Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Erik Volet at the Fifty Fifty Arts Collective
 |
| "Georgian Carnival" Berikoaba by EV |
Garden of Masks: a Collection of
Paintings by Erik Volet
Fresh oil paint dry orange at the Fifty Fifty Arts Collective. Today, I talked to Erik Volet about his next solo exhibition. There is a secret excitement to seeing an exhibition before its unveiling.
On Thursday January 29 at 7pm, anticipate Volet’s world of gardens, masks, and more at the Opening Reception. It is a personal collection of Volet’s old and new works. Each painting tells a story relative to the viewer’s own interpretation and experiences of the journey to find oneself and place in the world that is both personal, political and universal. The importance of Volet's exhibition is its relevance to living in Victoria, also known as the City of Gardens, surrounded by branches & blossoms and people wearing masks without stopping to think and ask: what is the meaning of all this? Who are we? What are we becoming in relation to the Other, here?
"Masks are portraits; people’s aspect of self are really aspects of everyone’s selves.” - Erik Volet
The Fifty Fifty Arts Collective is on 2516 Douglas Street, Victoria BC. Exhibition runs until Sunday February 15.
Sheila R. Alonzo for exhibit-v
Fresh oil paint dry orange at the Fifty Fifty Arts Collective. Today, I talked to Erik Volet about his next solo exhibition. There is a secret excitement to seeing an exhibition before its unveiling.
On Thursday January 29 at 7pm, anticipate Volet’s world of gardens, masks, and more at the Opening Reception. It is a personal collection of Volet’s old and new works. Each painting tells a story relative to the viewer’s own interpretation and experiences of the journey to find oneself and place in the world that is both personal, political and universal. The importance of Volet's exhibition is its relevance to living in Victoria, also known as the City of Gardens, surrounded by branches & blossoms and people wearing masks without stopping to think and ask: what is the meaning of all this? Who are we? What are we becoming in relation to the Other, here?
"Masks are portraits; people’s aspect of self are really aspects of everyone’s selves.” - Erik Volet
The Fifty Fifty Arts Collective is on 2516 Douglas Street, Victoria BC. Exhibition runs until Sunday February 15.
Sheila R. Alonzo for exhibit-v
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Anita Rydygier at Dales Gallery
Color stands at the center of human experience, human consciousness, and human expression, in fusing shape and color, I look to convey essential human experiences, essential human stories, in a way that everyone, adult and child, can recognize and understand. Quoting Picasso, “Every child is an artist, the challenge is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
After graduating from the Royal College of Art in London, Anita worked as a textile designer, her printed textile collections were sold in Europe, the USA and Japan. During this time Anita’s colour infused airbrush and gouache creations resulted in two solo exhibitions at The Actor’s Institute, London.
Whilst living in England, Anita also worked as a free-lance illustrator. Commissions included Cosmopolitan magazine, Woman’s Journal magazine, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Chrysalis Records, and The Macrobiotic Association. Private collectors include the Hon. Simon Howard at Castle Howard, York.
Anita moved from the UK to reside in Victoria, BC in 2001. In North America Anita has selectively exhibited at her own gallery / store, WestCoast Eco Home in Fan Tan Alley, Victoria BC and at The Brill Gallery, North Adams, Massachusetts.
Brian Fisher at Winchester Gallery Modern
Mandalas and Beachscapes
February 12 to March 7, 2015
Opening reception: Thursday, February 12, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Winchester Modern presents previously unseen late work from Canadian artist Brian Fisher.
These evocative mandalas and abstract landscapes were painted during the artist's last years when he lived in Australia. While there is the temptation to fit his oeuvre somewhere within the op art genre, Fisher's intention was always to "go beyond optical gymnastics: it is our relation to space, especially landscape space, that forms the 'subject matter' of the artist's work."
Fisher's most important Canadian commission was a mural for the Montreal International Airport at Dorval, which has long been regarded as "one of the most successful marriages of art and architecture in Canada."
