GATEKEEPERS

Heather Passmore / May 4th – June 15th, 2012

Opening Reception : May 4th @ 7 PM

Heather Passmore examines the politics of taste, class and “cultural value” in the contemporary Canadian art world, looking at art galleries as sites that are often closed to many artists by various “gatekeepers.” She will be exhibiting within the gallery space as well as producing a series of images for AKA’s billboard. The Form Letters project in Gatekeepers consists of an ongoing series of drawings on artist form letters Passmore has received from various art institutions over the past decade.

She will have approximately 250 rejection letters and 50 acceptance letters installed on the walls of AKA gallery and also exhibit a series of over 14 large-scale archival ink-jet prints of her illustrated form letters. Passmore’s rejection letters being the basis for an exhibition lends a sense of irony and challenge to the gallery space, and also speaks to the multiple and sometime conflicting audiences billboards engage with, when made part of an exhibition of contemporary art.

In conjunction with this exhibition, there will be a panel discussion with Jen Budney (Associate curator, Mendel Art Gallery), Susan Shantz (Faculty, Art & Art History, University of Saskatchewan), featured artist Heather Passmore and moderated by AKA Director Dagmara Genda. This will happen on May 5th 1:30 - 3:30 pm in the AKA gallery space.

WARBLERS

Kara Uzelmen and Jeffery Allport / June 15th – July 31st 2012

Warblers is an installation by artist duo Kara Uzelman and Jeffrey Allport who, upon their return from living in Berlin, commenced an audio exploration of their new rural life in Nokomis SK. Jeffrey Allport will invite two artists (Andrew Lafkas, NYC and Rob Pedersen, Vancouver) to perform with him at the opening night of the Sounds Like…2 audio arts festival, (which runs July 26th – 28th 2012). Allport is a musician / composer who has developed a practice both independently and collaboratively working with improvisation and composition. His work focuses on the ephemeral qualities of sound and performance in relation to place and time. Uzelman often works with discarded objects and materials, refining her practice by employing various scavenging methods such as buying entire garage sales and excavating her backyard. She’s interested in fleshing out the physical and intangible qualities of objects by imagining them as artifacts of possible past and future narratives.

An employment opportunity at AKA and PAVED. More information here.

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CALLS FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST : We're looking for SK expats or artists living in SK from other places. AKA is partnering to curate an exhibition with the Saskatchewan Craft Council and is engaging in a year of research on artists whose paths have included this province.