Esker Foundation is proud to present the solo exhibition Divine of Form, Formed in the Divine (Medicine for a Nightmare) by Toronto-based artist Nep Sidhu. Divine of Form, Formed in the Divine (Medicine for a Nightmare) examines how memories persist in the present, especially when related to personal and collective practices of resistance, resilience, and ritual. This mid-career survey is anchored by recent works that reflect upon Sikh histories, amongst other collectively formed and formative histories considered through collaborations with Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes and Nicholas Galanin, exploring how memorialization practices can transfigure grief and loss, and how they contribute to a writing of histories that speak back to power by celebrating cultural knowledge and practices.

Esker Foundation is pleased to present the Canadian Premiere of the solo exhibition Time Carriers and special performance To Name An Other by New York-based artist Jeffrey Gibson. Opening reception: Friday 27 September, 6-10pm, all welcome. Jeffrey Gibson’s artwork intermingles elements of traditional Native American art, art historical references, craft, and pop culture. A wide range of both historic and contemporary Native American symbols and objects including powwow regalia, 19th century parfleche containers, and drums are seamlessly merged with elements from Modernist geometric abstraction, Minimalism, the pattern and decoration of traditional textile practices, as well as techno, rave, and club culture.

Esker Foundation is a unique 15,000 sq. ft. gallery space in Calgary that connects the public to contemporary art through relevant, accessible, and educational exhibitions, publications, and programs for all ages from babies to seniors. Read more in the press release below.

Esker Foundation is proud to present two exhibitions that feature artists and filmmakers from the polar north.

Among All These Tundras

Artists: asinnajaq, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Carola Grahn, Marja Helander, Kablusiak, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Joar Nango, Taqralik Partridge, Barry Pottle, Inuuteq Storch, Couzyn van Heuvelen, and Allison Akootchook Warden. Curated by: Heather Igloliorte, Amy Prouty, and Charissa von Harringa Produced and circulated by: the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery / Concordia University Among All These Tundras, a title taken from the poem ‘My Home is in My Heart’ by famed Sámi writer Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, features contemporary art by Indigenous artists from around the circumpolar world. Together, their works politically and poetically express current Arctic concerns towards land, language, sovereignty, and resurgence. (high res images below) Opening reception: Friday 31 May, 6-10pm, all welcome Performance beginning at 7:30pm: siku/siku by Allison Akootchook Warden 1 June - 30 August, 2019

CHANNEL 51: IGLOOLIK - Celebrating 30 Years of Inuit Video Art

Curated by: asinnajaq A project of Isuma in partnership with Vtape, Toronto. CHANNEL 51: IGLOOLIK, a project of Isuma in partnership with Vtape, Toronto, is the first large-scale tour of Igloolik Inuit video art from the Isuma and Arnait Women’s Video Collective. It celebrates a young cinematic tradition that has its own distinct voice and worldview, its own language, culture and traditions, history and stories, philosophy of education and knowledge sharing, relationship to land, conception of gender and social structures, relationship to space and time, and vision for the future. (high res images below) Opening reception: Friday 31 May, 6-10pm, all welcome 1 June - 30 August, 2019

Esker Foundation is pleased to present in our Project Space location this spring/summer season:

May G N
Occlusion Field
6 May - 21 July
In partnership with Untitled Art Society

Occlusion Field is a singular moment in time and space made of the stuff of trans defense mechanism: tattoos, liquid gender concepts, and hormonally transforming surfaces that come together to speak to an idiosyncrasy, a gestalt, a whole that transcends its constitutive parts. (high res images below)

Upcoming in the Project Space:

Kablusiak
Qiniqtuaq
29 July - 20 October

Qiniqtuaq (searching/looking) invites viewers to peer through a multi-eyed ghost sheet to witness a looping projection of a video collage screened in front of a piece of oil-stained cardboard. Qiniqtuaq is meant to evoke a dream-like state imaging a hypothetical place and time; a representation of what is felt but not known. Qiniqtuaq invites a presence of nostalgia, spectatorship, and diaspora. (high res images below)