//2005
November 4 - December 10, 2005
//Annual Members' Exhibition
Contempora-neo-us
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The annual members' show allows local artists to exhibit their work in a professional space, creating a dialogue about current artistic production in the community. The exhibition, held in conjunction with the annual membership drive, is a fundraising event for the gallery.
September 16 - October 22, 2005
//Out of Bounds
Scott Waters, Scott Treleaven
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Both artists investigate what constitutes society by constructing narratives in which individuals share common goals and seek fraternity. The individuals they focus on in painting and video works, inhabit specific subcultures that incorporates violence and the expression of masculine desires. The protagonists find in their subculture a vehicle to act "out of normative bounds." Waters represents in his paintings his experience in the military and categorizes it as institutionalized deviance. In Treleaven's video, on the other hand, deviance is a portrayed as social revolt.
Scott Waters (Kelowna / Toronto) creates a painting installation, Hero Book, as a social investigation and personal memoir of his experience in the Canadian military. He perceives the army as a site for idealistic young men to seek suffering and violence as a means to reinvent themselves. His images evoke a strong sense of psychological violence and tension. Waters has a BFA from Okanagan University College in Kelowna and an MFA from York University in Toronto. He has shown his work in Toronto at Birganart, the Fly Gallery and the Redhead Gallery as well as at the Ohio State University Gallery and Or Gallery in Vancouver.
Scott Treleaven's video, SALiVATION ARMY, issue X, tells the story of the rise and fall of a gang of young gay radicals, and draws heavily on the artist's own experiences publishing an underground zine of the same name. Touching on queer activism, occult sexuality and anarchic violence, Treleaven blurs distinctions between narrative, documentary and experimental video with an aesthetic related to the cut-and-paste style of underground zines. A new issue of the zine has been produced for this exhibition. Treleaven (Toronto) is best known for his zine-cum-film 'THE SALiVATION ARMY', listed by the Village Voice as one of the most notable underground films of 2002. His fiction and essays have been published internationally, and his collage work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto and Paris. An archive of images, events and writings can be found at www.scotttreleaven.com
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July 29 - September 3, 2005
//Canadian Pastoral
Toni Hafkenscheid, Teshah Kosowan, Linh Ly
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The visual points of departure for the photographs and paintings in Canadian Pastoral are sites rather than people: where you grew up, typically Canadian sites and urban environments. However, the focus is on how these sites become surrogates for individuals and their ideals. The artists explore their environment with artistic sophistication and subtle skepticism to reveal the substratum of meaning.
In his photographic process, Toni Hafkenscheid (Rotterdam / Toronto) blurs the line between reality and illusion. His landscapes and cityscapes of Canada become to the artist "something magical, as if seen through the eyes of a kid." For the spectator, his idiosyncratic photographic process, which involves using a shallow depth of field and combining areas of sharp focus with soft ones, distorts the image into something surreal and disconcerting. His photos describe the self-conscious experience of seeing. Hafkenscheid has an MFA from the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. He has exhibited his work at Dazibao in Montréal, Napier University in Edinburg, La Chambre Blanche in Québec, Desmet in Amsterdam, the Centre for Exploratory and Perceptual Art in Buffalo, the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, the E3 Gallery in New York, the Power Plant in Toronto and the Floating Gallery in Winnipeg.
Toni Hafkenscheid has a MFA from the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. He has exhibited his works at Dazibao in Montréal, Napier University in Edinburg, La Chambre Blanche in Québec, Desmet in Amsterdam, Capi Lux in Amsterdam, the Centre for Exploratory and Perceptual Art in Buffalo, the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, the E3 Gallery in New York, the Power Plant in Toronto and the Floating Gallery in Winnipeg.
Teshah Kosowan (Kelowna) grew up in Northern Alberta in the T&E Trailer Court, which was run by her grandparents. She reflects on this background and the negative stereotype of trailer parks in skillfully rendered paintings that portray a single mobile home in flattened space. The images waver between stereotype, enigmatic icon and metaphorical self-portrait. Kosowan has a BFA from NSCAD University in Halifax. She has exhibited at the Anna Leon Owens Gallery in Halifax, the Templeton Gallery in Vancouver and Argyle Fine Art in Halifax.
Linh Ly (Calgary) photographs unspecific spaces between more recognizable architecture in various Canadian cities. Her travelogue of anti-landmarks allows reflection on her transient childhood and the relationship between site and identity. Linh Ly has a BFA from the University of Calgary.
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June 10 - July 16, 2005
//Im-Material
Virginia Abbott, Ilze Bebris, Carin Covin
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Im-Material focuses on the fragility and emphemeral nature of material. Artists consider how thoughtful interventions in a space and careful manipulation of material can engender poetic resonance. In their choice of subject matter - lifelines, listening and remembering - the artists try to express the immaterial through the material, using process as a metaphor for human experience.
