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Ornament & Crime


  • Alberta Craft Council 10186- 106 Street Edmonton, AB, T5J 1H4 Canada (map)

The Feature Gallery Exhibition Ornament & Crime celebrates adorned, decorated, patterned and ornamented excess. 46 artists from across Canada are featured in this hyperbolic spectacle of exaggerated adornment with all the delightful trimmings they can muster. We look forward to sharing their bedecked, festooned, and fabulous works with you!

Join us for the public reception on Saturday, April 15, 2023 from 2-4pm where we will make a special announcement about our upcoming mural project in response to the exhibition.

Ornament and Crime is an essay written in 1908 by Adolf Loos, an Austrian architect active in the early 1900s in Vienna, whose fierce opinions about ornamentation influenced the work of architects, designers and makers of his era as well as the development of Modernism. He believed that ornamentation on objects and buildings belied degenerate criminal tendencies. In the context of a contemporary perspective, his essay, full of opinions and assertions, is absurd, melodramatic and offensive, offering our artists a prompt with many points of departure for the expressive works in this exhibition.

Participating artists: Michelle Atkinson, Charmaine Babiak, Phillip Bandura, Jamie Bowen, Myke Buckingham, Anna Burger-Martindale, Karen Cantine, Louise Cormier, Beverley Ellis, Milt Fischbein, Amy Gogarty, Matt Gould, Kelsey Hawkins, Jennifer Illanes, Teresa Johnston, Heather Kehoe, Emma Kilburn-Smith, Eveline Kolijn, Susan Kristoferson, Robin Lambert, Jared Last, Karla Mather-Cocks, William Miles, Gillian Mitchell, Sara Norquay, Shawn O'Hagan, Tara Owen, Liv Pedersen, Mireille Perron, Connie Pike, Danielle Piper, Sara Poldaas, Brielle Reeves, Kaleb Romano, Katherine Russell, Chris Savage, Pamela Shapka, Mel Smit, Tess Stieben, Barb Temple, Elise Truong, Scott Van de Sande, Vikki Wiercinski, Simon Wroot, Marlena Wyman

Dr. Jennifer Salahub presents her perspective on the contentious essay by Adof Loos entitled "Ornament and Crime" in this virtual lecture.

Related events:

Saturday, April 15: Artist reception

Earlier Event: November 9
Craft Collaborations 2022
Later Event: August 12
Furniture