Drunken Paw is a collaborative trio comprised of three artists;

MARK DICEY, LESLIE SWEDER and JANET TURNER.

Three separate drawings are rotated between the three artists with each taking part in the conversation by reacting to what the others have previously expressed. The responses become automatic, primitive and at times transcendent as the momentum of the session builds. Eventually the group lands on some triangulation of a shared experience, the residual effect of this being a lush landscape both of their collective subconscious and the environment they are working in.

The public space the trio collaborates in is chosen for its atmosphere: the people, energy, sights, sounds and music. As a whole, Drunken Paw feeds off the rhythm and movement of the surrounding scene. The drawings, while not relational in and of themselves, become a visual record of relations — between the collective, their environment and an actively living audience.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

April - June 2012 | The Ants Go Marching
Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts, Calgary, AB

February, 2012 | Love Triangle: Evil as All Bejeesus 
Hot Wax Records Calgary, Alberta

August 2011 | egg drop soup
Museum of Ephemera, Nakusp, BC

Summer 2011 | The Leavening 
Drunken Paw at Sidewalk Citizen Bakery, a six week exhibition and performance Sidewalk Citizen Bakery, Calgary, Alberta

January - February 2011 | Drunken Paw’s Interpretation of Houdini’s Chinese Water Torture Trick
a six week exhibition and performance Sugar Cube Gallery, Calgary, Alberta

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

April 2022 | Atlas Project Release

Esker Foundation, Calgary AB

October/November 2021 | New Normal

Ruberto Ostberg Gallery, Calgary AB

July/August 2019 | Cache

curated by Kevin Kanashiro. Group exhibition at Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB

November/December 2014 | Carte Blanche

A Postcare Exhibition DNA Artspace, London ON

December 2012 | Black Tie One On

exhibition & fundraiser; Stride Gallery, Calgary, Alberta

November 2011 | Ring a Ding Dong Dandy

a three month installation and one night exhibition | BJ’s Gym, Calgary, Alberta

July - August 2011 | Bring the Noise

Jarvis Hall Fine Art, Calgary, Alberta

September 2010 | Passages: A Chris J. Melnychuk Retrospective Curated by Kari McQueen

Untitled Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta

August 2010 | Summer’s Edge II

The Edge Gallery, Canmore, Alberta

June 13, 2010 | Gender Blender

Sugar Shack Art Salon, Calgary, Alberta

December 6, 2009 | Paper Jam

Sugar Shack Art Salon, Calgary, Alberta

September 30 - October 3, 2009 | SPAWN

Arrata Opera Centre, Calgary Alberta

ARTIST TALKS

March 24, 2022 | Nickel at Noon: 
James Ellis – The Atlas Project: Calgary’s Art Underground with Diana Sherlock and Drunken Paw Nickel Galleries, Calgary AB

SPECIAL PROJECTS

2021 | Calgary Institute for the Humanities Atlas Project:
Calgary's Underground Art Scene: Place | Time | Art | A Guide

Drunken Paw was invited to produce a drawing that was reproduced for this art map project. Three large scale drawings were made and one was chosen for reproduction. DETAILS

2012 | The New Gallery Fundraising print portfolio

December 2012 Drunken Paw drawing made for The New Gallery Fundraising print portfolio:

One of ten chosen artists specially commissioned for the inaugural run of prints on John Snow’s refurbished press. John Snow House, Calgary – artists in the portfolio are: drunken paw, David Garneau, Heather Huston, Kim Huynh, Don Mabie, Mirielle Perron, Scott Rogers, Ryan Statz, Tim Westbury and Andrea Williamson.

John Snow was a master printer and an influential member and supporter of Calgary’s arts community from the 1950’s onwards.

SITE SPECIFIC DRAWING RESIDENCIES

2016 | Simmon’s Building, Calgary AB  Sponsored by Sidewalk Citizen Bakery

2015 | The Bourbon Room, Calgary AB  Sponsored by Kevin Kanashiro

2011 | Museum of Ephemera, Nakusp, BC  Sponsored by the AFA

2011 | BJ’s Gym, Calgary, AB

2011 | Sugar Cube Gallery, Calgary, AB

FUNDING: GRANTS AND AWARDS

• 2022 Canada Council for the Arts - Research and Creation Grant
• 2011 Alberta Foundation for the Arts Project Grant

COLLECTIONS

• Alberta Foundation for the Arts
• Drunken Paw is represented in numerous private collections throughout North America

ONLINE PUBLICATIONS

• Tousley, Nancy, ‘Calgary Report: An Artist-Run Alberta’, Canadian Art, March 2011
• www.canadianart.ca/online/features/2011/03/03/calgary_report

PRESS – Online and print

• Drunken Paw Love Triangle: Evil as All Bejeesus, February 2012 catalogue that accompanied the exhibition of the same name at Hot Wax Records, Calgary. Writing by Diana Sherlock drunken paw: drawing in public
• Paradis Claire, Drunken Paw in Nakusp, Arrow Lakes News, BC, December, 2011
• Tousley, Nancy, ‘Calgary Report: An Artist-Run Alberta’, Canadian Art, March 2011 www.canadianart.ca/online/features/2011/03/03/calgary_report

FILM

• Sidewalk Citizen (in production) | Feature length documentary by Michal Lavi (supported by the Canada Council & the AFA)

Calgary

51.0534,-114.063