December 2024 Schedule

#FirstFridaysRedDeer

Events for December 6th, 2024

To download a Word format version of this list, please click here: November First Fridays

GALLERY GUIDE (2024 Edition)

We are excited to announce the launch of a new, interactive Gallery Guide being hosted on the City of Red Deer’s website. With a customizable map, and listings from all public, commercial, and community galleries around the city, this new online version will be a great way to find places to see and buy art in Red Deer! Visit the map and listings at: https://www.reddeer.ca/recreation-and-culture/arts-and-culture/art-galleries/gallery-guide/

Show and Shine
Watercolour
Greg Swainson

Decades: by Greg Swainson

Artist: Greg Swainson
Media: 2D Watercolours
Community Gallery #6 4919 49Street Red Deer, AB
Exhibition Dates: November 19th – January 2025
#FirstFridaysRedDeer Reception December 6^th from 5:30 – 7:30pm with the artist in attendance.
From Greg's Artist Statement: “My watercolour paintings will change your view of what watercolour painting is all about.
Watercolour painting changed my life. It was the mid eighties, and I was in my mid thirties. I needed to learn to paint. After Art College, working as a Commercial Artist and then teaching Commercial Art in High School, I knew I needed to take the leap and start drawing and painting.”

Biography: For me, art needs to create an emotion, preferably a positive one. Watercolour allows me to express myself through the use of bold colour, interesting textures and dancing light. In short it makes me happy. The fluidity of watercolour, the graceful or flowing immediacy of the paint and the way the pigment records and responds to the paper, describes my love of the watercolour medium. Born in Central Alberta Greg obtained a Visual Communications Degree from the Alberta College of Art, Calgary, a BFA from the Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary, and a BEd from the University of Alberta, Edmonton.Greg worked as a Commercial Artist under the tutelage of renowned Canadian artist Bill Perehudoff, before becoming a Commercial Art Instructor at the Senior High School level. Greg is known for his vivid watercolors depicting landscapes, florals, and unique compositions encompassing a wide variety of subjects. His career was in the education field, having taught art in public high schools, adult education, university, private classes and workshops throughout Alberta and British Columbia. Greg's work is exhibited in local galleries (Alberta and BC) in addition to numerous private collections, government and corporate offices. He was the recipient of the award for "Best Work on Paper or Under Glass at the Sidney Fine Art Show 2007.

In 2022 Greg and his wife moved to Alberta, settling in Red Deer to be closer to their family. He currently teaches watercolour classes in Sherwood Park and Red Deer.

Debbie.lee Miszaniec: Body and Mind

Last chance to see! Don't Miss Out!

Fall is the season of feasts, and Debbie.lee Miszaniec presents a lush abundance of dutch baroque inspired still life paintings of ‘forbidden foods’ in the Kiwanis Gallery. The exhibition focuses on the psychological struggle between the body’s needs and the mind’s direction when pursuing weight loss. A soft sculpture, tortured by these sweet sights, sits caught in the struggle between nature and diet culture. Is it the food which tortures the dieter, or is it a message from the body which only gets louder the longer it is ignored?

The paintings in Body and Mind mark the point at which one realizes that one has developed an obsession with food yet feels powerless to change it given the pressure to achieve/maintain the commonly accepted (BMI) definition of a healthy weight.

Debbie-lee’s Artist Statement:

Debbie.lee Miszaniec is an Alberta artist working in Calgary. She holds a BFA (2008) from the Alberta University of the Arts. Her paintings draw from her observations of the human experience, history and society as well as her own experience as a working class western female artist. In 2020 her series of drawings, the Covid Chronicles, documenting the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in Canada, generated international attention. She was the recipient of a Calgary Arts Development Project Grant (2022) and a Canada Council for the Arts Research and Creation grant (2023) in support of further work exploring health and diet culture through the genre of still life paintings of food.

Red Deer Arts Council and Red Deer Public Library are pleased to present Body & Mind: by Debbie-lee Mszaniec running from October 8 to November 30, 2024, in the Kiwanis Gallery.

First Friday Red Deer Opening: November 1st from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Artist will be in attendance.

Untitled
Cyanotypes 2021
Vivian Smith

Transitions

Artist: Vivian Smith
Media: 2D Cyanotypes
Kiwanis Gallery 4919 49Street Red Deer, AB
Exhibition Dates: December 3rd – February 9th, 2025
#FirstFridaysRedDeer

Reception January 3rd from 5:30 – 7:30pm with the artist in attendance.

