Austin Exhibition
Carved and painted woodblock portraits of birds
by Calgary, Alberta artist Lisa Brawn
Now through September 30
Opening Reception
Saturday, September 5
7 - 9 pm
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Yard Dog Art / yarddog.com
916 Springdale Rd, Bldg 3, #104 |
Ruberto Ostberg Gallery, Calgary UPCOMING EXHIBITION SEPTEMBER 2023
Lisa Brawn and Chris Cran exhibition:
MISS PULCHRITUDE & MISTER MUSCLES
September 8 - September 30, 2023
Ruberto Ostberg Gallery, Calgary
1840 20 Ave. N.W
Opening Receptions:
Friday, September 8, 5 - 9 pm
Saturday, September 9, 12 - 2 pm
Lisa Brawn
One of my best memories is a family vacation we took when I was a kid in 1979. We drove from Calgary to Las Vegas in an old Mercury station wagon without air conditioning but with a great collection of Johnny Cash 8-track cassettes. I vividly recall the hot wind, hissing trees, motel pools, and my mom winning a 75-dollar jackpot at a 25-cent slot machine.
Ding Ding Ding: Hotcakes-Beefcake-Cheesecake-
Now I find that every single day in our contemporary world is a non-stop, all-you-can-eat, once-in-a-lifetime extravaganza of stimulation. It is both across the spectrum and simultaneously, delightful and horrific.
For Ruberto Ostberg Gallery, I have (re)created a bespoke Las Vegas boulevard populated with one, two, and three-word poems. They are fragments lifted from the swirl of topical ephemera and superimposed with the cognitive dissonance and suspended disbelief of contemporary doublethink. Welcome to the glam debris of Glitter Grumpy Cats in the Age of Disaster; Lucky Sophias; and Gay Golden Himbos!
Before your very eyes: blissfully blinking candy-coloured amusements, attractions, escapes. Miss Pulchritude & Mister Muscles offer confounding propositions of Femme à Moustache, diminishing returns, and... Squirrels, Squirrels, Squirrels!
Chris Cran
The Chorus Series Paintings (tondo portraits), named after the chorus in Greek theatre are made to float on walls, high or low. They are also meant to be like the putti or cherubs in Renaissance and post-Renaissance paintings who also float around and, like the Greek chorus, comment on the main dramatic action.
These Chorus Paintings are only of eyes, noses, and mouths and the captured expression of those features – enjoyment, surprise, curiosity, doubt, disdain. Most of them are looking to one side or the other, some up or down, and occasionally out at the viewer. They may look at each other as in a conversation of gazes or at some other painting on the wall. They were also intended to cheekily appropriate other artwork that they might gaze at, either singly or as an attentive group. Or they might just enjoy each other’s company.
Chris Cran has made the Chorus Paintings using many different colours and textures as well as varied systems of evoking the photographic image.
CANADA COUNCIL AWARD
I am incredibly proud and excited to share the news that I was selected as a recipient of a prestigious project grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. This grant provided invaluable support and resources in 2022, and empowered me to undertake a transformative project. I extend my deepest gratitude to the Canada Council for their generous recognition and investment in my art practice.
New series
In 2021 I started a new series of carvings, deploying invented ad copy and graphics in a genre satire critique of the marketing industry at this moment of our social and environmental dystopian crossroads. These new woodcuts are carved on curved oak seatbacks salvaged from the renovation of the Martha Cohen Theatre. Knowing this is my preferred medium, Arts Commons provided me with a truckload of carpentry grade 12 ply oak. In September 2021, I exhibited the initial pieces from this series titled "POP APOCALYPSE" alongside Allison Morgan and Phillip Bandura at Ruberto Ostberg gallery. The Canada Council for the Arts provided vital support in 2022, enabling me to further develop this series, culminating in my solo exhibition, "Topical Ointment" at Ruberto Ostberg. Currently, I am working towards a two-person show with Chris Cran, titled "Miss Pulchritude and Mister Muscles," scheduled for September 2023.
