One of the most exciting acquisitions at Glenbow in 2024 is a collection of several hundred artist trading cards, presented by the artists Louise Williamson and Wendy Toogood. Read on to learn about these amazing artworks and the community story behind their creation.
There is something magical about a miniature artwork. Imagine a painting you can hold in the palm of your hand, or a sculpture with details so finely carved you almost need a magnifying glass to see them. When an artist makes something tiny, the artwork invites a personal experience: it isn’t a monumental creation that crowds of people can marvel at; it’s something best seen by one person at a time, as if the artist was reaching out to you. It is because of this sense of intimacy that the smallest artworks can have the mightiest impact. At Glenbow, this extraordinary quality is at the heart of an incredible collection of artist trading cards.
The Artist Trading Card project was a groundbreaking contemporary art program in Calgary. Established by Don Mabie (also known as Chuck Stake) in 1997, it was inspired by a model developed in Switzerland by the artist m. vänçi stirnemann, who had been intrigued by hockey cards he saw while visiting Calgary during the 1988 Olympics.[1] Its premise was very simple: create miniature artworks the size of standard trading cards (3 ½ x 2 ½ inches/89 x 64 mm) and connect with other people to swap them, exchanging cards one for one with others. Trading sessions in Calgary were hosted monthly at the artist-run centre The New Gallery, and they regularly attracted 40 to 60 participants—and sometimes more than 100.[2]
The project was popular and welcoming: as Mabie explained, “We see everyone, ranging from kids to art students at the Alberta College of Art + Design [now Alberta University of the Arts] to professional artists to people who have never made art in their life.”[3] It was grounded in community and accessibility: in an article celebrating an exhibition of artist trading cards in 2000, Monique Westra noted, “Artists engage in a dynamic, interactive social network in trading sessions that are held on a regular basis. The act of trading and collecting is as central to the process as is the creation of the artwork. The trading of the artist cards is akin to the bartering system—no money ever changes hands and so the idea of art in our society as a valuable commodity with esthetic and monetary value is subverted.”[4]
As the Artist Trading Card project developed, participating artists embraced a huge range of creative methods, materials, and content. Cards were created with everything from porcelain and fine fabrics to scraps of paper and salvaged candy wrappers, and the topics they addressed included terrorism, politics, childhood, religion, sex, city spaces, holidays, art, celebrity, and the environment. Reflecting on the incredible range of work, Mabie observed, “You think you’ve seen every kind of card possible and then somebody shows up with something you’ve never seen before.”[5]
Wendy Toogood was one of the first artists to become involved in the Artist Trading Card project. Based in Calgary from 1974 to 2006, she is best known for creating textile art, but the trading cards she made reveal her tremendous talent in working on paper. The vast majority of her cards are miniature watercolours, tempera paintings, and drawings, and they include a multitude of subjects, among them sculptures, the Devil, chairs, Superman, masks, acrobats, Mickey Mouse, snakes, fish, skulls, angels, birds, self-portraits, bees, leaves, flowers, mushrooms, heads, and figures running, dancing, and leaping. In experimenting with the cards, Toogood regularly created series exploring the same subjects seen from different angles, in different poses, or with different approaches to colour, almost as if she were treating the cards as if they were pages within a sketchbook.
Calgary artist Louise Williamson participated in the Artist Trading Card project for over a decade, creating her own cards and building an enormous collection of cards she had traded. The cards she made include numerous experiments with collage and found materials; standout examples include “Wardrobe Set,” in which the cards feature fabrics in the shape of clothing stitched onto the cards; a series of “candy gown” cards made with sweet wrappers; a pair of cards that feature flower petals, seeds, porcupine quills, acupuncture needles, and plastic game pieces; and a pair of cards created using synthetic cork tile. Williamson also experimented with cutting cards to create apertures revealing layers of papers beneath and making transparent windows in her cards, such that in some of her works, the card itself has virtually disappeared. Williamson is a mixed media artist and has worked in painting, sculpture (particularly papier-mâché), collage, textiles, and printmaking, and she has long had an interest in working in miniature. With such a rich and wide-ranging practice, for her, the card format was a concept to be pushed to its limits. In perusing the extraordinary volumes of trading cards that she made and collected, one can’t help but feel that for the Artist Trading Card project, the possibilities were limitless.
References
[1] Melody Jacobson, m. vänçi stirnemann, and Chuck Stake, “Art that Makes the Trade,” The Calgary Straight, July 27 – August 2, 2000.
[2] Jennifer Partridge, “Looking for art? It’s in the cards,” Calgary Herald, September 28, 2001, E13.
[3] Partridge, “Looking for art?”
[4] Monique Westra, “Trading card frenzy at The New Gallery,” Fast Forward, September 7 – 13, 2000, 27.
[5] Partridge, “Looking for art?”
