New Maps of Paradise will chart, in an intentionally ambiguous fashion, the creative practices of Calgary artists Eric Moschopedis and Mia Rushton. Eric + Mia as they are more commonly known, have worked in the Calgary arts community, singularly since the early 2000s, and collaboratively since 2001. Eric’s practice emerged from the theatre and performing arts communities and he was an organizing force with Bubonic Tourist and such events as the Mutton Busting Festival. Mia was immersed in drawing and contemporary craft practices, particularly textiles. Their projects consistently animate specific communities and engage participants as collaborators and citizens in playful politics. New Maps of Paradise will meander through their ongoing collaborative research into urbanism, humour in art, theatre and performance, contemporary craft-based practices, and the professionalization and economics of the art industries.

New Maps of Paradise at the Nickle Galleries is Eric Moschopedis and Mia Rushton first major solo museum show. The exhibition loosely borrows its curatorial tactics from cultural geography and ethnology, which are prevalent throughout the artists’ working processes as well. Its design will thematically map the artists’ interdisciplinary practices through their community and narrative networks. New Maps of Paradise will comprise archival material, past works, ephemera, incomplete ideas and at least one new work. The gallery will be divided into sections, the map, the archive, the collection and storage using idiosyncratic display strategies. A field guide will accompany the exhibition.