Mike Andrew McLean at Deluge Contemporary Art
February 6 to March 14, 2015
Latent Image (Part One) 2012–2015
Mike Andrew McLean
Opening Friday, February 6, 7pm
In the conception and creation of the works that comprise Latent Image (Part One), McLean focuses on variant techniques that allow for reproduction of an image: stabilized photogenic drawing, salt paper printing, cyanotype, ferrotype, albumen printing and finally, photographs made with the Kodak 1—the first consumer oriented camera, patented in 1888. His intention throughout these contemporary reinterpretations is consistent, despite the manifold chemical and material variations involved in their production, reigniting interest in the way photographs are made and perceived in our media-saturated society and allowing for fluid investigations of the medium itself.
Mike Andrew McLean holds a BFA in Media Arts from NSCAD University, and an MFA from the University of Victoria. McLean’s work, which draws upon research into the historical and contemporary uses of photography, has recently been shown in solo and group exhibitions including Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Richmond Art Gallery, Open Space, Southern Alberta Art Gallery and Gallery 44 in Toronto. With the assistance of Canada Council and BC Arts Council production grants, McLean’s most recent projects Latent Image and Debris investigate the earliest forms of production within the medium.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Linda Jones at Madrona gallery
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| Remie |
Linda Jones is
an award winning artist based in Ladner, B.C. This exhibition of new
encaustic and acrylic paintings focuses on her experience living around
farms and raising animals of her own. The artist's work reminds us of
the importance of being connected with the land and life around us.
Feb 21 - March 7, 2015
opening Sat. Feb. 21 at 1 pm
Friday, January 23, 2015
Pete Kohut interview with Sheila R. Alonzo
It was a cool damp Thursday night on January 8 at the Fifty Fifty Arts Collective, Pete Kohut’s solo exhibition “Inside / Outward” marked the 1st gallery opening in Victoria, British Columbia for 2015. “Inside / Outward” is a series of Kohut’s recent paintings drawn from people watching in coffee shops, illustrations turned paintings, space confused to create dynamic composition for the viewer, and channeling anxiety of being in public, as an introvert. The exhibition runs until Sunday January 25th at 2516 Douglas Street.
When asked, why the café and not another public space?
There’s something unique to how people use a
coffee shop as a public / private
space. I think a
type of space that might be similar would be restaurants or food markets.
What's interesting about coffee shops is that people feel more comfortable and
let their guard down, hence letting out their personal quirks. A restaurant
might not have the same level of comfort, but perhaps there's other qualities
that people might let show through.
An excerpt from Kohut’s blog
“Artist Statement: In
Progress” on
October 5, 2014, gives deeper insight to his thought process:
What am I doing? I'm making images that represent our daily
life while evoking the fragmented nature in which we perceive and understand
the world around us. 1) The coffee shop in North America is very much like the
cafe in European countries, except that it can also function as a place to
work, read, study, and be ‘alone’.
It's a peculiar space especially for that last reason. I'm interested in
the crossover of behaviours between the two types of spaces, private and
public. 2) Media culture has affects how we think and feel about the world. 3)
I'm using retrograde media to show the limits of current media.
Weirdly distorted and
morphing figures in confusing spaces. Patterned marks, raw colours and
contrasts, shifting perspective, layers and history of making. Paintings that
represent people and spaces but also reference the flatness of surface.
The subject of human
interaction is fascinating. For an introverted person, meeting other people is
often fraught with anxiety. This anxiety is processed into these paintings.
Scenes from everyday
life act as an armature onto which energetic brushwork infuse these scenes with
activity and evoke a sense of fleeting memories.
I asked if any part of the collection did not make it to the exhibition:
I asked if any part of the collection did not make it to the exhibition:
There are three or
four paintings that didn't make it into the show, mostly because there wasn't
enough room for them, but also because they veered a little further away from
the ideas that I was focusing in on the show; a self-portrait for example. I'm
not a very linear painter, so some of the paintings went way off into left
field, in different directions.
