EDMONTON.- Themes of excavation, and pulling back layers to learn more about the past are explored in two upcoming exhibitions, opening April 30 at your AGA.

A Parallel Excavation: Duane Linklater & Tanya Lukin Linklater
April 30–September 18, 2016
Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective presents an exhibition of new works by internationally known artists Duane Linklater and Tanya Lukin Linklater. Featuring installation work by both artists, the exhibition explores notions of excavation in relation to the intellectual, environmental and cultural resources most immediate to the artists.

Duane Linklater investigates the structure and materiality of the gallery wall itself, which includes gypsum, wood and steel, and considers the political implications of those materials as resources extracted in Canada. Tanya Lukin Linklater’s sculptural work excavates the Art Gallery of Alberta’s archival records to investigate the complex relationships of Indigenous peoples and artists to institutions, museums and galleries.

A Parallel Excavation: Duane Linklater & Tanya Lukin Linklater is curated by Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective and organized by the Art Gallery of Alberta.

The Unvarnished Truth: Exploring the Material History of Painting
April 30–September 18, 2016
This exhibition brings together discoveries made by an international team of nearly 30 researchers―scholars of applied radiation sciences, anthropology, art history, biomedical engineering, as well as conservators, conservation scientists, forensic art historians, and curators―who worked together to examine nine historical paintings from the collections of the McMaster Museum of Art.

The Unvarnished Truth: Exploring the Material History of Paintings examines these works of European art painted between c. 1520 and 1919 with accompanying research findings, and highlights the importance of technical art history, showcasing the lifespans of artworks as material cultural objects. Technical art history studies the material properties of artworks, and uses complex approaches to compliment historical knowledge (e.g. dendrochronological analysis, Infrared reflectography, neutron radiography, x-ray fluorescence analysis, ultraviolet illumination, 2-D macro mapping techniques).

The Unvarnished Truth: Exploring the Material History of Paintings includes works by a Flemish genre painter, Dutch Golden Age still-life and landscape painters, Dutch/Flemish and Venetian Renaissance painters, a Russian Expressionist, a Russian Constructivist, a Flemish Baroque painter, and a Dutch post-Impressionist.

The paintings are by:

• Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)
• Aert van der Neer (Netherlandish, 1603-1677)
• Alexej von Jawlensky (Russian, 1864-1941)
• Workshop of Adriaen Brouwer (Flemish, 1605-1638)
• Manner of Edwaert Collier (Dutch, c. 1640-1708)
• Circle of Jan Gossart (called Mabuse) (Flemish, c. 1478-1532)
• Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (Russion, 1891-1956)
• Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)
• Unknown Venetian (16th century)
• The presentation at the Art Gallery of Alberta also includes a tenth painting by Edwaert Collier (Dutch, c. 1640-1708), generously loaned by the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston, Texas.

The Unvarnished Truth: Exploring the Material History of Paintings is organized and circulated by the McMaster Museum of Art.