January
“Must-see events”
(tours offered each week)*
Strong Female Character at Hot Art Wet City – Exhibition Tour
Featuring Sherri Rogers, Bronwyn Schuster & Mandy Tsung. “In this group exhibition, Strong Female Character, these 3 female artists look at feminine identity, both past and present, as defined within Western culture. In this show, Mandy Tsung… presents a series of Bitchy Resting Face Portraits. They take their cue from Broken People’s “Bitchy Resting Face” video, which humorously highlights facial biases in our culture. The paintings bring light to female gender stereotypes, specifically that women & people with a feminine appearance are expected to display a smiling, pleasant demeanour to others, and to be cheerfully receptive even when absorbed by important thoughts or tasks. For this project, people were asked to submit photos of themselves in which they have a neutral facial expression that could be misinterpreted as anything from sullen to contemptuous. Sherri Rogers…“Strong Female Character” is a film and TV trope for women who are represented in a literal or one-dimensional way — where a token woman is physically strong or powerful. Girls with guns, the warrior, the ass kicking action heroine are classic examples but machismo is not the only interpretation of the word “strong.” The women Sherri has chosen for her series of paintings are strongly written and represented as complex characters who have integral roles in the plot apart from their male counterparts. They are self actualized, independent and bonded in friendship with other women. Bronwyn Schuster… The series that Bronwyn has been working on for “Strong Female Character” explores what femininity looks like through the lens of archetypes in myths and legends. Who are the Baba Yagas, the werewolves and forest creatures. The helpers and the heroes? Using ink and gold leaf, she mimics traditional illustration from fairytale books, but uses personal experiences and favourite stories from the models to display a darker and more adult content in the images.” (www.hotartwetcity.com)
Exhibition runs through January 28
th
, 2016
Main Street, Vancouver, BC
Carla Tak at Parker Studios ~ Private Studio Tour
“Tak’s Bright colours; somber blacks and greys, layer upon layer of calligraphic arabesques and unique motifs enrich the paintings by this largely self taught Vancouver-based Abstractionist. She learns by experience and by “staying true to her own process”. By process she means “A felt state wherein she suspends her logical voice and allows her intuitive self to guide her” as the images flow from her brush onto canvas. Her “Untitled “ works invite and receive undirected excited responses from viewers.”
Ann Rosenberg, Vancouver Art Critic
Tours runs through January 31
st
, 2017
Parker Street Studios
310 – 1000 Parker Street, Vancouver, BC
Miriam Aroeste at Parker Studios ~ Private Studio Tour
“I am intrigued by the power of colour, line, and space to tug and convey in infinitely compelling ways. From the outset, I have been interested in depicting authentic, spontaneous emotion and experience in colorful, abstract ways, finding beauty and satisfaction in that which is intensely genuine and ultimately imperfect. My work has both abstract visual appeal as well as an underlying conceptual basis. I am fascinated by the inner workings of the mind, conscious and unconscious thought, impulse and defense. My work takes notions of transitional objects one step further and focuses on what we say to ourselves and others to nurture bliss. My hope is that my work evokes the viewers’ own personal narratives, and that the inevitable, highly personal range in what’s seen and experienced, ultimately adds depth to the layers of meaning existent in my paintings… In the end, I hope my work stirs, provokes, and evokes in highly personal, evolving ways, causing viewers to look, then look again, finding new meaning over time, and in the process, remain alive and relevant.” (www.miriamaroeste.com)
Tours runs through January 31
st
, 2017
Studio 221 – 1000 Parker Street, Vancouver BC
Vancouver Special at the Vancouver Art Gallery- Exhibition Tour
“Vancouver Special, a survey exhibition that will occur every three years. The triennial model offers a sustained engagement with the contemporary artists who make Vancouver a dynamic art community. The title of this initiative, Vancouver Special, is borrowed from the housing archetype that was popular in Vancouver between the 1960s and 80s. Originally affordable and easily adaptable, this regional house style is experiencing renewed attention in the midst of the current housing crisis.
Ambivalent Pleasures is the first iteration of this series and it features works by 40 artists produced within the last five years—Vancouver’s post-Olympic period. The exhibition includes many emerging artists as well as those who are more established but whose ideas were prescient. Some are recent arrivals to Vancouver, while others are long-term residents who have already made significant contributions. Others are nomadic, less settled in one place and are working energetically between several locations.
The featured artworks do not adhere to a singular subject or style, but instead offer a set of overlapping conversations:
A number of artists engage with Surrealist strategies and ideas. They explore the unconscious and diverse modes of perception, speaking to notions of alienation, escape, romanticism and even the grotesque. In some instances, the works exude a comic tone; in others, a sense of the uncanny points to spirits of unrest that lurk beneath the surface.
Several artists present a range of approaches to abstraction. This naturally includes a number of painters, as well as sculptors and artists working with textiles who implicate the meaning of gesture or the history of modern painting without necessarily putting brush to canvas.
Other artists are invested in the possibilities of working conceptually to address today’s social contexts. Questioning dominant systems of knowledge, these artists make sense of the world through material processes, recurrent gestures and other types of interventions.
The title of the exhibition, Ambivalent Pleasures, refers to the complex nature of pleasure in the early 21st century as we become increasingly aware of the social, economic and environmental costs of our desires, habits and patterns of living. We can see artists in this exhibition preserving capacity for pleasure in a variety of ways. Pleasure is present in the processes of making and the sensory nature of materials. It is discovered in the wilds of the mind and in uninhibited exploration. It lies in political awakenings and socially responsive ways of working.
These artists live and work in an uncertain context of economic slowdowns, widening divisions of wealth, technological acceleration and global warming. Their disciplined expressions of pleasure may offer ways of perceiving the gaps between where we are as individuals or a society and where we would like to be. At a time when our experiences of pleasure are often too fleeting or superficial, encountering these artworks reminds us to be conscious of finding our own modest pleasures as we interpret and navigate the often contradictory conditions of contemporary life.
Exhibition runs through April 17
th
, 2017
750 Hornby Street, Vancouver
Artists:
DERYA AKAY | MAYA BEAUDRY | RAYMOND BOISJOLY | ELI BORNOWSKY | REBECCA BREWER | COLLEEN BROWN | MATT BROWNING | MARK DELONG | KIM DORLAND | BARRY DOUPÉ | MICHAEL DREBERT | JULIA FEYRER | JENEEN FREI NJOOTLI | TAMARA HENDERSON | COLLEEN HESLIN | JULIAN HOU | ALLISON HRABLUIK | GARETH JAMES | GARRY NEILL KENNEDY | TIZIANA LA MELIA | KHAN LEE | ARVO LEO | LYSE LEMIEUX | GLENN LEWIS | ANNE LOW | ELIZABETH MCINTOSH | JORDAN MILNER | ANTONI OKO | RYAN PETER | SYLVAIN SAILLY | RACHELLE SAWATSKY | WALTER SCOTT | KRISTA BELLE STEWART | ANGELA TENG | MINA TOTINO | RON TRAN | TRISTAN UNRAU | CHARLENE VICKERS | BRENT WADDEN | ALISON YIP”( http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/)
*Miria jb Hood brings women to gallery openings, artist’s studios and private gallery tours creating an atmosphere of enthusiasm toward viewing art, while offering information to assist in confidence when discussing and purchasing art. Come away with ownership of one’s views, and possibly a piece of art, through candid discussions over wine and small plates at local vino venues to encourage confident opinions on what one sees in a gallery. If you would like to participate in any of this month’s “must see gallery” tours, please feel free to contact Miria at http://www.womenartwine.com.
xo w|a|w