• Location Various Venues 
• Price Prices Vary

With spring in sight, the month of March is a great time to get out and enjoy the visual arts programming in Calgary’s arts community. From new shows to ongoing exhibitions to hands-on workshops, there’s so much to see and do! Have a peruse at what’s on.

Art is For Sharing

March 1 – April 1, 2022
Framed on Fifth (1207 5th Ave. NW)
Free to explore

Curiously creative, Sheila Schaetzle’s love for creating art is a lifelong journey. Her paintings are lived experiences—conversation starters of a place or a time. You might feel it speaks to you too.
framedonfifth.com

Not Drawing Conclusions

March 3 – 13, 2022
Loft 112 (535 8th Ave. SE)
$5

Kate Baillies’ exhibition playfully alludes to the open-ended aspect of the work and the creative process at the root of this exhibit. Although some common materials are used in the work, they present three distinct creative directions of ongoing exploration.
loft112.org

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel

March 3 –  April 15, 2022
BMO Centre Hall F, Stampede Park (20 Roundup Way SE)
$16 – $30

Brought to you by the organizers of the finest themed exhibitions, this unique exhibition invites you to step into the universe of the greatest masterpieces of Michelangelo, yet seen from a totally new life-size perspective.
sistinechapelexhibit.com

Rerouting

March 3 –  May 22, 2022
Contemporary Calgary (701 11th St. SW)
With admission

Rerouting is an exhibition of artwork stemming from the Collider: In-Residence Artist Residency, an online program inviting 12 artists from around the world to consider new modes of artistic and collaborative practice in response to their experiences within a global pandemic.
contemporarycalgary.com

The Further Apart Things Seem

March 3 –  May 22, 2022
Contemporary Calgary (701 11th St. SW)
With admission

In a social and political moment where opinions are often divisive, how do we respond in times of uncertainty? Here we see artists follow distinct paths toward subtle forms of resistance, while exploring areas of connection between that which feels disconnected or in opposition.
contemporarycalgary.com

Northern Reflections Closing Gala

March 4, 2022, 7:00 – 9:00pm
Hose and Hound Neighbourhood Pub (1030 9th Ave. SE)
$5

MAUD Collective celebrates the artwork created by local Calgarian artists and animators for the 2022 Northern Reflections augmented reality art walk in Inglewood and East Village. Meet the artists behind Northern Reflections and learn more about AR technology, animation and art!
eventbrite.com

REWILD

March 4 – 26, 2022
Ruberto Ostberg Gallery (2108 18th St. NW)
Free to explore

Artists John F. Ross and Ryan Smitham are excited for their first major exhibition in over three years with a whimsical and provocative dive into the complex relationship between humans and the natural world. The exhibit features over 20 new paintings accompanied by immersive, thought-provoking sculptures.
ruberto-ostberg.com

IWD Group Exhibition

March 5 – 30, 2022
Wallace Galleries (500 5th Ave. SW)
Free to explore

Wallace Galleries features their roster’s women artists in one fabulous exhibition which highlights the works of 15 incredible artists through this year’s theme, Break The Bias, which challenges artists to imagine a world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.
wallacegalleries.com

For the Love of Bunnies

March 12, 2022, 10:00am – 3:00pm
Leighton Art Centre (282027 144th St. West, Millarville)
$152.29

Spend the day at Leighton Art Centre with local artist Amanda Tanner learning the process of needle felting. Using specialty needles and raw wool, learn how to sculpt a small three-dimensional bunny. All crafting supplies are provided, just bring any visual inspiration and lunch.
eventbrite.ca

Discover the Night Sky

March 12, 2022, 6:15 – 9:00pm
Leighton Art Centre (282027 144th St. West, Millarville)
$11.73 – $28.36

Experience the Leighton Art Centre while gazing up into the beautiful night sky! Build your own star map and star map finder, then head into the night with naturalist Jim Critchley to recognize and identify the stars, constellations and zodiac signs that light up the foothills at night.
eventbrite.ca

Art Show & Sale

March 19, 2022, 10:00am – 4:00pm
Southwood United Church (10690 Elbow Dr. SW)
Free to explore

The Calgary Retired Teachers Association presents its springtime art show and sale. Come out and browse original artwork in a variety of styles and mediums and meet the artists. Along with free admission, free parking is available and a chance to win door prizes!
calgaryretiredteachers.org

Spring Broom Making

March 26, 2022, 10:00am – 4:00pm
Leighton Art Centre (282027 144th St. West, Millarville)
$155.84

Join local broom maker David Campbell for a one-day workshop in the centuries-old craft of handwoven broom making. Participants are provided with all of the materials, tools, and instructions needed to make their own broom from start to finish.
eventbrite.ca

Curatorial Tour with Elizabeth Diggon

March 31, 2022, 6:00 – 7:00pm
Esker Foundation (4th Floor, 1011 9th Ave. SE)
Free to attend, registration required

