Soft Focus
Hazel Eckert

Dates: April 18 - July 12, 2019  at City of Calgary Public Art Program Open Spaces Gallery
EB Centre Street CTrain Station, Calgary, AB, T2G 5R2

Reception & Artist Talk: April 18th, 7:00PM at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #1
116 7th Ave SE, Calgary, AB T2G 0H5


“Failed”, frozen, or partially-rendered images create blurry, digital mirages of people, places, and moments. Images that have not fully resolved or loaded—and relate to frustration and impatience with technology—gel into beautiful, contemplative washes of colour, sometimes with traces of intentioned content. Soft Focus brings together large-scale printed works of nearly-captured moments from the artist’s iPhone—a collection of images as loosely formed thoughts—which prompt us to pause and consider our phones as fickle collaborators in autobiography, photography, and portraiture.

This project is supported by The Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council.

Hazel May Eckert is a St. John’s-based artist and designer from Toronto, ON. She received a BFA in printmaking from OCAD University (2008) and a diploma in graphic design from the College of the North Atlantic (2017). Eckert’s work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions across Canada. She has received numerous awards, grants, and residencies from the Ontario Arts Council, ArtsNL, Open Studio, and The Rooms. She is also the creator of Nothing New, an independent publishing insignia focused on the production of small-scale artist editions and contemporary print-based works.