Kohut often mentions it in his writings and
interviews, so I had to ask about being an introvert:
As far as I know I've
always been an introvert. I grew up the second of three sons, which might
explain my proclivity for feeling uneasy when people pay attention to me. I
also have a hard time in large crowds because I feel overwhelmed. I like
nothing more than to spend my evenings at home painting, drawing, reading, and
playing with my cat. I have few close friends but I find evenings out with
three or more people are extremely draining. I recharge when I'm by myself and
therefore relish my time alone. I think this is partly why I continued to make
art; an excuse to be alone.
I feel that I
succeeded in evoking a sense of excitement in these pieces by using my anxiety
as fuel. Even though painting is a lot of hard work, it still is quite
enjoyable and helps to relieve the general stress and anxiety that I feel
during my average day. I wouldn't say these paintings evoke anxiety like Edvard Munch's ‘The Scream’
does, but perhaps the confusing spaces might give the viewer a slight twinge of
insecurity.
Pete Kohut was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He drew a lot as a young boy but stopped. Around 1993, he started making drawings again as therapy for loneliness and depression he was feeling in his teens. In 1995, he experimented with acrylic paints, made rudimentary colour fields and still lifes to get a feel for the material.
I remember wanting to
be an artist when I was a young boy because I liked to make things, but was
dissuaded by my parents. They said that
if I wanted to make a comfortable living, I should choose a creative career
such as architecture.
It was in middle school that his art teacher
encouraged Kohut to keep drawing. When
he got to university, he quickly found architecture to be too constricting so
he focused on visual arts (painting) and graphic design.
I ended up choosing
graphic design because I thought it might be a more accessible way to make a
living. This way I could work
nine-to-five at a job that challenged me creatively and I could pursue my
passion for making art in my spare time.
Kohut became a practising designer after graduating from Red River College in 2001. Slowly, he made his way to the West Coast (Victoria) where he now works as an in-house book designer for a local publisher called TouchWood Editions who publishes roughly 25 books a year. Kohut designs the covers and layout the interiors for their book list that includes fiction, non-fiction, local history, mysteries, cookbooks, and short story collections.
Interested in the junction between paint and graphic design, I asked Kohut if he found designing books influence his paintings.
I think working as a
designer has helped me to define what that differences are between art and
design. As a designer, you are trying to communicate your client's message in a
way that it best reaches it's intended audience. It's a lot like problem
solving. Art is different because it is more about asking questions than
getting answers. It's about your own message, your own thoughts and ideas that
you are conveying to an audience.
I find that my
paintings act as a relief from my design work. In my painting, I break the ‘rules’ of layout and composition. I can do whatever I want. There's no
client or creative brief to follow. I'm still painting with an audience in
mind, but I'm not necessarily interested in making art that they will like.
I will say that
working as a book designer, I'm much more aware of the idea of narrative and
how it applies to the visual arts. However, I'm more interested in creating an
ambiguous narrative rather than spelling it out for a viewer. I want the viewer
to have to pull out the meaning for themselves.
On plans for his next show and on going projects, Kohut said:
I don't have any
other shows planned as of yet. I'm hoping that I might be able to show this
series in a few other galleries in town, but we'll see how that is received. My
last few paintings have been about exploring further the idea of using brush
strokes as the pattern on clothing to confuse the space. "Beneath the
Beard" is a good example. I'd like to see where it takes me.
In 2010 Kohut was a finalist in the 1st annual Victoria Emerging Artist Awards. He is enrolled in the Visual Arts program at the University of Victoria on a part-time basis.
Artist Quote
In my research and interview, I found this quote of Kohut to be powerful, “I realize that painting is in itself a lie (or illusion), but it's a good one.”
A Message from Pete Kohut
I'd like to thank everyone at the Fifty Fifty Arts Collective for letting me exhibit my work in their space and helping with the reception. I'd also like to thank you (Sheila Alonzo) and Efren Quiroz for your interest and media coverage.
