QUILTING ROCKS: It’s all about the grannies at AGA Refinery Party
Quilting with granny is not usually on the itinerary for your average hip party – but no average party is a Refinery Party. Saturday night at the Art Gallery of Alberta, the conversational topic over drinks, rock ‘n’ roll singalongs and various good times shall be the merits of “textile art.” Consider the obvious: Textile […]
Life and death matters at Global Visions Film Festival
If you imagine documentarians to be journalists who broke out of the box and found their hearts, the Global Visions Film Festival is for you. Edmonton’s annual “non-fiction” film festival runs at venues around town through Sunday. Here are three more capsule reviews by Lowell Thomson: * * * INTO THE ABYSS, directed by Werner […]
5 Artists 1 Love to showcase black artists, music at the AGA
Every time Black History Month comes along, we hear the same questions: Why do we even need a Black History Month, and if we do, why is it in the shortest and coldest month of the year? Dismissing the latter as coincidence, we trot out that now famous Morgan Freeman quote: “I don’t want a […]
ARTS NOTES: King’s Speech screens for free, Fish plans AGA shindig
The immediate reaction is to assume that Hollywood has finally produced something useful, but the truth is, the King’s Speech is another great British period piece. No matter. Rule Britannia and up the Union Jack, because the Oscar-winning film’s central message, about overcoming disabilities, is educational enough that the Alberta government is willing to pay […]
New AGA exhibits go big or go home
It’s a busy day over at the Art Gallery of Alberta, where a pair of exhibits open that offer us both a global and a local perspective on society. The AGA has put together a couple of short blurbs outlining the shows quite ably: 19th Century French Photographs Paris. Jan. 6, 1839. The first public […]
Local artist scores $5,000 commission from AGA
Dara Humniski is going to be covered in acrylic paint for an entire week – and you get to watch. The 29-year-old Edmonton artist has been awarded a $5,000 commission to paint two giant blank walls inside the Art Gallery of Alberta, a total of nearly 700 square feet on the West and North walls […]
The two-dimensional benefits of Warhol’s soup
Today, we pose a question for debate and discussion: Is Andy Warhol’s influence as an artist as important as the impact his most famous work has had combatting hunger? Warhol understood fame is fleeting, no matter who you are. Like Alvin Tofler and other influential people of his era, anonymity is the eventual reality for […]
FISHEYE: Ahead of the curve
One of the nicest inside views of the city. Our regular photo of the day (potd) feature from Fish Griwkowsky is a visual diary and memoir of his life in and out of the city. More Fisheye Photos HERE.
Should AGA kids camps tackle street art?
When Gig City recounted the tale of a local artist whose graffiti mocked Oilers owner Daryl Katz, it got some strong reactions from Edmontonians – mostly opposed to using public space for political street art, good intentions notwithstanding. It raises an interesting debate then, with respect to the Art Gallery of Alberta’s summer camp series […]
High cost of security keeps AGA closed at night
Maybe you work downtown and really want to catch the latest exhibition at the Art Gallery of Alberta. You get out the office door swiftly at 5, but you’re hungry and need to grab a quick bite so that your growling stomach won’t echo through the exhibition halls. It doesn’t leave much viewing time once […]
Food Bank donations imitate art
Attendees of the ANDY WARHOL: Manufactured exhibit at the Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) are reminded that while soup can be art, it is also food – so bring along some cans for the Edmonton Food Bank. Other non-perishable food items are also accepted, of course. One may also buy oversized novelty Campbell’s Soup tins […]
