The art of listening is active. With the deliberate goal of understanding, listening promotes empathy and cultivates connections. Listening to the Land includes three print-based artists selected by the Society of Northern Alberta Print-Artists (SNAP) who are exploring the relationships between personal histories and the broader complexities of self and our surroundings. As individuals and members of communities, we are intrinsically linked to the natural world and are responsible for the health of the water, the air, and the soil. This exhibition explores worries and wellbeing, the state of crisis and care, and how identity, the land, and the body relate. The land is speaking up and this exhibition encourages us to listen softly.
Organized by the Art Gallery of Alberta and SNAP - Society of Northern Alberta Print-Artists. Curated by Caitlin Bodewitz.
Artists
Heather Leier
As an Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Calgary, Heather Leier’s work explores the nuances of life-phases, identities, and relationships, focusing on how trauma is embodied and experienced from a lived perspective. Through photo-mechanical and analogue printmaking, artist books, sculptural installations, and curatorial projects, Leier aims to reveal the often-hidden ways in which individuals endure and navigate trauma. She finds fulfillment in participating in and curating print projects and tending to plant cohabitants, activities that provide her with a deeper connection to care and relations. Leier is a white settler and her pronouns are she/her.
Laura Grier
Laura Grier is a Sahtu Délı̨nę First Nations artist and pNoticesrintmaker, born in Somba ké (Yellowknife), and based out of Alberta. Through the use of traditional print mediums, they instrumentalize the power of the handmade to reflect Indigeneity, language, relational ontologies, and lived experiences of urban displacement and inherent Dene spirituality. They hold a BFA from NSCADU (K'jipuktuk) and an MFA from OCAD University (Tkaronto) and is currently a PhD candidate at York University.
Jonathan S. Green
Jonathan S. Green is an artist working in print media and drawing. Born in Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador, Green comes from Mi’kmaq, Inuit, and settler heritage. Green earned an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Alberta. In 2016 he canoed down the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson as part of the Canadian Wilderness Artist Residency. He has also hiked
extensively through the Rockies and in Alaska. He has been awarded grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Manitoba Arts Council and Winnipeg Arts Council. He was a recent participant in the Arctic Circle Residency.