The Southern Alberta Art Gallery explores country and community with their four new exhibits, which opened, Feb.18.

 They run until April 24.

“ All of these exhibits have a rural theme,” summarized interim curator Adam Whitford.

Emily Neufeld’s “ Prairie Invasions: A Hymn is in the main gallery.

 The North Vancouver based artist grew up on a farm near Red Deer.

“ It is about colonizers of Canada, when the government was giving away free land to get them to settle in the west,” Whitford said.

The exhibit includes  photography, sculpture and  360 light boxes of photography, reflecting the land, abandoned farmhouses, and what looks like reproductions of wallpaper on old rural houses and a wall made out of grass.

“We’re very proud to bring this exhibition to the SAAG,” Whitford said.

Neufeld will be speaking this afternoon, Saturday, Feb. 19 from 3-4 p.m about her exhibition.

Upstairs,  Vancouver born, Sunshine Coast artist Les Ramsay’s “ Excitation Station” takes a more lighthearted look at community through sculpture, needlepoint and embroidery.

 The exhibit features a variety of vividly coloured  items included painted driftwood which are inspired by decoy fish.

Seven art new exhibitions open at Casa this weekend, all featuring southern Alberta and Lethbridge based artists.

 While there will be an opening  reception at Casa from 7-9 p.m. for the new exhibits, due to covid, there won’t be food and drinks served.

“ Lethbridge has such a strong art community, I’m just proud to be part of it,” said Jason Trotter, taking a break from setting up his exhibition “The Existencilist,” in the Casa main Gallery.

“ Lethbridge has got to be  the  biggest art community per capita in the province if not the country, he said, adding, he, like  many Lethbridge artists spent the pandemic creating.

He has been part of the local art community since 2011 when he was part of the Potemkin collective.

Trotter is a popular local  stencil artist, inspired by street artists like Banksy, who works in stencils on metal.

 His work is usually on display at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, often of local musicians Shaela Miller, Ryland Moranz and Owl Acoustic lounge owner Steven Foord.

Graffiti on rail cars inspired  “The Existencilist,” which features an array of Alberta historical  themes  and images stencilled on images of grain cars.

Subjects include everything from the Fort Macleod buffalo, an owl, which has a personal connection for Trotter, a hobo coin,  Edmonton rapper Cadence Weapon and Rocky and Bullwinkle villain Boris Badenov. 

“ He was always tying damsels to train tracks,” Trotter observed.

Local folk musician John Wort Hannam adorns another piece.

“Maybe he’ll be inspired to write a song,” Trotter said.

A couple of the pieces are a little meta as they feature images of spray painters, including one exploring a western theme with two spray painters dressed as cowboys in the midst of a pitched gunfight.

“Kudos to places like Casa and The Trianon and the Owl  for supporting local artists,” he said adding he hopes local artists will inspire younger artists.

Casa curator Darcy Logan is excited to open a new set of local exhibits.

The Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden are ready to light up those long winter nights with the sixth annual Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden Winter Lights Festival and simultaneously show off the new Bunka Centre set to open Nov. 26 with the festival.

There are approximately 170,000 lights all over the Nikka Japanese Garden, reflecting the theme of Kamakura.

“It means igloo in Japanese,” said  Nikka Yuko Marketing and Events Manager Melanie Berdusco, noting there are five mini igloos that kids can crawl into. 

“Igloos bring people together,” Berdusco continued.

 Last year nearly 20,000 visitors  enjoyed the Winter lights festival in two months despite Covid 19 restrictions.

The Nikka  Yuko  just received a $90,000 grant from Travel Alberta to build an adult sized igloo featuring 360 projection system which will be  constructed by January.