Exhibition Opening
Marie Lannoo: In Extremis + The Wagon Burner and Other Stories
July 4
5:00-9:00 PM
Please join Contemporary Calgary on Thursday, July 4 from 5-9 PM, for the opening of two solo exhibitions, Marie Lannoo: In Extremis and The Wagon Burner and Other Stories.
Doors
5:00 PMRemarks
6:30 PM | AtriumIn-Conversation with artist Marie Lannoo & curator Wayne Baerwaldt
7:00 PM | DomeGalleries Close
9:00 PM
FREE to the public. No registration is required.
Seating for In-Conversation with artist Marie Lannoo & curator Wayne Baerwaldt will be first come, first served.
These exhibition openings are presented in collaboration with FREE First Thursdays.
Marie Lannoo: In Extremis
July 4 - October 13, 2024
As an abstract painter, Saskatoon-based Marie Lannoo has been applying layers of transparent acrylic colour on various support surfaces for more than three decades. Well-known as a conceptually groundbreaking non-objective painter, Lannoo is one of the few artists informed by a substantial knowledge base in both art and science to investigate light as the basis for her colour field paintings.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lannoo returned to canvas as a support surface for the first time in 25 years with a tremendous level of freedom. She never predicted that a global pandemic and lockdown would open the creative floodgates to produce 36 of the most resonant works of her career. The resulting series of paintings in this touring solo exhibition facilitate a remarkably intimate level of experiential contact with the viewer.
Lannoo's decision-making in the studio became entirely intuitive with an unfiltered, direct connection to the painting process. It is difficult to describe this unique period of creative engagement other than in Lannoo’s own words: “In Extremis is an apt title for a body of work and a dedicated book that extends the illusive studio experience of the paintings. The studio was where I made the most profound connection with my materials and with my artistic self to embody the feelings of that connection in the work. When I was in this place of deep connection and feeling, time dissolved and slipped away. I also wanted to extend the connection to realize an innovative publication, to reproduce the true essence of my paintings in print media.”
--- Wayne Baerwaldt, Guest Curator
The Wagon Burner and Other Stories
July 4 - September 8, 2024
What are the ways in which wagon trains were instrumental to European settlers' westward expansion across Turtle Island; and how did Indigenous peoples mobilize to protect their lands from encroachment by settlers? What are the afterlives of wagons today, and what place do they occupy in Western Canada, including within the Calgary Stampede?
Departing from – and centered around – Blackfoot artist Terrance Houle's The Wagon Burner (2003), The Wagon Burner and Other Stories reflects on the social and political history of the wagon, and the ways in which it has shaped our collective imaginaries of both the North American landscape and the Indigenous communities that have lived on this land for thousands of years.
Bringing together newspaper clippings from the Library of Congress, montages of Western films, and posters from the Calgary Stampede, The Wagon Burner and Other Stories offers a snapshot of the history of this land, seen through the lens of a seemingly benign – yet often overlooked – mode of transport: the wagon.
