The Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art 2007
June 23-September 9, 2007
Sarah Adams-Bacon
Robin Arseneault
Richard Boulet
Jennifer Bowes
Ken Buera
Kay Burns
Chris Flodberg
Julian Forrest
Paul Freeman
Anu Guha-Thakurta
Terrance Houle / Jarusha Brown
Geoffrey Hunter
David Janzen
Jonathan Kaiser
Mary Kavanagh
Linh Ly
Annie Martin
Mark Mullin
Paul Robert
Laurel Smith
Kristy Trinier
The 2007 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art: Living Utopia and Disaster features the work of 22 Alberta artists co-presented by the Art Gallery of Alberta and the Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre. For its 6th incarnation, exhibition curators, Catherine Crowston and Sylvie Gilbert, have undertaken an investigation of the dual themes of Utopia and Disaster, within the context of Alberta and its relation to the world environment.
The works in the exhibition raise questions about the paradoxical nature of our living experiences. They comment on the various ambiguous, competing and sometimes oppositional communities that we traverse, and exist within. When wildly optimistic, we can become completely rapt in the possibility of a longer, fuller and more affluent existence while being concurrently disquieted by events, economics and beliefs that threaten to dramatically endanger such fulfillment. The works in the exhibition act as discrete reminders that hopes are often matched with impeding catastrophe, actions with adversity, and that Utopia is mostly built on disasters. As economic achievements are boasted and celebrated, misfortunes that have made such wealth possible are minimized or even dismissed. The exhibition does not subscribe to a one world view or the other, but rather presents them as almost inevitable, yet paradoxical, partners.
As a special celebration of one of Alberta's most senior artists, the 2007 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art also includes a survey exhibition of the work of Alex Janvier, organized and presented by the Art Gallery of Calgary.
