Newzones Gallery is pleased to present Exercises in Ridiculousness, a solo exhibition of work by Calgary-based artist Colleen Philippi.

The existential reality of the last few years has, for me, thrown an intense light onto the meaning of what I do each day. How does one deal with paralyzing helplessness? What matters?

-Colleen Philippi

Throughout a lifetime of making art, the humour, courage and perspective that Existentialism, Surrealism and the absurd offer have been a source of creative solace for Philippi. Likewise, enhanced purpose in one’s work can be found in pursuing new mediums. As an artist long engaged with mixed media and found objects – including making her own ”found material” – Philippi found herself drawn to the fibre disciplines. Since her last exhibition in 2017, Philippi spent time learning how to apply aspects of various fibre disciplines to expand the expressive vocabulary of my work.

No matter what the art goal, the power of the work is in the life affirming action of the doing, of the making process itself. Making provides meaning to the individual doing the making. Finding significance, humour, joy and fulfillment in the insignificant, repetitious, banal and apparently meaningless is imperative in an increasingly chaotic and absurd world. This belief has found a home in the intimate gestures on display in this body of work, aptly titled Exercises in Ridiculousness. The accumulation of minute stitches, weavings, lines of ink, etc. eventually do collate into actual “art somethings;” all those tiny gestures do end up having a collective meaning!

Embracing eccentrically absurd processes and idiosyncratic visual quests seems a fitting response to the constant imbalance we struggle with daily. The cognitive dissonance with which Philippi coexists, fueled these Exercises in Ridiculousness. They oddly and humourously align with her experience of living in an increasingly off-kilter world.

Colleen Philippi received her BFA from the University of Alberta in 1982. Philippi has a long exhibition history and exhibits internationally at art fairs with Newzones. Besides finding her magical assemblages in private, corporate, and museum collections, locally, nationally, and internationally, she has completed commissions for Rotary Flames House, Calgary, AB., Island Hospital Anacortes, Seattle, WA, Swedish Foundation, Seattle, WA, and Pason Systems Ltd, Calgary, AB., amongst others.