Steven Beckly, Misty Bow River, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Daniel Faria Gallery.
A rainbow appears in the spray above the Bow River. If you have spent time walking alongside it below the mountain, you may have witnessed one. There is power in the water, with a roar as you approach the waterfall at certain times of year. It is not a place you could forget.
By their nature, rainbows appear, then disappear. There is a certain feeling—of luck, of surprise and happiness when encountering one. The image, Misty Bow River, 2022 by Steven Beckly was made while the artist was on residence. This rainbow formed in river mist features on a postcard mailed to artists and others who have been a part of Walter Phillips Gallery’s history, in recognition of its fiftieth anniversary in August. Each recipient will receive a postcard and invitation to return it with a recollection from their experience, alongside a second postcard to keep or mail to someone they connected with through Banff.
As additional postcards are mailed out and responses arrive through the year, an archive takes visible form. Following the exhibition, the postcards will become a resource for future research and comprise a social history available at Banff Centre’s archives. One arc completed, this exhibition is dedicated with gratitude to those who we have been formed with and through.
Walter Phillips Gallery gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of Alberta through Alberta Foundation for the Arts.