Events

This summer, we are excited that three short films from our art collection will be showcased as part of our AFA travelling exhibitiong (TREX) program in Southeast Alberta - Medicine Hat.

Plan your visit:
 

View it for free in-person: TREX Southeast art gallery: 2, 516 3rd Street SE, Medicine Hat, Alberta

But wait, it gets better ... the films will be projected on the outside of the building for the month of August where it's visible from the sidewalk. Note the gallery will be closed for internal operations the month of August so this provides an alternative for the public to access art on the exterior of the building.

Media Arts:

The Little Deputy

Trevor Anderson, The Little Deputy, 2015, video, 0:8:51 minutes, Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

• Trevor tries to have a photo taken with his father.
• World Premiere: Sundance Film Festival
• Trevor Anderson is a writer, director, actor and former video store clerk whose short films were presented at a variety of international festivals. 

Dark Horse

Yvonne Mullock, Dark Horse, 2016, video, 16:28 minutes, Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

• Dark Horse uses symbols synonymous with cowboy culture; the Stetson hat and horse, as tropes to explore Calgary’s long and entwined history of ranching and the city’s historic annual Stampede event. Using print, video and sculpture Dark Horse explores an innovative horse-centric printmaking method and invites viewers to delve into cowboy identity and Western mythologies that hover over the history and collective memory of folklore traditions in Calgary.
• Yvonne Mullock received an AFA International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) Residency in New York Funding in 2017. Her artwork was selected in numerous exhibitions in Alberta and world-wide. 

Wake Up!

​Jessie Ray Short, Wake Up!, 2015, experimental film, 5:57 minutes, Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

• Wake Up! highlights the legacy of eighteenth-century Métis political leader Louis Riel and raises questions about colonialism.
• Jessie Ray Short is a filmmaker, multidisciplinary artist and independent curator. Her work touches on Métis history and visual culture.

Click the arrow icons ( < or > ) above to scroll through images.

Image descriptions:

• image one: a black and white image of an older man is sitting and is wearing a cowboy hat, and vested suit. Beside him is a young boy wearing a cowboy hat, vest, jeans and his side pocket holds a gun in a gun belt.
  
   
• image two: A brown hair person is hidden behind a brown horse. A blonde woman wearing a white artist apron and long sleeved black shirt, where she is holding a mono-print of a cowboy hat in front of the horse
  
   
• image three: A young man with curly brown medium length hair and moustache. He is wearing a white shirt and brown vested suit.

This week’s Work of the Week is Blue Picture Stand by Sidney Kelsie.
 

About the Artist: Sidney Kelsie (1928 - 2000)

A Black man of Caribbean heritage, Sidney Kelsie was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia in 1928.

He joined the Canadian Navy at the age of 16, before going to work at logging camps. After suffering serious injury to his legs in a logging accident, he went to work as a house painter. He had to give that up in 1979 due to his old injuries, and at the age of 53 and retired, he started fashioning cut-out wood shapes which he painted in colourful hues and hung in the yard of his Edmonton home. Passersby began taking an interest in the hanging artworks and would occasionally ask to buy individual pieces. Kelsie would often comply and in this way could supplement the meagre income that he shared with his wife Louise. Gradually, his art began to attract attention from serious collectors as well as art dealers.

Completely self-taught, Kelsie would accurately be described as a “folk artist.” His art was a product of his own imagination, although critics have pointed out connections to other “yard art” creators. Mostly African-American, it is speculated these individuals may have been carrying on a traditional West African practice of hanging charms in trees around the home in order to protect the home-owner and provide healing and spiritual affirmation. Kelsie didn't have much to say about such theories, however, and, in fact, was reluctant to even call himself an artist. Nonetheless, what he made was appreciated by long-time art collectors and by ordinary people with no knowledge of art.

Kelsie's art did receive its share of official art world recognition, including in 1996, when some of his pieces were included in a major show of folk art at the McMichael Collection of Canadian Art in Kleinburg, Ontario, curated by Calgary art critic Nancy Tousley.

Exhibition:

Check out the "Sidney Kelsie: Right in your own backyard" exhibition at AGA in-person to see the artwork that we have loaned out until August 1, 2022. Free admission to AGA in Edmonton is the last Thursday (4-7pm) of every month. Get your free ticket to a community tour of Kelsie's exhibition with David Staples July 28, 2022 event.

Or listen to the audio documentary to learn more about the artist, what art meant to Kelsie, and how his legacy lives on.

Explore the AFA's Virtual Museum to see other works of Alberta artists.