Pete Kohut
www.petekohut.ca
@petekohut
[Images via www.petekohut.ca]
[Photo credit: Sheila Alonzo]
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Jill Sharpe at Madrona gallery
-web.jpg%2BMadrona%2BJill%2BSharpe%2Bshow.jpg) | ||
Jill Sharpe
Bone Wind Fire
Madrona gallery
Jan. 17 to 30, 2015
606 View St.
Victoria, BC Canada
Blythe Scott at Couch* a Tanya Horn gallery
 | ||||||||
| opening reception: Jan. 22, 2015 at 7 pm |
| 1010 Broad St. Victoria, BC Canada |
Monday, January 19, 2015
In Cahoots ( Synergy ) the Art Show
In Cahoots suggests a secretive exploit, a little
naughty or conspiratorial sharing resulting in (Synergy)- an effect
resulting from actions within the process and spirit of combination,
where, to quote Aristotle, “The whole is
greater than the sum of its parts”. This means, qualities or characteristics that are not present without combination / amalgamation and all other possible variants can manifest. Art possibilities are heightened. Unpredictable thoughts expound. Territory is transgressed. Serendipity occurs through this collaborative effort.
In Cahoots (Synergy) the show is conceived as an experiment of sorts in artistic collaboration. While some artistic endeavors often involve collaborative interactions, for example jazz musicians frequently collaborate in multiple groupings which thrive on the different interactions; visual arts for the most part is a solo act with the lone artist working away in the seclusion of the studio. This show is an opportunity for artists to work in a manner they may not be accustomed to and to experience something of the magical interplay of jazz musicians.
Nov. 6 to 30, 2015
Opening Reception : Nov.6, 2015
Slide Room gallery
2549 Quadra St.
Victoria, B.C. Canada
greater than the sum of its parts”. This means, qualities or characteristics that are not present without combination / amalgamation and all other possible variants can manifest. Art possibilities are heightened. Unpredictable thoughts expound. Territory is transgressed. Serendipity occurs through this collaborative effort.
In Cahoots (Synergy) the show is conceived as an experiment of sorts in artistic collaboration. While some artistic endeavors often involve collaborative interactions, for example jazz musicians frequently collaborate in multiple groupings which thrive on the different interactions; visual arts for the most part is a solo act with the lone artist working away in the seclusion of the studio. This show is an opportunity for artists to work in a manner they may not be accustomed to and to experience something of the magical interplay of jazz musicians.
Nov. 6 to 30, 2015
Opening Reception : Nov.6, 2015
Slide Room gallery
2549 Quadra St.
Victoria, B.C. Canada
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Reality Follies at Open Space by Philip Willey. Jan. 2015
The first show of 2015 at Open Space features five artists and two curators, Lynda Gammon and Wendy Welch. The catalogue begins with an observation…..
“We live in an image-world. Selfies on Facebook, instant sharing on Instagram, and photo albums on Flickr, all demonstrate our intense desire to re-present our world. Through the practice of painting, the artists in this exhibition, each in their own way, are re-presenting and interrogating the meaning of representation, and in turn, questioning our ways of perceiving reality.”
Jeremy Herndl focuses on landscape. His paintings give the sense of being created outdoors in an attempt to catch scenes glimpsed fleetingly. He is more concerned with the overall impression than with individual details and his work often borders on abstraction.
Rick Leong translates the visual language of Asian landscapes to contemporary Western formats.
Jeroen Witvliet’s paintings look at first glance like heaps of smoldering debris interwoven with branches, antlers etc. He’s probably best known for his black and white work but the pieces at Open Space contain muted colour.
Neil McClelland’s paintings of bathers manifest a Cezanne- like interest in form and planes.
Some may remember Todd Lambeth’s paintings of cats at Deluge Gallery. This new series of paintings shows the backside of paintings. It makes for a somewhat coy statement. Not as powerful as the NYPD turning their backs on the mayor perhaps but it hints at some kind of negation or reluctance to specify the content.We have to imagine it.
This being a group show one looks inevitably for associative elements. So what is the common thread here?
They are all painters. And they all deal with representation in the sense that they use recognizable subject matter, as distinct from abstraction which so often relies on titles for reference points. Beyond that there is an unrestricted plein air feeling to the whole show that suggests an empathy for landscape. There is a perceptive essay by Wendy Welch in the catalogue which explains the concept behind the show…
‘Realities Follies questions how the real can be represented in painting through form and process….Reality in a painting can move from objective images of the world to subjective constructs based on the physical experience of creating the work’.