Virginia Abbott (Victoria, B.C.) and Ilze Bebris (Vancouver) collaborate in a project called Lifelines, an explorative site-specific installation. Their intent is to construct complex structures made of materials such as plastic, paper and thin pieces of wood held together with glue. The installation is a tenuous, provisional negotiation with material and space that suggests a meditation on collaborative process and the fragility of human structures.
Carin Covin (Kelowna, B.C.) presents an installation, Word, in four components: thinking, speaking, listening and remembering. Each component is illustrated by a different material processes. Her use of delicate materials - paper and collaged paper fibers - as well as what she calls non-materials - cut-outs and cast shadows - are in perfect tune with the subtle concepts she tries to convey.
Virginia Abbott has a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver. She has exhibited in British Columbia at the Richmond Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and Open Space in Victoria.
Ilze Bebris has a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver. She has shown in British Columbia at Open Space in Victoria, the Nanaimo Art Gallery and the Prince George Art Gallery.
Carin Covin has a BFA from Okanagan University College. She has shown her work in British Columbia at the Art Ark Gallery in Kelowna, the Vernon Public Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
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April 22 - May 28, 2005
//Big Wok (Big Trouble) Café
Karen Tam
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Chinese restaurants in North America project strong and specific ideas of what China was and is to Westerners. Tam considers take-out and family establishments that cater to the non-Chinese population, exploring how they reflect the immigrant experience, create cultural signifiers and become sites for identity and misperceptions between Western and Chinese cultures. Tam uses her memories of growing up with her parents, the owners of Restaurant Au Sept Bonheurs in Montréal.
Karen Tam (Montréal) has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Tam has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, the Centre MAI in Montréal, the Khyber Centre for the Arts in Halifax and the Alarm Gallery in Chicago.
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March 4 - April 9, 2005
//Engagé
Svava Thordis Juliusson
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Svava Thordis Juliusson presents recent research and material explorations from a body of work titled Offal. This work deals poetically with the tragic impact of diseases that affect livestock. Offal is the inedible portion of animals, a waste by-product of the meat-packing industry that is often rendered into commercial products. Juliusson explores the implications of this transformation, and its link to the spread of diseases, as a metaphor for contemporary experience.
OUC students Jose Gates, Cherie Stocken, Kyle Zsombor, Patricia Garbin, Brian Joubert and Ed Spence were chosen to participate in this exhibition based on the artistic quality of their work and its relation to the theme of political and social engagement.
Svava Thordis Juliusson has a BFA from NSCAD University in Halifax. She has exhibited at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, N.B., the Eye Level Gallery in Halifax and the Khyber Centre for the Arts in Halifax.
January 14 - February 19, 2005
//Futuristic Regalia
Curator: Daina Warren
Futuristic Regalia is a curatorial proposal presented by Daina Warren (Vancouver) for two emerging contemporary First Nations artists - Peter Morin (Vancouver) and Sonny Assu (Vancouver). Both artists work with the wearable costume as a means to represent an indigenous body, while dealing with the stereotypes and realities of aboriginal communities. They reconnect with history through the language of ceremonial clothing, the use of traditional family crests and the incorporation of organic materials. Concepts of past and present experiences and how to create a positive synthesis for the future is at the core of this curatorial statement.
Daina Warren is a curator and First Nations contemporary artist based in Vancouver.
Sonny Assu has a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver. He has shown his work at the Grunt Gallery in Vancouver and the Richmond Art Gallery in Richmond, B.C.
Peter Morin has a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver. He has shown his work at the Grunt Gallery in Vancouver and the Richmond Art Gallery in Richmond, B.C.
The original brochure is available in PDF format.
January 14 - February 19, 2005
//Portraits and Landscapes
Curator: David Ross
Hanan Harchol (New York / Israel) has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has exhibited at the Jersey City Museum, the Chicago Cultural Centre and the Hebrew Union College Museum in New York. Harchol's animations have been screened at the Brooklyn Jewish Film Festival, the San Diego International Film Festival, the Syracuse International Film Festival and the San Diego Jewish Film Festival.
Julie Lequin (Montrèal) has an MFA from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. She has exhibited her work at the San Francisco Art Institute, the Diego Rivera Gallery in San Francisco and the Sandra Goldie Gallery in Montrèal.
Adad Hannah (Montrèal) has an MFA from Concordia University in Montrèal. He has exhibited at Dazibao in Montrèal, TPW in Toronto, the Museum of New Art in Detroit, the Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum, and SAW Gallery in Ottawa. His work has been included in film festivals in the Netherlands, Bosnia, Poland and Korea.
Bryan Zanisnik (New York) has a BA from Drew University in New Jersey. He has exhibited his works in Brooklyn at the Dumbo Arts Festival and the Brewster Project.
Cory Bildstein (Vancouver / Kelowna) has a BFA from Okanagan University College. He has shown his work at the Images Festival in Toronto.
Jaye Rhee has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Rhee has participated in the Goat Island Summer Performance Workshop in Chicago and has exhibited at the Baths Gallery in Belfast, the Soap Factory in Minneapolis, the Andrew Bae Gallery in Chicago and Gallery St. Eustache in Paris.
The original brochure is available in PDF format.
