The Southern Alberta  Art Gallery has new exhibits for summer.

Grande Prairie area artist  Peter Van Tiesenhausen brings PLASMA  back to the SAAG main gallery. He is from Demmit, which is west of Grande Prairie near the B.C border.

 He spent Covid at home making art out of whatever he could find around his home and considering how important the element of carbon is to life.

“ Carbon is the basis of all life and plasma is the transference of energy,” he described, setting up his exhibit.

 There are a couple  main pieces to the installation, all from within 300 metres of his house.

 The most  prominent is a log  with a burnt out core surrounded by a structure constructed with sheets of paper from a paper mill from his scrap pile illustrating how carbon can change it‘s form.

“ I set the log on fire in my backyard and it went out. But it had reignited in the morning,” he observed.

, adding patrons to look at  the result through the paper sheet  frame.

“The fire  played a large role in the exhibit,” he said.

Whoop Up Days, is slowly, but surely returning to what it was in pre- Covid and pre construction levels.

“ We can’t wait to welcome everybody back to Whoop up Day, Aug. 22-27,” said  Exhibition Park CEO Mike Warkentin.

“ It’s still not back to 100 per cent, but we’re excited to reach a lot more people,” he said, adding they are working with the Blackfoot Confederacy to organize a pow wow.

 While there still won’t be a mainstage music program because of construction of the new Agri-Food Hub and Trade Centre, there will still be several stages for live local music including a smaller stage for buskers and a saloon atmosphere inside Heritage Hall.

“ We want to make sure that when we can do it, we can roll out a music program properly,” Warkentin continued, noting the musical line up has not been announced, however it will be all local.

 Local artists will also be featured in  La Galleria–a curated, creative space recognizing the local visual art community, and the artists who capture what it means to live, work and play in Southern Alberta. Artists can display and sell their artwork while guests shop, enjoy the wine bar and signature food offerings from our culinary team.

 The Southern Alberta Art Gallery explores country and community with their four new exhibits, which opened, Feb.18.

 They run until April 24.

“ All of these exhibits have a rural theme,” summarized interim curator Adam Whitford.

Emily Neufeld’s “ Prairie Invasions: A Hymn is in the main gallery.

 The North Vancouver based artist grew up on a farm near Red Deer.

“ It is about colonizers of Canada, when the government was giving away free land to get them to settle in the west,” Whitford said.

The exhibit includes  photography, sculpture and  360 light boxes of photography, reflecting the land, abandoned farmhouses, and what looks like reproductions of wallpaper on old rural houses and a wall made out of grass.

“We’re very proud to bring this exhibition to the SAAG,” Whitford said.

Neufeld will be speaking this afternoon, Saturday, Feb. 19 from 3-4 p.m about her exhibition.

Upstairs,  Vancouver born, Sunshine Coast artist Les Ramsay’s “ Excitation Station” takes a more lighthearted look at community through sculpture, needlepoint and embroidery.

 The exhibit features a variety of vividly coloured  items included painted driftwood which are inspired by decoy fish.