The Globe and Mail
Working on a project for one of the programs launching on Imagine On Air by Calgary Wordfest
Exhibition 2021
An exhibition of new work by Lisa Brawn, Phillip Bandura, Allison Morgan
September 24 - October 16, 2021
Ruberto Osberg gallery
2108 18th St NW Calgary
403-289-3388
Wed- Sat 12:30 - 5:00 pm
Thurs. 12:30 - 9:00 pm
www.ruberto-ostberg.com
The End of the Rainbow
Woodcut donated to benefit The End of the Rainbow Foundation
Silent Auction August 30, 2021
Rainbow Railroad is a global not-for-profit organization that helps LGTBQI+ people facing persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics. In a time when there are more displaced people than ever before, LGBTQI+ people are uniquely vulnerable due to systemic, state-enabled homophobia and transphobia. These factors either displace them in their own country or prevent them from escaping harm. https://www.rainbowrailroad.org/take-action
painted woodcut block
11.25” x 11.5”
Silent Auction August 29 2022
THE END OF THE RAINBOW
Woodcut donated to benefit The End of the Rainbow Foundation
Silent Auction at Ol’Beautiful Brewing Co., in Inglewood at
August 29th, from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Rainbow Railroad is a global not-for-profit organization that helps LGTBQI+ people facing persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics. In a time when there are more displaced people than ever before, LGBTQI+ people are uniquely vulnerable due to systemic, state-enabled homophobia and transphobia. These factors either displace them in their own country or prevent them from escaping harm. https://endoftherainbow.ca/events/
Unusual Suspects
My mind keeps returning to a red songbird that appeared on my fence this past summer. He looked at me for two seconds and then flew away. It was a punctuation mark in this blur of a pandemic year. Was he a finch? Grosbeak? Redpoll? Crossbill? That moment is the inspiration behind a small series of red bird woodcuts.
HIV Community Link
I donated a Rosefinch woodcut to the Splash of Red silent auction fundraiser.
Saturday May 11, 2019
Stride Gallery
I have three Pop pieces in the Stride Gallery silent auction. Check it out on November 17 at 8 pm. you might get a great deal!
Lovebird Gin
The new gin from TIPPA (featuring my lovebird woodcut)
is now available!
Rocky Mountain Wine, Spirits and Beer
Royal Canada Liquor Store – Okotoks
The Cellar
Vine Arts Wine Beer and Spirits
Liquor Depot and Wine and Beyond
Get Ready to Rumble
MARCH 31 - MAY 6, 2017
closing party Saturday May 6, 2:00 to 5:00
POPSHO: 50 rounds of ¿Quién es más macho? in MINIATURE
POPSHO presents for your consideration, one hundred mini-macho woodcuts in an epic showdown. Who is more macho, Basquiat or Le Corbusier? Siddhārtha or Jesús? Dolly or Nina? Bootsy or Dinah?
¿Quién es más macho?
YARD DOG ART GALLERY
1510 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704
Offering fine, folky, and funky art, from the US, Canada and beyond, since 1995.
New Craft Coalition
It's that time of the year!
New Craft Coalition is springing up at Festival Hall on Mother's Day weekend May 6th and 7th - you won't want to miss this!
2015 Calendar
The Wild Bird Woodcuts calendar published by Andrews McMeel
https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Bird-Woodcuts-2015-Calendar/dp/B00MIMJEH8/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=wild+bird+woodcuts&qid=1633129325&sr=8-1
Year of the Horse
November 7–15, 2014
THEATRE JUNCTION GRAND
Born in the Year of the Horse, Josephine Baker left her homeland in the USA in the 1920s to live in France where she became an international superstar and a symbol of the Jazz Age. Hers is a story of struggle, humour, dignity and survival. In collaboration with Lisa Brawn, Kimberley Cooper uses the idea of Josephine Baker as inspiration to create a fictional fantasy in an otherworldly setting. Experience images, sounds and movement that celebrate the essence of Josephine Baker set to an original score performed by a three-piece band.
Made in Calgary:
At Glenbow and Nickle Galleries
September 19 - December 13 2014
My giant woodcut portrait of John Will is on view
(from the collection of The Alberta Foundation for the Arts)
Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum
Contemporary Art Goes Circus!
