BEHOLD|EN: New Acquisitions to the AGA Collection

Be sure to see this remarkable selection of works that have been added to the AGA’s collection over the last several years.

The AGA’s permanent collection began in 1925, with the founding of the Edmonton Museum of Arts by a group of local art enthusiasts and collectors. Since that time, the collection has grown to over 6,300 works of art acquired over the decades through donations from private and corporate collectors, artists, special bequests, along with directed purchases from living artists supported by endowed funds and specially allocated grant sources.

These additions to the AGA’s collection are illustrative of the diversity of works that we have been able to acquire, and for which we are beholden to many donors and funders. Building a collection is central to our core mission and mandate, allowing for the preservation and exhibition of artworks that are of unique value to our ever-changing social and cultural history, both for today’s and future visitors.

BEHOLD|EN: New Acquisitions to the AGA Collection is organized by the Art Gallery of Alberta and curated by Catherine Crowston. Presented by the Poole Centre of Design.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Erik Olson, Born 1982, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Working with painting, printmaking and sculpture, Erik Olson balances the scientific and the poetic as he visualizes his life. People and experiences that are familiar to the artist become the subject of works that question our presumptions and our perception of the world. The painted figures that populate his canvases are likened to characters in mystery plays, each flaunting their own constructed personas and exuberant color. As portraits continue to be a central focus of his practice, his curiosity often leads to a variety of content across multiple scales: from the subconscious psychology of the sitter, to the windswept landscapes of America, to the scale of the planets and the vast cosmos. For Olson, painting and image making are a continuing method to explore and expand upon an understanding of reality.

Erik Olson has lived a nomadic life, having been raised in Calgary, Boston, and Nairobi as a child. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver in 2007. From 2014 to 2016, he attended the acclaimed Kunstakademie Düsseldorf as a guest student of Peter Doig. Olson has been the subject of solo exhibitions in major cities across Canada, the United States, and Europe. His work has been featured in Juxtapoz, ELLE Canada, The London Free Press, London Yodeller, and The Telegraph, Artillery Magazine, among others. He currently lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.