May Exhibitions
Don’t miss out on all the new visual art exhibitions around the city this May! Each month, we spotlight a new or outgoing visual arts exhibition in the city, followed by a roundup of others you can see this month.
On April 10, 2024, Glenbow launched a limited-time exhibition at its satellite location: Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships by Toronto-based artist Ekow Nimako. Built entirely out of LEGO®, the exhibition explores what might have been when 14th century African ruler Abu Bakr II chose to abdicate his throne and set out across the Atlantic.
“It was just such an epic journey and this happened like almost 150 years before Columbus,” says Nimako in a video for Dunlop Art Gallery. “I was like, okay, this would be amazing to build work that reflects this particular voyage. And also, because whenever we think about the coast of Africa, ships, the association there is normally the transatlantic slave trade or something like that. And creating work that is about an intrepid expedition for science and discovery — that, to me, was important to bring to the forefront.”
You can check out Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships until May 12, 2024 at Glenbow at The Edison (2nd Floor, 150 9 Ave. SW), located in downtown Calgary.
More May exhibitions:
LOOK2024 Art Auction
May 2 – 25, 2024 | Opening May 2, 5 – 9pm
Contemporary Calgary (701 11 St. SW)
With admission
LOOK: The Dada Ball Art Auction is an exceptional showcase of works generously donated by some of the nation’s foremost artists for Contemporary Calgary’s annual live and silent art auctions. Spanning painting, sculpture and photography, the exhibition offers a diverse array of pieces covering decades of artistic practice.
contemporarycalgary.com
Celebrating a Canadian Landscape Legend
May 4 – 29, 2024 | Opening May 4, 2 – 5pm
Wallace Galleries (500 5 Ave. SW)
Free to explore
This exhibition focuses on the diversity and beauty late artist Dorothy Knowles captured of the prairies of Saskatchewan and beyond. Her works transcend time and she remained true to her calling through a time where landscape painting wasn’t “cool.”
wallacegalleries.com
Out of Line and A Way Through the World
May 4 – June 29, 2024 | Opening May 4, 2 – 4pm
ASA Gallery, Crossroads Market (Suite 222, 1235 26 Ave. SE)
Free to explore
Presented by the The Alberta Society of Artists, A Way Through the World by Lori Sokoluk, features a series of small-scale monotypes meant to evoke the many methods we use to find our way through our lives.
albertasocietyofartists.com
Carolyn Jerrard’s Out of Line asks questions on how we can evade solitude while resisting conformity through Jerrard’s signature abstract, expressionist paintings.
albertasocietyofartists.com
Inspired Curiosity
May 9 – 24, 2024 | Opening May 9, 5 – 7pm
cSPACE Marda Loop (1721 29 Ave. SW)
Free to explore
Inspired Curiosity showcases sensational work created by participants in the ArtRecruits program. ArtRecruits is an art-based workplace skill-building program that teaches employment skills in the art studio rather than a classroom.
eventbrite.ca
All That Glitters
May 18 – June 22, 2024 | Opening May 18, 2 – 5pm
Herringer Kiss Gallery (Suite 101, 1615 10 Ave. SW)
Free to explore
Angela Grossmann has devoted much of her career to examining themes of displacement and social margins through the use of collaged and transferred discarded materials. Don’t miss her latest exhibition!
herringerkissgallery.com
For more visual arts events and exhibitions, head over to the arts and culture events section of yycwhatson.ca