Join curator Elizabeth Diggon for a tour of Esker Foundation’s current exhibitions, Farah Al Qasimi: Letters for Occasions, Michelle Bui: Naked Excess, and Veronika Pausova: Fast Moving Sun.
eventbrite.ca

Uninvited

Coming soon
The Edison (150 9th Ave. SW)
Free to explore

The first exhibition in Glenbow’s new satellite location is a landmark exhibition of more than 200 works of art by a generation of extraordinary women painters, photographers, sculptors, architects, and filmmakers from the early 20th century. Originally set to open March 5, 2022, the opening of this exhibition and Glenbow’s satellite location at The Edison has been pushed back due to outside circumstances. Stay tuned for the new date and check it out when it opens!
glenbow.org

Ongoing Exhibitions

WYSIWYG

Until March 4, 2022
Alberta Printmakers Gallery (4025 4th St. SE)
Free to explore

Materials such as dust are known for their strong connection to the passage of time. However, through the works in this exhibition by Alex Linfield, many fundamental concepts of being are defamiliarized through subtle digital manipulations of familiar materials and surfaces.
albertaprintmakers.com

IN SITU

Until March 5, 2022
Christine Klassen Gallery (321 50th Ave. SE)
Free to explore

This exhibition showcases six photographers’ unique explorations of site and place within their creative practices. Whether historic, socio-political, fantastical, or mystical the captured spaces are all are thought-provoking!
christineklassengallery.com

It’s not the end of the world

Until March 5, 2022
Herringer Kiss Gallery (101, 1615 10th Ave. SW)
Free to explore

Laurel Johannesson’s practice is devoted to documenting and altering landscapes that exist beyond the scope of reality. It’s not the end of the world features work produced over the past five years, with a focus on ongoing photographic images, lightboxes, and new moving image works.
herringerkissgallery.com

The Necromancer’s Garden

Until March 5, 2022
Norberg Hall (333B 36th Ave. SE)
Free to explore

An exhibition of new paintings by Toronto-based artist Laura Findlay. Findlay’s recent projects generate fragmented natural worlds as an arena to collide occasions of metaphysical and ephemeral knowledge.
norberghall.com

up front

Until March 5, 2022
Norberg Hall (333b 36th Ave. SE)
Free to explore

Sondra Meszaros’ feminist art practice takes the form of repurposed photography and collage addressing the historical influence of women in the arts and their cultural roles.
norberghall.com

Democracy of Jewellery

Until March 5, 2022
Alberta Craft Gallery & Shop, cSPACE King Edward (1721 29th Ave. SW)
Free to explore

This exhibition is a compelling cross-section of interdisciplinary art jewellery practices that responds to questions like what happens to jewelry making when subjected to the generalization and globalization of the marketplace?
albertacraft.ab.ca

2021 Awards Recipient Exhibition

Until March 5, 2022
Alberta Craft Gallery & Shop, cSPACE King Edward (1721 29th Ave. SW)
Free to explore

The Alberta Craft Awards are awarded biannually and designed to acknowledge those who make significant contributions to Alberta’s fine craft culture. Celebrate the six recipients of the 2021 Alberta Craft Awards!
albertacraft.ab.ca

Spotlight: Siri McCormick

Until March 12, 2022
Alberta Craft Gallery & Shop, cSPACE King Edward (1721 29th Ave. SW)
Free to explore

Calgary-based Siri McCormick incorporates several traditional textile techniques to generate a fresh take on established processes. Combining newness with familiarity echoes the changes and adaptations we have lately found necessary to include in our lives.
albertacraft.ab.ca

The Distance Between

Until March 12, 2022
Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta University of the Arts (1407 14th Ave. NW)
Free to explore

The Distance Between evokes the ongoing pressure on species and habitats taking place worldwide. Jude Griebel’s hand-constructed sculptural installation and Lorraine Simms’ meticulously rendered drawings consider our kinship with animals and explore our broken relationship with nature and the ecosystem.
ikgallery.ca

an echo, a shadow

Until March 26, 2022
The Bows (2001B 10th Ave. SW)
Free to explore

In this exhibition, Brittany Nickerson explores her family’s photographic archive after her grandmother’s passing and, in doing so, turns her grief work into a kind of care work. She searches for and depicts the archive’s hidden subjects and its unspoken subjectivities.‍‍
thebows.org

Writing With My Hands

Until March 26, 2022
The New Gallery (208 Centre St. SE)
Free to explore

Writing with My Hands is a residency with emerging artist and writer, Levin Ifko. Ifko is interested in writing in a way that uses objects by recreating them, and replacing or altering the text on labels or signs.
thenewgallery.org

Piles of Barbarism

Until April 2, 2022
Leighton Art Centre (282027 144th St. West, Millarville)
By donation

Matthew O’Reilly’s body of work seeks to continue the interrogation of the self in order to perhaps stumble upon larger truths about us. The works for Piles of Barbarism were created beginning in September 2021, during Matthew’s residency at Medalta in Medicine Hat’s historic clay district.
leightoncentre.org