September 12, 2014 - January 25, 2015
Dobson Main Gallery
Ten-in-One, which is a reference to sideshow attractions, focuses on artists whose works embody the circus aesthetic with a contemporary twist. The exhibition features 10 acts (10 artists) in one show: Carrie Battista, Lisa Brawn, Tyson Grumm, Shawn Ray Harris, Jan Huling, Martin Janecky, Sergei Isupov, Jessica Joslin, Liz McGrath and Mike Stilkey.
Quarter Horse
In 2013 I bought a vintage kiddie ride business; thirty coin-operated mechanical horses. These had been in front of Calgary stores such as Woolworths and Woodwards since the 1950s and 60s. The horses were in a state of extreme disrepair, having been neglected for a decade.
My intention was to transform them into a giant kinetic sculpture. They required mechanical refurbishment and I removed rotten tack and sandblasted the blistered surfaces down to reveal layers of paint built up over six decades...
MADE FOR THIS PLACE
group of 20 woodcut portraits:
Alberta Government Employees ca. 1973
painted woodcuts on hundred year old salvaged
Douglas Fir
48" x 48"
Lisa Brawn
2014
Pophouse!
In 2013 I worked on a pay-it-forward public-art-on-private-residences project with help from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. A series of glossy enamel Pop woodcuts were installed on the exterior street-side of inner city houses. Each of the recipients then produced one artwork for installation on another house. You can find the pophouse woodcuts in Capitol Hill, Mount Pleasant, Briar Hill, Bankview, Crescent Heights, Ramsay, Roxboro, Sunnyside, and Inglewood.
It's a Good Thing You're Pretty
New series of Horror woodcuts will be showing at AXIS September 4 - 30, 2013
AXIS Contemporary Art
#203 - 100, 7th Avenue SW
Calgary, AB Canada
Gallery 403 262 3356
cell 403 512 3069
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.axisart.ca
Notable Interview
Calgary-based artist Lisa Brawn has been experimenting with primarily figurative, portrait genre painted woodcut blocks for over twenty years and has a knack for turning alternative venues in the city into gallery and project spaces. She also has a very interesting creative process, as you'll find out in today's profile...
Museo Poco / Sugar Cube / La Fenêtre
This small scale interdisciplinary project space was originally started by the United Congress in 1999 as One Minute Happiness. In 2007 they handed it over to me and I renamed it Museo Poco. When Angie Inglis + Jane Grace + I closed Sugar Shack Art Salon in 2010 we co-curated the window gallery as Sugar Cube. Then it was a collaborative space known as La Fenêtre co-curated by me + Eddie Olson + White-field Senate. We closed the window gallery after 16 years at the end of 2015.
Photos row 1:
Romana Prokopiw / Leslie Sweder / Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner / John Will / Tanzerpudel (pudilluminator)
row 2:
Jolie Bird / Sally Raab / Jack Bride
Sugar Shack Art Salon
The Sugar Shack Art Salon was an independent gallery and interdisciplinary project space run by Angela "Fat Harp Malone" Inglis, Lisa "Pretty Liver McGee" Brawn, and Jane "Boney Jones" Grace in 2009 and 2010 in a turn-of-the-century “cottage” in residential NW Calgary. Sugar Shack featured 77 local, provincial and national artists at shows such as Debutante’s Ball, Nursies, Paper Jam, Love Shack, DioramaRama!, God Show 2: The Resurrection, and Genderblender. There was also an artist residency, The L. S. Benschop Institute for the Preservation & Veneration of Imagination & Nostalgia. The art salon was closed when centipedes fell from the light sockets.
Artmobiles
Sugarmobile was an artmobile in a 1935 silver trailer from 2001 - 2002. Sugarmobile appeared at ACAD, Estate Gallery, Calgary Folk Festival, Stride Gallery, The Art Gallery of Calgary, and made several appearances in the parking lot of Carpenters Hall in Kensington, Calgary.
Bambi Media Machine was an artmobile in a 1962 Airstream Bambi from 2009 to 2010. This artmobile debuted in August 2009 with the Mobile Surgical Beautification Unit performance and film “I Liked You Better Before”.
DIY Art Galleries
Sugar Gallery was a 300 sq. ft. project space and alternative art salon in the Grain Exchange Building in downtown Calgary, 2001 - 2002. Sugar Estate Art Salon and Museum of Oddities was a collaboration between Milo Dlouhy, Lisa Brawn, and Angela Inglis, 2003 - 2004. The National Portrait Gallery Inc.’s Portrait Estate was a six month storefront museum collaboration between Milo Dlouhy, Lisa Brawn, and Angela Inglis, May - November 2007.
Interview with an artist:
Question: What kind of artwork do you make?
Figurative woodcuts and paintings and scheming up alternative venues/ project spaces: Sugarmobile, Sugar Gallery, Museo Poco (window gallery), The Bambi Media Machine, and the upcoming pushc+artmobile "M.E.A.T.B.A.L.L".
With Milo Dlouhy and Angela Inglis: Sugar Estate Art Salon and Museum of Oddities and The National Portrait Gallery Inc's Portrait Estate.
With Angela Inglis and Jane Grace: Sugar Shack Art Salon and Sugar Cube.
With White-Field Senate and Eddie Olson: La Fenêtre (window gallery)
Timeraiser
8th Calgary Timeraiser
Thursday June 13 2013
Throughout the evening, meet with different agencies and match your skills to their needs. Once you have made your matches you are eligible to bid on artwork. The twist is rather than bid money, you bid volunteer hours.
MOCA Athlete Series
Museum of Contemporary Art Calgary
The Athlete Series will be available for public viewing at MOCA starting Saturday May 25th and remain up as a part of Olympian Heights until July 1st. The opening/auction event will be Friday June 7th starting at 7 pm. with the auction starting at 8 pm.
MOCA is dedicated to presenting exhibitions, public and education programs and maintaining a permanent collection pertaining to contemporary art, architecture, design and craft from Calgary, Canada and the world.
ERRATA SLIP MILKSNAKES
Gloss enamel woodcuts guaranteed to pop your eye out & wild bird woodcuts on Douglas fir guaranteed to pop your other eye out.
Exhibit runs October 18 - November 9, 2012
at AXIS Contemporary Art
#203 - 100, 7th Avenue SW
Calgary, AB Canada
Folk Fest Woodcut
My 30" x 60" giant letterpress style woodcut used for marketing the 2011 Calgary Folk Music Festival will be on permanent display at Festival Hall in Inglewood Calgary.
Festival Hall is the new home of the Calgary Folk Music Festival offices and an intimate performance space seating approximately 200.
Festival Hall is located at 1215 10th Ave SE.
Axis Contemporary Art Statement
What is your artwork about (underlying concept, focus, themes, intent, etc)?
At this point my art practice is a big playpen with certain parameters: the medium and technique of woodcut cherry, walnut, and century-old Douglas fir, the portrait genre, historical photographic records (especially from the Glenbow archives), circus sideshow references, and about fifty years of popular culture from the 1920s (silent film cowboys like Hoot Gibson and Tom Mix) to the 1970s iconic gender archetypes such as Sophia Loren and Steve McQueen.
Evanescence Gallery
Exhibition Opening Friday January 6th 2012
Elevation Gallery Exhibition
Elevation Gallery is the inspiration of designer/goldsmith Cheryl Baxter. A brilliant collection of fine art by emerging and mid-career artists, but also an eclectic grouping of fine jewellery by award winning goldsmiths.
Glasgow Print Studio
Axis Contemporary Art Exhibition
"Glasgow Print Studio was founded in 1972 as an artist led initiative providing facilities and workshop space to artists using fine art printmaking. Now, as an internationally acclaimed centre of excellence in fine art printmaking, Glasgow Print Studio promotes contemporary and innovative printmaking through supporting artists, exhibitions, learning and conservation."
I Liked You Better Before
Plot Summary
Inspired by freak carnival sideshow and the infamous Lobotomobile, "I Liked You Better Before" tells the story of a band of charlatans who travel through rural Canada performing plastic surgery procedures at breakneck pace on farmers and townspeople ca. 1969. The surgeries are performed in the Mobile Surgical Beautification Unit, a vintage Airstream Bambi trailer.
Yard Dog, Austin
Exhibition: The gallery's roots are in folk and outsider art from North America, especially the Deep South, but we show art by many contemporary artists who work in a folky, funky vernacular. The art we show is maximalist: colorful, edgy, representational.
