pick another career, as it was perceived it would be impossible to make a living as an artist, her resiliency helped her achieve a successful career. 

She has garnered her many accolades and achievements through her career, including being a recipient of:

• the Alberta Centennial Medal (2005)
• Order of Canada (2007)
• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award (2011).

Image description

Multi-color images of an Indigenous person wearing a black and red feathered head dress, brown dog-like animal, yellow and red bird-like animal, black and red and turquoise abstract faces, and various black and white historic symbols. Four tipis with various colors including brown, yellow, whilte, red, green, blue and pink are at the bottom of the painting.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the official recognition of May as Asian Heritage Month in Canada! The month is an opportunity to celebrate the amazing contributions of Canadians of Asian descent, who have helped to make our country a vibrant place to live.

Immigrants to Canada from East Asia, Southern Asia, Western, Central and Southeast Asia have enriched our country with their rich cultural history, including diverse languages, art and traditions. It is also a month to remind us to appreciate the achievements of Asian-Canadians and to stand together against all forms of anti-Asian racism and discrimination.
 

We're celebrating Asian Heritage Month by highlighting a few of the diverse artworks in our collection by Albertans of Asian descent! ​

• click the arrow icons ( < or > ) above to scroll through the images.

About the Artist: Amy Loewan

Born in Hong Kong, Amy Loewan immigrated to Canada in 1978 and is based in Edmonton. Amy enjoys creating artwork that promote peace and understanding. "A Peace Project" has been designated as a Certified Cultural Property of Canada in 2010.

About the Artist: Marigold Santos

Born in Manila, Philippines and immigrating to Canada in the late 1980s, Filipinx-Canadian artist Marigold Santos is an interdisciplinary artist. Her practice ranges from drawing, painting, sculpture, installation and tattoo.

You can read more about Marigold Santos and her artistic practice here: AFA Alberta Artist Profile - Marigold Santos.

Image descriptions

A Peace Project: six sheets of long hanging weaving strips of rice paper are hanging in a gallery. Each sheet has different abstract lines and dotted lines.

Flight: various colorful kites of black, orange, blue and rainbow colors are in the blue and cloudy sky. The kites are overlooking a green and grey land.

This week's Work of the Week is Bassano-Summer Sky 2008 by Danny Singer.

The first, full week of summer is coming to close, but don't worry, there are many more to come!
 

We hope you will be able to get out and enjoy an icon of the prairies - the wide expanse of clear blue sky, like in this stunning photograph, Bassano-Summer Sky 2008.

About the Artist: Danny Singer

Danny Singer is a photographer living and working in Vancouver. He began his career as a cameraman and director for the CBC.

In 1970, he moved to Montréal, where he made the transition to still photography. Working out of the tradition of documentary photography and using contemporary photographic techniques, Singer records places found in Canada's western prairie provinces and presents them as grand panoramas.

Singer has been the recipient of many awards and grants, including the Hamber Foundation Award of Merit. He has exhibited solo shows across Canada and his work can be found in private and public collections across the country including the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon.