Helen Christou Gallery
The Inbetween
June 26 – September 19, 2026

Curator: Jessica Colley & Bryce Many Fingers

Works from the ULethbridge art collection selected by gallery staff.

Curatorial Statement
 
For this exhibition, staff members of the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery were asked to select 2-4 pieces of artwork from the collection with no other directive other than to select pieces they liked. As submissions came in, I found myself asking “How can we possibly represent everyone’s tastes without things being too eclectic or overwhelming?” With eight staff members, all of whom have entirely different preferences, it felt like a bit of an impossible task. The answer to that, however, was easier than I thought, once I realized I was asking the wrong question. Instead of focusing on making one theme work around a variety of artworks, we shifted our thinking to “How can we develop a theme around what everyone has already selected?”
 
The closer we looked with this mindset, the more we saw an unlikely theme emerge: the “inbetween”. The balancing act between stability and disequilibrium in Mary Shannon Will’s sculpture Untitled (U of L #2). The play of abstract and landscape in B.C. Binning’s Black Island. The wide prairie in Takao Tanabe’s The Land 3/75, Banff, a familiar transitional space between us and the mountains. John Will’s Lust, a playful scene from afar, but upon closer examination reveals a dangerous reality.
 
It wasn’t just in the individual works that we discovered this. We started to see connections across multiple pieces. Roloff Beny’s The Height of Time blends seamlessly with Stanley Lewis’s Tattooed Head and Confinement, both in colour and composition. Two reclining figures, from two completely different artists, appear as a pair and situate within Bishop-Root and Takahashi’s Isle of Lesbos. David Hockney’s Pool invites you to dive in, while John Will’s Lust makes you second-guess the ride. 
 
While some pieces were part of the initial selections, others came along as we started drawing these connections. Staff have included their own thoughts on their selections, which can be read via the artwork label. 
 
As you explore the exhibition, we invite you to ask yourself: what lies in between?
 
Jessica Colley, Curatorial Assistant