Skip to main content

Beaux Arts sculptural metal exhibition now open at Il Centro Art Gallery, Vancouver.

The Beaux Arts exhibition, curated by Angela Clarke at Il Centro Art Gallery, Vancouver, was developed with the Vancouver Metal Arts Association. The work of nineteen artists is included, and I am very honoured to be one of them. Huge thanks and kudos to the volunteer members of VMAA who have managed to organize and install a professional show under the current incredibly difficult conditions.

To quote from Il Centro’s web-site:

As the first exhibition in our Charles Marega 150 celebrations series Il Museo at Il Centro presents Beaux Arts: An Exhibition with the Vancouver Metal Arts Association. This exhibition features the sculptural metal art form both large and small. Entitled Beaux Arts in honour of the artist style of which Charles Marega was an interpreter, this juried show integrates traditional metal work with non-traditional styles and elements, true to the Beaux Arts form. Throughout the exhibition space there is a continuous juxtaposition of traditional and non- traditional aesthetics and materials. In addition to beautifully wrought metals in full scale sculptural size there are also opulent pieces of wearable art, jewelry that is ornamental but conveys significant social commentary. Then there are those ephemeral pieces which are created from found objects. Washed up on the shore, smoothed out, weathered and rough-hewn for a lifetime at sea, these mystifying pieces of unknown origin are brought to life again as a result of the artist’s hand and eye which sees their true beauty and conceives in them a new- and surprising-functionality.

Detail shot of The Standard Iris, a 23” tall wall-mounted aluminium iris petal.

My piece, All About Iris, has three large wall-mounted sculptural metal petals. The petals are made by hammer-forming, forging, repoussé, and chasing. 

There will be lots more pictures, video, and content to share over the coming weeks--the show is a partner exhibition in the Crafted Vancouver Festival May 1-25, 2021.  

Beaux Arts exhibition runs April 8 - June 30, 2021.

Map to find Il Centro Art Gallery
3075 Slocan St
Vancouver BC

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

narrative jewellery: tales from the toolbox book launch

For every piece of jewellery I make there is a story. It can be simple, just a note on the “why?” that led to the forms and textures, or the feeling that I want to remember. Sometimes the single idea that could become a piece, conceived way before the act of making, can become so over-whelming that I need to write a whole new reality for the jewellery to exist within. That’s how it was for “Pull”, the first piece of jewellery in a body of work that became the ReFind Collection *. It caused me to look at materials in my home, especially the things that were routinely thrown away, very differently. It was like waking up to realize I just hadn’t been paying the right kind of attention to all the “stuff” in other areas of my life; realizing that maybe jewellery could be linked to something as obscure as industrial-scale food-processing and packaging—if I allowed my mind to receive the information, differently. I am very honoured that my necklace has been included in Mark Fenn’s new
Post a Comment
Read more

my brand: I am a nerd

His & Hers Nerd Pendants. Sterling silver. 2011. There is no point in denying it: I am a nerd. I designed these pendants for the "Branded" exhibition at the fabulous Influx Gallery in Calgary this summer. I like to bring my background in science and natural history into my art work, and in this case, I also brought some political advocacy. In an era in which some cultures still deny females equal access to education, I used the loaded motif of the apple to create a context to present the writing to the viewer. Here's the full artist statement: His and her “ nerd ” pendants confidently declare affiliation with a tribe that delights in knowledge, education and technology. Nerdism nourishes the world around us, and we are proud of that contribution. His “ nerd ” pendant is about strength in identity. Styled after a traditional branding iron, the pendant is a rugged and substantial piece of silver, designed to perpetuate this important meme beyond one life
2 comments
Read more