11 - New Gallery - A Most Urgent Concern

MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
February 4, 2011

media contact: Tim Westbury
tim@thenewgallery.org
403.233.2399

THROUGH THE LAUGHTER AND THE TEARS
An exhibition of new work by emerging artists from U of C explores the unexpected continuity between humour and tragedy

Calgary - February 4, 2011 - In 2008 Calgary’s original artist-run centre launched a unique mentorship program, providing local art students with an opportunity to work closely with professionals to develop and present a thematic curatorial project. This initiative affords Alberta College of Art + Design and University of Calgary art students a rare chance to actively engage with each other as peers and culminates each year with a public exhibition in The New Gallery’s Main Space at Art Central.

Opening next Friday February 11, A Most Urgent Concern is the fourth installment of this annual student curatorial initiative. It features new work by current University of Calgary Department of Art students Chika Udok, Kristine Zingeler, Heather Buchanan, Michael Abel, Andy Van Dinh and Evan Smibert. Curated by senior ACAD student Hannah Doerksen, the diverse works in this exhibition - characterized by their complex and often ambiguous tone - examine the relationship between humour and tragedy. In opposition yet by definition reliant on each other, recognition of this most fundamental dualism is imperative for making sense of our daily lives. Beauty and repulsion, creation and destruction, health and sickness, sanity and insanity, sense and nonsense: all opposing but linked concepts, the results of whose interaction may be perceived as funny, tragic - or most often, some unanticipated hybrid of the two. In art, humour as well as tragedy has the ability to materialize in many capacities.

Throughout the curatorial development process Doerksen worked closely with artist/independent curator Caitlind Brown and TNG staff. The project was also made possible through the continued support and cooperation of instructors and administration at both post-secondary educational institutions.

The New Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition A Most Urgent Concern from Friday February 11 through Saturday March 12, 2011 in #212, Art Central, 100 - 7th Avenue SW.

The artists and exhibition curator will be in attendance at both the TNG membership opening reception at 7 PM on Friday February 11, and at a public reception 5 PM on “First Thursday” March 3, 2011.

The New Gallery (TNG) is an artist-run centre exhibiting innovative emerging and lesser-known artists whose work contributes to social and political discourse; artistic education and community outreach are as important as presentation. TNG encourages a broad range of practices and critical discussion around contemporary media and visual arts. Now in it’s 36th year as a charitable non-profit society, TNG is an active, open and responsive public forum for the arts. TNG is grateful for the ongoing support of its members, volunteers, Calgary Arts Development, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and The Canada Council for the Arts.

www.thenewgallery.org

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If you’d like any additional information, images or to schedule an interview with the curator or artists, please contact:
Tim Westbury, TNG Programming Director, at 403.233.2399 or email tim@thenewgallery.org