Contemporary Calgary's extravagant fundraiser borrows 'look' from Warhol and Studio 54
![David Leinster, CEO of Contemporary Calgary, left, and Kelly Streit, LOOK Gala chair, gave a sneak peek of over 50 of Canada's most significant works that will be up for auction at the LOOK2022 fundraiser June 11. They are standing in front of Sunday B. Mornings' Marilyn (11.23), a silkscreen on museum board. Darren Makowichuk, Postmedia](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/calgaryherald/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/0519-arts-feat-look-w.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&h=216&sig=iEzCKY4WjhfgBPOpnCkIbA)
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There will be drag queens, roller-skating models and multiple DJs spinning tracks from a Juliet balcony. There will be elaborate light shows, a meal curated by a collection of Calgary’s top chefs and a one-night-only exhibition of Andy Warhol art on loan from prominent collectors in the community. There will even be screenings of some of Warhol’s racier films.
All this will be happening at Contemporary Calgary on June 11 for the LOOK2022 gala and art auction, which will find the old Centennial Planetarium transformed for a spectacle meant to recall the glory days of Studio 54, the famously decadent Manhattan nightspot that became known for its free-wheeling excess and celebrity regulars in the late 1970s.
“You can just imagine fog and lasers and lights and projections,” says David Leinster, CEO of Contemporary Calgary, in a sneak-peek for the press late last week. “Interesting people: models, drag queens, people in decked-out fashion. It’s just going to be a scene. This is such a beautiful building. It’s not built as an art gallery but it is a piece of art. We just thought, given the theme and the timing when this building came to life in the late ’60s and really came to life in the ’70s, it’s really period-specific.”
Yes, after two years of pandemic lockdowns, the gallery seems intent on pulling out all the stops for its major fundraiser this year. Leinster says the event, which was put together by a committee chaired by Mode Models CEO and founder Kelly Streit, is meant to offer an experience “where you don’t feel like you’re in Calgary” but “you’re really proud you’re in Calgary.”
It’s also the primary fundraiser for Contemporary Calgary, which officially opened in early 2020 but has been holding LOOK fundraisers since 2014. Its most recent in-person gala was held on March 7, 2020, just days before the world began shutting down due to COVID-19. It netted $500,000 to go towards public programming and exhibitions.
But Leinster says the fundraising aspect “is an afterthought to it being a celebration of the community.” At the heart of the event is an auction featuring donated work by a broad array of contemporary visual artists.
“The work in our auctions is important work,” says Leinster. “They are not just donations, they are donations of coveted works of art. The community gets very excited about that. It’s not just an event that is a celebration of support for Contemporary Calgary; it’s a celebration of support for local artists, for significant national artists and international artists.”
In fact, for the first time, the LOOK auction will be preceded by a month-long exhibit at the gallery to showcase the art up for grabs. While this will no doubt help stir interest in the auction, the collection also stands as an impressive exhibit that includes pieces from established icons, newcomers, artists who have recently died and artists whose works are irreverent and boldly political.
A silent auction is already underway for dozens of the pieces. Others are being saved for a live auction that will be held during the June 11 event and overseen by auctioneer Brett Sherlock, an international consultant with Christie’s Auction House.
Among the lots in the live auction is a 2021 untitled oil pastel on vellum by Toronto artist Cathy Daley, who died on March 2. Mary Shannon Will, who died in October 2021, will be represented by Memory, a 2011 acrylic and mirror on wood panel. Harry Kiyooka’s Sun Dog, a 1966 serigraph, will also be auctioned. Kiyooka, who was born in Calgary, died at the age of 93 this past April. As an artist, activist, collector and educator, he was a pillar of the local arts community for decades. He founded the Kiyooka Ohe Arts Centre in 2008 with his wife, sculptor Katie Ohe. He also helped lay the foundation for Contemporary Calgary.
“Harry himself was one of the founders of the Triangle Gallery, which became the Museum of Contemporary Arts, which became Contemporary Calgary,” says Ryan Doherty, senior curator of Contemporary Calgary. “He has a special place in our hearts. He made a few prints in his day but not a ton, he was mostly a painter. This print comes from 1966, so it is exceedingly rare.”
There are other historical pieces, including 1962’s Kiss Molyvos. The mixed media work is by the late Ted Godwin, who was a founding member of a group of Saskatchewan artists known as the Regina Five and helped popularize abstraction in Western Canada. There is a piece from Calgary’s Chris Cran, a 2021 work from Ron Moppett, one from Czech-Canadian abstract painter Joseph Drapell who was also a founder of the American-Canadian collective New New Painters, and 1961’s Woman on Blue Sofa by the late Calgary-born modernist Maxwell Bates.
There will also be work from some relatively new faces, including an untitled 2022 work from Calgary-based artist Nura Ali and self-taught Banff-based artist Michael Corner.
The work also covers a variety of tones. Yvonne Mullock’s My Panties: Trusty is a finely detailed 2021 porcelain sculpture that looks like a pair of crumpled underwear.
“They are incredibly delicate and fragile and beautiful,” Doherty says. “One of the fun parts about this work is that she really likes the idea of it being in a live auction, she is very excited about that moment where the auctioneer has to say ‘And next on the block, My Panties … ‘ ”
The live auction will also include Love Conquers All by Kent Monkman, a renowned Cree visual artist who often explores themes of colonization and resilience in his work. Love Conquers All is a take on the nativity scene with a gold-leafed frame and little doors that can be opened to reveal the imagery inside. The artist imposed his own face onto the figures of Joseph, who dons a Chicago Blackhawks jersey, Mary and baby Jesus, who is resting on a Hudson’s Bay blanket. The background shows a nun dragging an Indigenous child away from her home, an allusion to a series of paintings Monkman created for the 2017 travelling exhibition Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience.
The value of the work in the auction ranges from $400 to $32,000.
“There’s something for a lot of different tastes, from abstraction to pop to realist to beautiful landscapes,” Doherty says.
LOOK2022 will be held at Contemporary Calgary on June 11. A silent auction is now underway. A live auction will be held on-site on June 11. The auction items will be installed at Contemporary Calgary and open to the public to view until June 10. Visit contemporarycalgary.com.
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