Not too long ago, a list of the 30 best all time artists vs. artist insults of all time was circulating on Facebook.
One quote in particular from Russian sculptor and painter Mikhail Chemiakin on Russian street art and anarchist group Voina (known for doing things like throwing stray cats into expensive restaurants and painting penises on drawbridges) who said:
“Many of us can draw a phallus with our eyes closed, but to create something serious? That’s hard, that needs to be studied. Anyone can be an amateur shit-doodling hooligan. It’s unpleasant and casts a shadow on all serious artists, ” captured Lethbridge artist Leila Armstrong’s imagination.
So she decided to name her latest exhibition opening at the Bowman Arts Centre, Saturday, March 10, ‘$h*t’ Doodling Hooligan.
“I wanted to be a shit doodling hooligan,” she said.
“ I wanted to get away for the more conceptual works. Audiences find it alienating,” Armstrong said.
She wanted to add a lot of humour to her pieces in the show, which are all brand new. Most of them were created in 2012, with one being completed late last year.
There are 36 in total.
The other exhibit opening at the Bowman is ‘Close to Me,” an exhibition by lethbridge painter Christie Gray.
“She‘s never had an exhibition here before, though she has had painting up in the Slice and the Owl and has had works in group shows with the Potemkin and Shuffle Up and Deal, ” said Bowman Arts Centre curator Darcy Logan.
He described her works as being primarily being in the abstract vein.
Both exhibits run March 10-April 14. The opening reception is at 9 p.m., March 10.
“There is a lot going on. There’s also exhibitions going on at the SAAG and the Trianon,” Logan said.
