On a series of studio visits to choose artists and work for the 2007 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art, co-curators Sylvie Gilbert of Banff’s Walter Phillips Gallery and Catherine Crowston of the Art Gallery of Alberta, quickly began to see a theme emerging. Many of the artists they spoke to were thinking about the split personality that has overtaken Alberta – the crumbling infrastructure behind the immense wealth visible on the surface, the environmental degradation underneath the massive, revenue-generating resource projects underway across the province.

“Our theme emerged from that,” Gilbert says. “It became obvious that artists were interpreting moments that were either utopian or disastrous – economic, cultural, and social disasters.” After a summer at the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton, the show, subtitled Living Utopia and Disaster, opens at the Walter Phillips Gallery October 27 and runs through January 6.

Gilbert cites the work of Mary Kavanaugh, titled Travel Notes 27.06.06: White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, a series of video close-ups of people playing and sunning on a spectacular white beach. In subsequent shots, the frame widens to reveal the reality of the beach – it’s a desert-set missile test site. In Jonathan Kaiser’s installation, called Lost Boys and the Hundred Year Mortgage, a miniaturized version of a suburban home entranceway is under siege by flood and infestation. The 2007 Biennial has a strong emphasis on painting, including large-scale canvases by David Janzen, Chris Flodberg, Mark Mullin, and Geoffrey Hunter, among others.

Narrowed down from 200 original applications for participation in the exhibition, and 65 studio visits, the show’s 22 artists include Sarah Adams-Bacon, Robin Arseneault, Richard Boulet, Jennifer Bowes, Ken Buera, Kay Burns, Julian Forrest, Paul Freeman, Anu Guha-Thakurta, Terrance Houle, Jarusha Brown, Linh Ly, Annie Martin, Paul Robert, Laurel Smith, and Kristy Trinier.

Since it was established in 1996, the Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art has showcased the work of more than 120 Alberta artists. This year, the Biennial encompasses exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Alberta and the Walter Phillips Gallery, and partners with the Art Gallery of Calgary for its season-long celebration of the work of Alberta painter Alex Janvier.

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For high resolution, downloadable images from the Alberta Biennial:
http://www.banffcentre.ca/media_room/images/wpg/default.asp#alberta

For more information on Walter Phillips Gallery exhibitions and programming:
http://www.banffcentre.ca/wpg/