2022
Nickel Gallery, University of Calgary, Calgary
Curator: Christine Sowiack
Photo Credit: John Dean

In SPECTATOR SPORTS, Kyle Beal uses objects and languages bound to the vernacular of contemporary life – mirrors and “selfies”, screens and platforms, along with ubiquitous flashing “open” signs – to reveal our own cultural obsessions in ways that are both witty and worrying. A wry and detailed observer, Beal’s conceptual art practice uses beautifully rendered drawings, found objects, and slickly made facsimiles to engage his audience and lead them to the complex reflections within.

When William Shakespeare penned “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” he was describing of a world in which each life was a sort of performance involving other people. He likely could not, however, have conceived of how lives are now lived online – the stage has become a relentless never-ending screen, a hall of mirrors and an ever present digital self that has no break between private and public. SPECTATOR SPORTS observes selfie culture, performance of identity, branding and consumerism all without judgement, rather with nuance, humour and surprise.

Christine Sowiack