02/23/2026
Our next exhibition, "Mary Whale: Between the Lines", is opening on March 5th!
About the show:
"Mary Whale: Between the Lines is a solo exhibition that showcases expressive portraits of older adults and celebrates the beauty of ageing through Mary Whale’s compelling and elegantly executed watercolours. Mary Whale has been engaging older adults for portrait sittings for over twenty years as both a visual artist and a gerontologic nurse. What began as an extension of her interest in watercolour portraits evolved into an exploration of a unique interviewing and portrait sitting process that evokes reminiscence and reflection. Many of the sitters were encouraged to contemplate a quote from Kierkegaard: “Life can only be understood backwards but must be lived forwards,” in which some sitters engaged while others simply reflected freely and shared their life experiences. With permission, Mary recorded the dialogue of each sitting and worked with a writer (Laurel Sproule) who transcribed the recordings into individual stories and autobiographies that are included alongside the artworks in this exhibition.
Mary has researched elder psychology, narrative therapy, different ways of knowing, ageism and guided autobiography - and as her work reveals, aging is much more than just a physical change that occurs through time. This series of watercolours seeks to highlight what’s ‘between the lines’ in an understanding of aging as an ongoing social, cultural and biological phenomenon."
This exhibition was curated by Ash Slemming and is being circulated by TREX Southwest through the Alberta Society of Artists.
