Keep them Safe

Jenny Keith

March 1 to April 16, 2022

Edmonton’s Jenny Keith brings her beautiful signature style to the Art Gallery of St. Albert in her feature vault exhibition Keep Them Safe. Three large scale paintings showcase three endangered Albertan animals: a woodland caribou, a grizzly bear, and a whooping crane.  

Keith trained at the University of Alberta, graduating with a BFA in painting and sculpture. Her detailed paintings are a labour of love, combining her finely crafted artistic skills with her life-time fascination with the natural world. Keith finds wonder in the outdoors, from the joy of spotting wildlife in city parks and local river valleys, to the quiet splendor of venturing into Alberta’s wild places. 

The works in Keep Them Safe highlight the complex and intertwined relationships that animals, plants and insects share within their ecosystems. Her beautifully balanced artworks show the full majesty of her chosen subjects. They are surrounded by key species that they rely on, or which rely on them. Keith took care to learn everything she could about her subjects – their habitat, range, and diet, as well as the creatures and plants that share the same space. All of Keith’s creatures are lively and active. But they are entangled with the fate of their central animal – nearly all the species that Keith chose to include are currently threatened or endangered.  

Each of Keith’s works tells the story of a fragile place. Tucked inside the vault, Keith hopes to foster a spirit of wonder and conservation, inspiring others to do what they can to keep all of these creatures safe for future generations. 

Image Credit: Jenny Keith, Grizzly Bear, acrylic on board, 48×60”, 2022.