The Grandmothers

Until April 2, 2022
Leighton Art Centre (282027 144th St. West, Millarville)
By donation

With this project, Veronica Funk honours what our grandmothers have done, often without recognition, through their portraits and sharing the stories of their sacrifices and how they overcame their own challenges.
leightoncentre.org

No Photos… No Recordings… No Notes…

Until April 9, 2022
Nickle Galleries, Taylor Family Digital Library, University of Calgary (410 University Ct. NW)
Free to explore

As a witness to colonial and sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, Brian Flynn has confronted some of the harshest realities of the human condition. The outcome is a series of paintings based on both the first-hand experience of civil war and extensive research.
nickle.ucalgary.ca

The Age of Uncertainty

Until April 9, 2022
Nickle Galleries, Taylor Family Digital Library, University of Calgary (410 University Ct. NW)
Free to explore

Using a needle and thread, Sandra Sawatzky explores our aspirations and their social, political, and environmental consequences. The Age of Uncertainty is a body of 12 embroidered panels that consider the stories that keep us awake at night. Check it out.
nickle.ucalgary.ca

The Warblers

Until April 14, 2022
VivianeArt (1018 9th Ave. SE)
Free to explore

The Warblers is a collaborative series of works by visual artist Sandra Meigs and musician/composer Christopher Butterfield. Meigs and Butterfield describe these playful, colourful paintings as beings with flirty eyes, broad flat faces, and voices in the form of jingles and words.
vivianeart.com

TIPI_LOOPS.dreamwaves

Until April 15, 2022
Esker Foundation (1011 9th Ave. SE)
Free to explore

TIPI_LOOPS.dreamwaves is an audiovisual digital art installation that came together as a reflection by Kaitlyn Purcell, Brendon Many Bears and Joey Big Snake on themes from Esker’s exhibition RELATIONS: Diaspora and Painting, with contributions from University of Calgary students.
eskerfoundation.com

Money Zoo: Fantastic Beasts in the History of Money

Until May 27, 2022
Nickle Galleries, Taylor Family Digital Library, University of Calgary (410 University Ct. NW)
Free to explore

This exhibition highlights animals depicted on currencies and the historical use of animals as money with the aim to raise awareness of our complex bond and dependence on these fantastic creatures, and their place in the modern world. It’s well worth checking out.
nickle.ucalgary.ca

a rolled chord of sunlight unfurled

Until June 5, 2022
Esker Foundation (1011 9th Ave. SE)
Free to Explore

The range of the sun’s luminescence is one of the most beautiful things about Mohkinstsis. Out of reverence for the sun’s refraction on our plot of rock comes a new body of work by artist Ashley Bedet dedicated to investigating and honouring the different intensities of our sun’s rays.
eskerfoundation.com

otipemisiwak

Until June 26, 2022
Fort Calgary (750 9th Ave. SE)
With admission

Otipemisiwak, which translates from Cree to people who live by their own rules, showcases recent works by Daphne Boyer, whose practice combines plant material, high-resolution digital tools, and women’s traditional handwork to create art that celebrates her family’s Métis heritage.
fortcalgary.com

Naked Excess

Until June 26, 2022
Esker Foundation (4th Floor, 1011 9th Ave. SE)
Free to explore

Michelle Bui’s series of photographic images meet at the intersection between still life and commercial photography. Bui intuitively arranges objects, photographing them against acidly colourful backdrops: sprigs of baby’s breath are arranged sculpturally with inflated latex gloves atop a blue shag carpet and so on.
eskerfoundation.com

Fast Moving Sun

Until June 26, 2022
Esker Foundation (4th Floor, 1011 9th Ave. SE)
Free to explore

Painter Veronika Pausova draws on figurative imagery to tell diagrammatic short stories that mine the territory between animation and stasis. The implied movement of these recurrent motifs serve as a cast of recurrent characters and as a proxy for the viewer to feel the anxious energy.
eskerfoundation.com

Letters for Occasions

Until June 26, 2022
Esker Foundation (4th Floor, 1011 9th Ave. SE)
Free to explore

Farah Al Qasimi’s exhibition brings together new and recent photographs that consider the story of her family’s migration between the UAE and the US, the global circulation of popular culture, and the reflection of both within the idiosyncrasies of personal style and aesthetic.
eskerfoundation.com

The Boxed Stories Gallery

Until June 30, 2022
Loft 112 (535 8th Ave. SE)
$5

A truly unique experience for artists and viewers alike! Housed within a vintage card catalogue, visitors are encouraged to discover varied artworks as they open each drawer.
loft112.org

Reflections: 10 Years Capturing Calgary’s Alt Music Scene

Until September 11, 2022
Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre (850 4th St. SE)
With admission

Music photographer Zoltan Varadi was inspired by the nice surprises he discovered as he began cleaning and scanning his old negatives during a year of pandemic lockdowns.
studiobell.ca

Have a visual arts event that’s not listed? Email us at events@calgaryartsdevelopment.com or fill out this form.