January 23–May 1, 2021
Louise Bourgeois: What is the Shape of This Problem
Ongoing until May 1
Contact the gallery for opening dates
We are proud to present Louise Bourgeois: What is the Shape of This Problem; From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation.
Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) is one of the most renowned and influential artists of the 20th century. Although best known for her profound sculptures of monumental spiders, evocative human figures, and fleshly anthropomorphic forms, Louise Bourgeois maintained a prolific drawing and writing practice and an ongoing interest in illustrated books and printmaking throughout the course of her long career.
Louise Bourgeois: What is the Shape of This Problem presents 119 works with a focus on prints, textiles, and a series of eight holograms, ranging in date from the 1940s to the early 2000s. These works build on the raw emotional terrain of Bourgeois’ practice, and explore feelings of isolation, anger, and fear through the recurring depiction of the body, childhood, family, architecture, and the passage of time.
Bourgeois described her relationship to making art as one of survival and dependence; she experienced a lifelong struggle with trauma and anxiety which was appeased only by the outward expression of her own artistic and written production. She openly acknowledged her vulnerability because it gave her purpose, and the work born from that purpose gave form to her particular kind of suffering. In relation to this condition of living and working Bourgeois aptly coined the now famous phrase: “Art is a guarantee of sanity.”
Chris Curreri: Thick Skull, Thin Skin
Ongoing until May 1
Chris Curreri’s works complicate and dissolve seemingly dichotomous states of tenderness and violence; abjection and beauty; seduction and revulsion; self and other. They suggest an unravelling of the hermetic borders that have been constructed between us, others, and things in the world.
This exhibition brings together sculptural and photographic bodies of work that form and frame a sense of porousness and consider the tension between moments where things become fixed and the possibility of continuous, nearly imperceptible shifts—the suggestion that bodies and matter can and do exist within a continuum of potentialities.
Fin Simonetti: An Appeal to Heaven
Ongoing until May 1
Fin Simonetti works with sculpture, installation, and drawing to investigate the uneasy terrain among desires for security and control, states of fragility and vulnerability, and the sensorial, emotional, and psychological relationships we have to objects, bodies, and spaces. Her work adopts forms and imagery with corporal, visceral resonance that poetically undermine our senses of familiarity and ease.
This exhibition will present new and recent works in carved stone and stained glass that connect to themes of emergency, shelter, and magical thinking.
In the Project Space:
Yvonne Kustec: The Garden
February 8—June 6
Within The Garden a human figure transforms into a dense landscape, overrun by flora and fauna. Within The Garden a human figure transforms into a dense landscape, overrun by flora and fauna. The body becomes the substrate from which the elements of nature grow, rooted under the skin and deep within the flesh, drawing out nutrients and impurities (those that are metaphorical, experiential, or even philosophical) that have accumulated and concentrated over the course of life.
Drawing on the long history of floral work in clay, Yvonne Kustec works to honour both the tradition of the craft and the delicacy and resiliency of nature through recreating its intricacies. Her sculptural works draw on nature as a metaphor for both transformation and regeneration. Elaborately rendered flowers and snakes act as symbolic representations of the virtues, attributes, and characterizations of femininity.
About Esker Foundation
Esker Foundation is a privately funded contemporary art gallery located in Calgary, Canada. The gallery connects the public to contemporary art through relevant, accessible, and educational exhibitions, programs, and publications. Esker Foundation reflects on current developments in local, regional, and international culture; creates opportunities for public dialogue; and supports the production of ground-breaking new work, ideas, and research. Founded in 2012 by Jim and Susan Hill, Esker Foundation is a new model for institutional relevance, curatorial focus, and audience engagement. Admission and programs are free.
Esker Foundation presents an extensive range of free online programs for all ages. Developed in response to our exhibitions they are designed to increase accessibility and to encourage participation in contemporary art.
Visit www.eskerfoundation.art/program/current to explore Esker’s free online education programs.
Press contact:
Jill Henderson
Marketing and Communications
Esker Foundation
