You probably didn't know this but in my previous life, before I founded V.I.A. and got wholly swallowed up by this positivity machine that I love, I worked primarily as a creative director/designer/fine art photographer. One of the highlights of my career happened in 2004 when Holy Water of London published a book of my photography entitled Beach Glass, a collection of images I shot over three years while living in Los Angeles (HERE is the info on it). When I moved back to Vancouver in the mid-2000's I wanted to shoot the city in exactly the same fashion, using the same camera, film and processing that I had shot LA with, and I had the thought in my mind that after three years I would scan all of the images, edit through them and pitch it to a publisher as a followup to Beach Glass. It's now been 4 years since I wrapped the project and this massive pile of negatives is still sitting idle as I tend to the daily fires. I doubt I'll ever pitch it as a book now but I hope to release the images slowly over the next couple of years in a fashion I have not yet decided upon. Who knows, maybe I'll approach a gallery and see if they want to show them as a collection.
The long and the short of what I want to tell you today is that one of the photos from this pile is in an exhibition this week, the first show I've been in perhaps since I was represented by the Elliott Louis Gallery years ago. And instead of my work being editioned C-prints priced at $1400 like it was there you can buy as many large format prints as you want for $15 each. Yes, fifteen dollars. And by "large format" I mean they're being printed on the spot at 2 feet by 3 feet in size. Here's the print I've submitted:
And of course I'm not alone in this show. Curator, Calen Knauf, has brought together some of Vancouver's finest visual artists to contribute to what will hopefully end up draining the printer of all of it's ink (the prints are being digitally printed on the spot when you buy them) and getting a ton of great work up on the walls of homes around the city.
The opening reception is this Saturday, September 24 at Cutty Contemporary Art Gallery, 564 Beatty Street.
The official word:
Unlimited Editions is a group exhibition, which features artist's works printed in digital format, large scale, and made to order on location. The exhibition showcasing a group of contemporary artists, is unique in that every piece is printed only upon request. The exhibit investigates ideas in, the commodity of art, exhibiting space, information and technology and how it pertains to art making practices.
Featured artists:
Mila Franovic
Mark Gainor
Chris Allen
Dan Climan
Victor Briestensky
Tyler Quarles
Bob Kronbauer
Niall Hamill
Aaron Chan
Calen Knauf
Conrad Brown
Greg Papove
Natasha Lands
