CASA gets an early start on the upcoming SOAR Emerging Artists Festival (June 3-7) by opening a new exhibit this weekend featuring 22 Albertan emerging artists.
CASA received 36 submissions to their call for submissions several months ago of which curator Darcy Logan chose 22 works for the Loose Leaves exhibit, which opens May 9 with a reception at 7 p.m.
“SOAR is a professional development symposium for emerging artists, so I wanted to do something in conjunction with that festival, so I came up with the idea of an exhibit working with paper,” he said.
Adding the only restrictions were the artists had to be under the age of 35 and the works had to be unframed and on paper or utilizing paper.
“Part of the Loose Leaves was they had to be unframed,” he added.
He was impressed with what the artists came up with.
Artist Ryan Smitham did a core sample of 10 years of his sketch books while Alberta College of Art graduate Felicity Hart created a Tarot Card reading desk and designed a deck of cards incorporating hand painted images of death.
“Each deck explores the three greatest outbreaks of the bubonic plague,” Logan said.
The artists come from everywhere in between Edmonton and Lethbridge. They are Jesse Armitage, William Austin, Morgan Bath, Graeme Dearden, Jamie Girodat, Felicity Hart, Natasha Jensen, Tracey Lawson, Sky Martin, April Matisz, Sara McKarney, Giselle Peters, Hannah Petkau, Madison Reamsbottom, Sarah Smith, Ryan Smitham, Antalya Speed, Kelsey Stephenson, Bailey Storey, Marta Timmer and Jenn Wood. Some of them are University of Lethbridge Students or recent graduates of art programs. Several are undergraduates artists and three of them attend the fine arts school in Okotoks.
“They will all be here. Some of them have graduated and have been working as artists. Some of them have never been part of an art exhibition before,” Logan said.
“Come and see. I think you’ll be impressed. There is quite a variety of media used,” Logan enthused.
“I want to encourage everyone to come out and give their support to these young artists,” he said.
The opening reception is 7-9 p.m. at CASA, May 9.
The exhibit wraps up with another reception June 7 at 4 p.m. as part of the SOAR Festival wrap up reception
