Medicine Hat Media

Billboard Art Presented by Medicine Hat Artist

The Esplanade Art Gallery is pleased to announce the installation of an unprecedented billboard art project in Medicine Hat, which will remain on display until the week of Apr. 5, 2010.

This innovative artist billboard project, entitled Flight, by Medicine Hat artist Dana Shukster, is located at Dunmore Road, south of 22 Street SE.  It is presented in conjunction with her current exhibition at the Esplanade Art Gallery, Pre-Flight –Trace.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time an artist has ventured out to install a ‘satellite’ exhibition on an outdoor billboard in Medicine Hat,” says Joanne Marion, curator of art at the Esplanade. “It is unique in that there is no message, no call to action – just simply artwork for the public to enjoy.”

Dana Shukster’s recent explorations of the fleeting aspects of light have led to the creation of a series of large scale, sepia-toned inkjet prints on paper. These mysterious images are derived from projected shadows of magpies in flight, and are the basis for Shukster’s billboard project as well as her Esplanade Art Gallery exhibition.

“Dana Shukster’s process is almost scientific in its rationality, and yet the results are certainly poetic and even eerie. Her work gives us pause to wonder at the arbitrary nature of our perception of our fleeting world,” says Marion, “so it is perfect for a temporary and transitory site like a billboard, which people pass daily.”

Dana Shukster is based in Medicine Hat, Alberta and has exhibited her work across Canada and in the United States and Europe. Her work has been supported by grants and awards from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and is held in numerous public and private collections in Alberta and British Columbia.

Pre-Flight –Trace, by Dana Shukster and e·strange, by Laara Cassells are on display in the Esplanade Art Gallery until Apr. 11, 2010. Flight will remain on the Pattison Outdoor billboard located on Dunmore Road, south of 22 Street SE until the week of Apr. 5.

For more information, contact:

Joanne Marion
Curator of Art
Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre
403.502.8583
joamar@medicinehat.ca

User Comments

One Response to “Billboard Art Presented by Medicine Hat Artist”

  1. March 18th, 2010 at 8:33 AM


    Vaughn says:

    I’ve seen this many times, but it took me awhile to figure out that this was in fact art and not guerrilla advertising, although, strikingly similar.

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