Featuring Joanne MacDonald
and JoAnn Godenir
Two concurrent solo exhibitions exploring ripple through pattern, repetition, and material process.
Christine Klassen Gallery is pleased to present Ripple, a new solo exhibition by Calgary sculptor Joanne MacDonald.
Through welded steel, reclaimed materials, and kinetic form, MacDonald explores the unseen currents created through human interaction: the way words, actions, memories, and relationships continue to echo outward long after the initial moment has passed.
At the heart of the exhibition is the idea that no action exists in isolation. Conversations, gestures, tensions, and moments of connection leave lasting impressions that extend beyond ourselves, creating ripples through families, friendships, communities, and the broader world. MacDonald translates these invisible energies into sculptural forms that loop, sway, balance, and expand through space with both precision and spontaneity.
Her dynamic welded works incorporate found, natural, and upcycled materials, responding intuitively to the histories embedded within each element. Reclaimed train ties become lyrical linear forms, while polished steel orbs create moments of reflection and entry within the compositions. Many of the sculptures are kinetic in nature, subtly shifting with air movement and human interaction, as though activated by presence itself.
The exhibition also reflects inward. For MacDonald, Ripple considers the way past ideas and experiences continue to shape new work over time, resurfacing and evolving through process and material.
Balancing industrial strength with graceful movement, MacDonald’s sculptures feel simultaneously grounded and weightless. Spirals unfurl, lines hover, and steel behaves less like metal and more like a drawing suspended in space.
About the Artist
Joanne MacDonald is a Calgary sculptor whose welded steel works incorporate found, natural, and upcycled materials. She has exhibited extensively throughout Calgary, and a number of her commissioned public and private works can be found throughout the city.
