Sept-October 2010 - Preview

V I G N E T T E S • September/October 2010AlbertaBY ROBIN LAURENCETHE BAROQUE WORLD OF FERNANDO BOTERO Glenbow Museum,Calgary, closes November 14 Few contemporary artists have establisheda more distinctive figurative style than Colombia’s FernandoBotero. His scenes of rotund people and animals have been reproducedworldwide, and now Glenbow is hosting a major retrospectiveof his work. For those who know Botero’s art only through posters andgreeting cards, the experience of looking at in-the-flesh originals –some 100 paintings, drawings and sculptures – will be revelatory.ED BURTYNSKY: OIL Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, September 18-January 2, 2011 The contemporary master of the “industrial sublime”,Burtynsky is renowned for his enormous and highly detailedphotographs of the human-altered landscape. This show surveys theartist’s extended, international project dedicated to the subject of ourglobal dependence on oil. From the tar sands operations of northernAlberta and the refineries of Texas to the recycling depots ofBangladesh, Burtynsky plays formal beauty off environmental horror.Fernando BoteroEdward BurtynskyDAVID FOXCROFT: WORKINGS SPACES – RECONFIGURED ArtfirmGallery, Calgary, September 16-October 16 Foxcroft’s colourful mixedmediaworks employ collage techniques to take apart and puttogether images of the places in which people work. From constructionsites to manufacturing shops, he creates new ways of consideringspace. His latest works abstract tools out of their usual contextand deploy them to create automaton-like figures.WEST COAST CRAVINGS: NIKOL HASKOVA AND NICOLA PRINSENCanada House Gallery, Banff, opens September 25 Two West Coastartists express their realistic visions of the natural world in technicallydeft ways, Haskova through colour-saturated landscapes and Prinsenthrough bronze sculptures and paintings of wild and domestic animals.Especially engaging are Haskova’s lively and characterful drawingsof crows.TAKAO TANABE PRINT RETROSPECTIVE Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary,September 11-October 9 This exhibition surveys the screen prints,etchings, drypoints, and woodblock prints of one of Canada’s mostesteemed senior artists. Ranging from colourful, hard-edge banners ofthe early 1960s to present-day woodblock prints of moody West Coastlandscapes and seascapes, the prints reveal Tanabe’s versatile approachto image-making.David FoxcroftNikol HaskovaPREVIEW MAGAZINE INAUGURATES VIGNETTES: (see pages 53,61,69 and 73)We have the pleasure of welcoming award-winning critic, curator and author, RobinLaurence as a contributor to our new section, Vignettes, designed to offer highlightsof exhibitions of interest and to complement the more detailed Previews by our featuredart-writers, Mia Johnson and Allyn Cantor. Robin will cover a selection of galleriesin BC and AB and our long-time US-reviewer, Allyn Cantor, will write Vignetteson exhibits in the States of WA and OR. JANICE WHITEHEAD, PUBLISHERTakao Tanabe14 PREVIEW ■ SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010