“Marilee Salvator’s work is deceptively beautiful. Entering one of her room-sized installations, the viewer is drawn into a candy-coated world. A riot of jewel-toned circles bursts across the walls and cascades to the floor, shiny, plastic and playful. Forms tumble and spill, coalescing into patterns both lacy and bold. There are no frames on the wall, meticulously crafted editions or flat paper surfaces. Instead, thousands of single-color clusters are relief printed onto transparent film, each then painstakingly cut out by hand. In overlapping layer upon layer, nearly buzzing with life, each piece is pinned to the wall, seemingly to prevent it from escaping. The addition of lighter, less intense ghost prints, the introduction of neutral greys to the work’s palette, and the shadows created through the clear print surface provide a counterbalance, and give a physical and temporal depth to the work…”

– excerpt from exhibition essay by Kristina Arnold

Each year, A/P holds a non-juried show and sale to showcase the work of local and international print artists, and to raise funds towards Alberta Printmakers artistic and educational programming. A/P invites all interested printmakers to submit an edition of ten 8” x 10” prints that relates to the theme of transition for exhibition and exchange in the Artist Proof Gallery. Each participant will receive 8 prints created by other artists, and A/P will retain 2 works from each edition for sale in our studio and gallery. 

“….Marnie Blair experienced a cardiac arrest at the young age of nineteen, which led to her being diagnosed with Long QT Syndrome, a condition that affects the heart’s electrical system. As a result, Blair had to have surgery to implant a cardiac defibrillator. Her personal experience with her heart condition and defibrillator led her to become aware of the inherent beauty within the heart’s cycle. Now partially dependent on an technological alien force to continue the rhythm of her heartbeat, Blair creates installations and images with print media derived from derelict industrial and medical sites as a reflection on fragility and resilience; the biological and the artificial; the private and public; decay and resuscitation….”

– excerpt from exhibition essay by Daniel Cleghorn 

“….All stimuli calculate action and reaction, compelling us to take stock of the hour upon hour tide of such cause and effect; lived action leaving indelible traces of multiple encounters, abundant fleeting moments, so many remembered expressions. We are a privileged species and for better or for worse, we are a tectonic mass. Evidently, her reflections describe some of the shifting sympathies of social tectonics, a fundamental gesture from Jolowicz, where she tells us how to dance with the material world. Creative action engraves everlasting furrows into enriched cognitive soil and it is there that Jolowicz sows her thoughtful traces, the purpose of which intends to cultivate, harvest and celebrate the thanksgiving of our common experience. This is a major intersection where Gabriela leads us, compelling us to cross under a mindset of open sympathy; where we’ll recognize in crossing, that the effects of her image gravity really attracts us in an invitation to gracefully empathize…”

– excerpt from exhibition essay by Dan O’Neill 

“Music is often a reflection of the values and emotional make- up of a culture, but how does it directly influence other artistic pursuits? Music has long been an inspiration for visual artists working in a number of mediums – the sound of a serene classical piece, a searing jazz trumpet improv, or the roar of a thundering rock band all evoke different colours and forms, but the role that music plays in shaping our values and memories can also provide valuable artistic fodder. Aleksandar Mladenovic Leka and Robert Truszkowki are from different places, have different cultural perspectives, and are influenced by the effects of different genres of music, but each create work that echoes their respective inspiration in complex and thought-provoking ways…”

– excerpt from exhibition essay by Elizabeth Chorney-Booth