Not to downplay Welch’s thesis but the same can be said of sculpture, photography and even conceptual art. All art forms in fact can and do go beyond representation. Still in this context she is making a case for painters having more physical control of the reality they choose to represent as opposed to the reality of photography. She admits a consensus on what reality is might be hard to come by but she sees painters ‘letting imagination, memory and the painting process itself direct the end result’.
She describes Herndl’s paintings for instance as a kind of shorthand, a meditation on light, forms and colour whereas Leong creates a fantastical reality rom hybrid sources, Lambeth questions the nature of painting, McClelland takes a historical approach, and Witvliet speaks of survival.
Welch expands on these ideas in another essay on the VISA website.* In this essay she talks about a rebirth of painting. (Some among us would say it never died but that’s a separate debate). In an age of saturation by photo-based images Welch considers painting as relevant as it ever was. Perhaps more so.
The curators want to inspire us to make sense of our own reality. Have they been successful? The show runs until Feb 21st. so go to Open Space and decide for yourself.
The artists and curators will meet in a panel discussion on Saturday, January 17 at 2:00 pm. at Open Space.
· http://tinyurl.com/n7pdf4f
“We live in an image-world. Selfies on Facebook, instant sharing on Instagram, and photo albums on Flickr, all demonstrate our intense desire to re-present our world. Through the practice of painting, the artists in this exhibition, each in their own way, are re-presenting and interrogating the meaning of representation, and in turn, questioning our ways of perceiving reality.”
Jeremy Herndl focuses on landscape. His paintings give the sense of being created outdoors in an attempt to catch scenes glimpsed fleetingly. He is more concerned with the overall impression than with individual details and his work often borders on abstraction.
Rick Leong translates the visual language of Asian landscapes to contemporary Western formats.
Jeroen Witvliet’s paintings look at first glance like heaps of smoldering debris interwoven with branches, antlers etc. He’s probably best known for his black and white work but the pieces at Open Space contain muted colour.
Neil McClelland’s paintings of bathers manifest a Cezanne- like interest in form and planes.
Some may remember Todd Lambeth’s paintings of cats at Deluge Gallery. This new series of paintings shows the backside of paintings. It makes for a somewhat coy statement. Not as powerful as the NYPD turning their backs on the mayor perhaps but it hints at some kind of negation or reluctance to specify the content.We have to imagine it.
This being a group show one looks inevitably for associative elements. So what is the common thread here?
They are all painters. And they all deal with representation in the sense that they use recognizable subject matter, as distinct from abstraction which so often relies on titles for reference points. Beyond that there is an unrestricted plein air feeling to the whole show that suggests an empathy for landscape. There is a perceptive essay by Wendy Welch in the catalogue which explains the concept behind the show…
‘Realities Follies questions how the real can be represented in painting through form and process….Reality in a painting can move from objective images of the world to subjective constructs based on the physical experience of creating the work’.
Not to downplay Welch’s thesis but the same can be said of sculpture, photography and even conceptual art. All art forms in fact can and do go beyond representation. Still in this context she is making a case for painters having more physical control of the reality they choose to represent as opposed to the reality of photography. She admits a consensus on what reality is might be hard to come by but she sees painters ‘letting imagination, memory and the painting process itself direct the end result’.
She describes Herndl’s paintings for instance as a kind of shorthand, a meditation on light, forms and colour whereas Leong creates a fantastical reality rom hybrid sources, Lambeth questions the nature of painting, McClelland takes a historical approach, and Witvliet speaks of survival.
Welch expands on these ideas in another essay on the VISA website.* In this essay she talks about a rebirth of painting. (Some among us would say it never died but that’s a separate debate). In an age of saturation by photo-based images Welch considers painting as relevant as it ever was. Perhaps more so.
The curators want to inspire us to make sense of our own reality. Have they been successful? The show runs until Feb 21st. so go to Open Space and decide for yourself.
The artists and curators will meet in a panel discussion on Saturday, January 17 at 2:00 pm. at Open Space.
· http://tinyurl.com/n7pdf4f
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