Media Release

The Walter Phillips Gallery will open two distinctly original exhibitions of work by acclaimed western Canadian artists. Opening February 16, Lily of the Valley reveals an unexpectedly delicate sensibility in paintings by Attila Richard Lukacs.

Known since the 1980s for his monumental, aggressively realist canvases depicting masculine societies, Lily of the Valley distills Lukacs's intricate style into a series of still life paintings based on his mother Helen's garden. Collected mainly from private holdings by Lukacs's family and friends, the paintings are intensely personal, while maintaining many of the historical techniques familiar from his better-known work.

Helen Lukacs, a self-taught gardener who transformed the backyard of her suburban Calgary home, has been an important inspiration to her son, and these works bear witness to that close relationship. The show is curated by Katherine Ylitalo, a Calgary-based curator, instructor, and artist who has combined an interest in landscape gardening and horticulture in much of her own work.

On February 23, the Gallery will open a retrospective of photography works by Barbara Spohr in the RBC Lobby of the Centre's Eric Harvie Theatre. Curated by Naomi Potter, the work in strangely familiar was created between 1978 and 1986, before the artist's death in 1987. Capturing moments from daily life, the photographs show ordinary objects in new ways.

Born in B.C. in 1955 and a graduate of the Alberta College of Art, Spohr first came to The Banff Centre in 1974 for summer sessions in drawing and painting. She returned often, both to work and to continue her development in painting and, later, photography.

In conjunction with both these shows, the Walter Phillips Gallery will host a series of artist talks and discussion panels. On February 23 at 2 p.m., before the opening reception of strangely familiar, art historian and University of Ottawa professor Penny Anne Cousineau-Levine will situate Spohr's work in the context of contemporary photographic practice. She will be joined by past recipients of the Centre's Barbara Spohr Award, including Patricia Deadman (1991), David McMillan (2004), and Ramona Ramlochand (2007), who will present artist talks. On Saturday, May 10, join Attila Richard Lukacs and Helen Lukacs for an afternoon artist talk, tour of Lily of the Valley, and tea in the Gallery.

Media Contact
Jill Sawyer
Media and Communications Officer, The Banff Centre
403.762.6475