I recently attended the the Spring Seven show at the Federation Gallery on Granville Island, and I'd consider it a must see show (you've got one more week to check out the show, so don't miss it! Show ends May 29, 2011). The group show features work from seven artists, four of whom have now been featured on Illustrated Vancouver: Taralee Guild, Charles Keillor, Emil Kerie, Jennifer Mitton, Barbara Parkin, Grace Tan and Roger Watt. A number of the works in the show prominently feature the city of Vancouver, notably the watercolours of Emil Kerie, and large scale graphite drawings by Charles Keillor.
Fairmont by Emil Kerie (left) and On Georgia Street 4.04pm by Charles Keillor (right), at the Spring Seven show on Granville Island at the Federation Gallery May 17-29, 2011.
Whereas Kerie's small scale watercolours draw you in with their romantic colours and detail, the visual impact of Keillor's graphite drawings force you to take a step back to appreciate their bold perspective and crisp lines, strongly influenced by photography and perhaps even film noire. He tells me it took the better part of 10 years to develop his technique. He also told me about another show I have yet to see; Tom Carter at the Baron Gallery in Gastown, celebrating the city's 125th anniversary with Carter's paintings of 1950's Vancouver. One look at the gallery website and I'm already impressed!
Tom writes about the piece seen above: "It's comprised of 18"x24" panels and, as you can see, utilizes orthographic projection vs. traditional vanishing-point perspective so it can continue indefinitely in all directions. As well, I can replace individual panels with alternate versions showing other floors in the buildings, even other times of day or different decades. It's meant to be broken up so different people can own pieces of it - just like we have our own little pieces of our real cities. Eventually, I'll build an online version that people can reference to so they can see how their "piece of the city" develops over time (or how it looked in different eras)."
I also noticed that 13 new public art projects commissioned by the City of Vancouver's Public Art Program for Vancouver 125 have started popping up around town, like "A Sign for the City", a public art project by Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber that seeks to give meaning to Vancouver's Nine O'Clock Gun, and Slash Forward by Michael Turner runs to May 31 on Canada Line video screens.
In other art news, The Crying Room's "Writing on the Wall" mural continues, Centre A presents solo exhibition of Howie Tsui, Celestials of Saltwater City, May 28 - July 2, 2011, and surrealism comes to the VAG next week! Well, I'm off to see the Emily Carr Grad show once more today before it comes down; what art have you seen lately?
