From September 7th to January 5th, 2014, Calgary’s Glenbow Museum will host its third instalment in a five-part series displaying the best of what was happening in the city in a chronological ode to art decades.

Made in Calgary: the 1980s highlights a period of time when Calgary emerged onto the international art front, not for kowtowing to the popular media but for standing out on a limb and doing what felt right.

While the ’70s was a time of abstraction and copycat stylistics, the ’80s was a time of personal narrative in all media, a new frontier for representational realists.

"Calgary has a sensational history of it," says curator for this instalment, artist Jeffrey Spalding. "The ’80s is when Calgary really comes into its own."

Finally the artists who were holding genuine to their own forms were going to be noticed. Big names like the so-true-to-life-it’s-creepy sculptor Evan Penny, and the University of Calgary professor John Hall alongside his prolific wife Joice.

"[Hall] essentially helped spawn and train a whole generation of representational painters," Spalding says. "Artists said ‘screw it’, and began to embrace all these other strange themes and notions."

Artists ceased their smudge strokes and still lifes in place of something more intimate and unique. The ‘damn broke’ and an outpouring of fantastic, statement art inundated the scene.

"It’s when a real renaissance starts to happen," Spalding says; an end to the restrictive, singular ’70s school and a start to complete pluralism.

We see the dreamy, underwater couple painted by Dan Hudson; Joice Hall’s floating nudes; Polaroid shots of apples and roses pinned to painted trees and vases by Ian Baxter; the intriguing photography that brings us right to the table with Barbara Spohr; Ron Moppet’s zany symbols and collage; Chris Cran’s honest self portrait dualities; and Don Corman’s collection of blown up negatives the drugstore rejected.

"Seventies photography was fairly straight – black and white," Spalding says. "In the ’80s it was used to create a strong image, opposed to snapping something that was clearly there."

Artists were wearing their hearts on their canvas. Paintings of a woman’s knowledge of her partner’s affair haunt us; ceramic crows infest a multi-coloured vestibule of antiquated teacups. What was once displayed as mere handy craft was now being used to illicit emotions and stir memories.

"Ceramics became polychromed and about things, as opposed to... functional ware," describes Spalding.

He himself has a large piece up at the Glenbow overlooking the reception area. The museum surprised the artist by securing the painting from a private collector. The canvas illustrates a misty view over the peaks of a Vancouver glacier range.

The curator says the most difficult aspect of assembling this show was in giving it flow, with so many contrasting pieces and styles to display; and in keeping it concise.

Ironically, a John Will piece is featured at the start of the exhibit, in which the artist unknowingly depicted Spalding’s task three decades before its reality. In a comical ‘Great Moments in Sports’ jest, Will illustrates a goalie in a net, swiping away items that shouldn’t get through. However in the net the goalie has let slide a piece of Spalding’s that made it into the 1970s show.

Indeed humour is rife throughout the exhibit, particularly in thanks to John Will. The former U of C professor pokes fun at smear strokes, the painstaking, obsessive dotted strokes used by his wife, and the French Canadian style of paintings particular of the time. ‘This is a prairie landscape’ he paints in balloon-like font floating over a vertically placed prairie landscape.

His creative ‘slice of life’ film is available to view on the fourth floor section of the exhibit, in which the artist equipped a woman with a donations box, a camera and mic and set her off in search of visitors to Banff who would be willing to be part of the film in exchange for some spare change.

Hilariously we watch as tourists know not what to do with their moment on film. As the credits role we find out that the two hundred and some dollar budget was not reclaimed by donations. The film’s random participants in fact pooled less than $20 all together.

And what collection representing the ’80s in Calgary would be complete without some 1988 Olympics regalia? Don’t miss the vibrant recalling of Heidi and Howdy amongst other sentiments of the Calgary games, by Tim Zuck, which hangs on the first floor.

Spalding was so overtaken by the works he found eligible for this show that he decided to piggy back it with a sort of part two down the street at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) at which he has been director for the last two years.

September 21st, 2013 will mark the contemporary museum’s first show and grand reopening since its closure due to flooding.

"This allows me to make sure to acknowledge the contribution of more people," Spalding says. "[The show] could have been twice the size again."

The September 21st opening promises a dazzling display of light: three dozen disco balls are to be suspended on cranes, inflatable sculptures by Toronto’s famed Max Streicher are to be perched on rooftop, as well as an outdoor video program, live music, a visit by Calgary Opera, cash bar and food trucks are all slated for the evening’s roster of events.

"It’s going to be magical," Spalding forecasts. "We’re going to be trying to sparkle this year."

Additional artist talks and family events will also be hosted in part of the Made in Calgary ‘80s series.