In Vivian’s Artist Statement she describes her cyanotypes “Transitions, positive and negative spaces work in tandem to repeatedly depict a body unsupported in space, caught in the act of moving from one location to another and without stable footing. The environment surrounding the bodies is ambiguous – it might be the ocean, a frozen lake, mist, the sky, in – utero, an x-ray, a blast zone etc. It is a space where a body once was. Vivian Smith is an emerging visual artist who shines a

light on the overlooked stories of women. After a career in Alberta’s oil and gas industry, she earned a BFA with distinction from the Alberta University of the Arts in 2023. Her work addresses issues including unpaid labour and mental health, using diverse materials such as ceramics, fiber, and plexiglass. With her latest body of work, she focuses on aging with an emphasis on the slow passage of time and accumulation of wisdom through major life events. She explores these concepts starting with the body and utilizing cyanotype dye.

Vivian serves as Secretary at Elephant Artist Relief Society, where she works to assist other artists experiencing financial distress. Vivian has been recognized with the Emerging Artist ASA Scholarship, the Persons Case Scholarship, and has received both CCA and CADA artist project grants. She has exhibited at the Leighton Art Centre, artsPlace, and the Lebel Mansion.

The Age of Uncertainty

Artist: Sandra Sawatzky
MAG Museum & Art Gallery 4525 47Ave, Red Deer, AB
Exhibition Dates: December 7, 2024 to March 8, 2025
#FirstFridaysRedDeer Opening Reception: Artist will be present at the opening.

Connections of Isolation

MAG Museum & Art Gallery 4525 47Ave, Red Deer, AB
Curators: Red Deer Polytechnic Art 2301 Canadian Art History Students
Exhibition Dates: December 7^th to March 15, 2025
#FirstFridaysRed Deer Works from the MAG collection as chosen by Red Deer Polytechnic Art 2301 Canadian Art History Students

Red Deer Arts Council: 50 Years and Counting

MAG Museum & Art Gallery 4525 47Ave, Red Deer, AB
Exhibition Dates: November 15^th, 2024 to March 15, 2025
#FirstFridaysRedDeer

Breathe

December 15, 2024 to March 15, 2025
MAG Museum & Art Gallery 4525 47Ave, Red Deer, AB
Fiber Artist, Vicki Sullivan’s vibrant offerings imprint on your imagination and transport you to another place – allowing you to pause and Breathe deeply. Sullivan’s skillful touch has melded colour and composition to create atmospheric works that will reawaken shared visual memories, encouraging a comfortable sense of familiarity.

Magnified

Artist: Tammy Bauer
Media:Paintings
Velvet Olive Lounge, 4928C 50 Street, Red Deer (enter from Ross Street Patio or back alley)
Dates: November 1 – December 2024
#FirstFridaysRedDeer Reception Friday November 1 from 5-7pm with the artist in attendance.

“Starting Small: From Model to Monument”

Viewpoint Gallery, 5205 48 Ave
Exhibition Dates: November 1, 2024 and run till December 13, 2024
#FirstFridaysRedDeer Opening Reception, November 1, 6pm – 8pm

This collection of models or “maquettes” from the City of Red Deer public art collection depicts both proposals and completed public artworks. Maquettes are artworks in their own right that convey an artist’s first realization of an idea. Gain insights into the process behind the creation of Red Deer’s beloved public sculptures.

First Fridays for Community Reflection: A Look At 100 Years In The Sanctuary

Marjorie Wood Gallery in the Kerry Wood Nature Centre

Exhibition Dates: December 6th from 4:00pm to 6:00p.m.
#FirstFridaysRedDeer
First Friday for Community Reflections: a look at 100 years in the Sanctuary in the Marjorie Wood Gallery at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre
We're wrapping up our celebrations of the Gaetz Lakes Sanctuary's 100th year as a named place. Join us throughout the month of December to get a glimpse of its past history, and take a moment to tell us what the Sanctuary means to you.
Refreshments will be served.
Call 403-346-2010 for more information.
#gaetzlakessanctuary

Continuing Exhibitions

Martin Dahl Drawings

Artist: Martin Dahl
Corridor Community Gallery Lower level of the Recreation Centre (4501 47A Avenue)
Exhibition Dates: November 1, 2024 – January 3, 2025
#FirstFridaysRedDeer
Illustrations inspired by landscapes including British Columbia, and the Prairies. Martin is self-taught and has honed his skill though his dedicated practice. He has been drawing since he was 8 years old! Enjoy scenes featuring sunken boats, abandoned cars, and old barns.

Check in with these galleries directly for updated exhibition information:

Artribute Art School, 212 – 4836 50 Street, in the Old Courthouse. Treaty 6 & 7

Art in the Hallway, Northside Community Centre YMCA, 6391 76 Street

Lacombe Performing Arts Centre, 5227 Calgary Edmonton Trail, Lacombe, AB

The White Gallery, downstairs from Sunworks Living, 4913 50 Ave, Red Deer, AB

Lacombe Memorial Centre 5214 – 50 Ave, Lacombe, AB