Join us for the opening of our member’s exhibition, Exposed! The reception will take place on October 17 from 6-8 PM at the Vernon Public Art Gallery.
The community is warmly invited to join in the celebration, meet the artists, and enjoy a short talk by some of the artists about their exhibition. Light bites and drinks will be served, and entry is by donation.
The opening reception for our new exhibition, Rewilding: The Forest Will Forget Us, will take place on October 3 from 6-8 PM at the Vernon Public Art Gallery.
The community is warmly invited to join in the celebration, meet the artists, and enjoy a short talk by some of the artists about their exhibition. Light bites and drinks will be served, and entry is by donation.
Rewilding: The Forest Will Forget Us, Lyndal Osborne, John Freeman, Liz Ingram, Bernd Hildebrandt
Exhibition on view from October 3 – December 20
The exhibition Rewilding: The Forest Will Forget Us, created by Lyndal Osborne and John Freeman, and Liz Ingram and Bernd Hildebrandt, is an exhibit about the resilience of nature as witnessed in land sited on a boreal forest lake in Alberta. In the process they acknowledge the many other stories that go back millennia, and which have been shaped by people living and surviving on the land. These legends and beliefs are now re-emerging from oral histories of the original peoples of these lands and help us to shape our common existence within nature.
Exposed! VPAG Member Exhibition
Exhibition on view from October 17 – December 20
This group exhibition of artwork produced by the Vernon Public Art Gallery’s members give the public a view of a variety of different media used to create works of art in various artistic genres ranging from abstract art to landscapes, still lives, and portraiture.
The opening reception for our Midsummer’s Eve of the Arts Auction Preview will take place on June 27th.
The community is warmly invited to join in the celebration and preview all of the artwork that will be available for bidding during the auction at Midsummer’s Eve of the Arts. Light bites and drinks will be served, and entry is by donation.
The opening reception for our new exhibitions will be on July 25, from 6-8 PM at the Vernon Public Art Gallery.
Opening on July 25th are the following:
Descent into Classicism by Glenn Clark
The community is warmly invited to join in the celebration, meet the artists, and enjoy a short talk by some of the exhibiting artists about their exhibitions. Light bites and drinks will be served, and entry is by donation.
Inside Out: Lana Schuster
Exhibition on view from July 25 – September 17
Artist statement:
I am interested in so many things about painting. The paint for one. I love to scoop it up, squeeze it out, and mix it around, watch the colours develop, spread it around, see what happens, how the colours and forms look against each other. The brushes for another. I have my favourites. Mostly the ones that hold a lot of paint. The ‘Why paint?’ Because I am compelled to, I can’t not. The ‘How to paint?’ Now it’s getting really interesting. Because this is what it’s really all about. I try to stay open to new ideas, to the suggestions of my voice inside, my outside voice. It is all about trusting the process and being willing to paint authentically, to be part of something new.
The beginnings of my process may start with observing what’s around me. Or it could be a response with something going on internally that I may or may not be aware of. That can be as dramatic as the experience of losing a loved one or simply just wanting to spread some paint around. I’m often moved to paint after I’ve spent time outdoors. Sometimes I start with a plan for a landscape or a concrete image and then I get lost in the paint and process and something completely non-objective emerges. My intuition takes over, if I let it, if I trust it, if I allow myself.
Creating these works surprise me every time. What you see in them is an expression of an experience, a record of an experience in time, something in the past that has passed but truly lives on in the painting. What you see in them is what you see in them – what is evoked or personally meaningful for you. I hope that in looking at them, you will feel something, see something, perhaps even experience something that resonates with you.
Descent into Classicism: Glenn Clark
Exhibition on view from July 25 – September 17
Artist statement:
When I was young, I dreamed and schemed of creating neo-classical paintings. There are a lot of ducks one must put in a row before mural size classical themed paintings can develop. Fifteen years ago, I took a couple years off my regular practice to build a studio and that opened the gate of possibilities.
I always get there it just takes me longer. Beyond the space and gumption, an artist needs the reason, finances, imagery, time, ambition and lots of practice to create this type of work. After visiting the Louvre in 2016 there was a jolt, my paintings would look to the past for guidance. It finally all came together and I suspect this descent is turning into something more akin to a spiral.
It always seemed to me that classical artists from previous centuries had better props to work with; horses, armor, castles and archaic ruins. I needed new models to push ahead and a photo shoot at a jousting event in Osoyoos was perfect to get started.
What drives an artist; is it the fear of death? The love for life and art are interconnected. When you look at centuries old work you sense a window into the past, a connection, a message or warning through this time hole called a painting. You see how things were, the humor, mood, fashion, cruelty of the time. It’s like the artists were reaching out through a one-way portal to the future, never wanting to let go, hanging on through their art.
Timing is everything and it’s a good time for artists to take cues from the eighteenth century and beyond when art famously rebelled against the status quo. People are consistent, history repeats. Neo-classicism, the art of the time of the French Revolution, arguably the most important chapter in the history of modern civilization; the perfect art for a time of upheaval. All these influences; art history, my own history, and the current events that are making history. You throw that in a studio with yours truly and this is what shakes out.
The opening reception for the four new exhibitions will be on May 23rd, from 6-8 PM at the Vernon Public Art Gallery.
Opening on May 23rd are the following:
Emergence by UBCO BFA Students
Through Our Eyes by Members of the Teen Junction
An Eclectic Collection by Members of the VPAG Crit Club
The community is warmly invited to join in the celebration, meet the artists, and enjoy a short talk by some of the exhibiting artists about their exhibitions. Light bites and drinks will be served, and entry is by donation.
Accidentals: Robert Fee
Exhibition on view from May 23 – July 17
Artist statement:
The title of the show “Accidentals” refers to the musical term indicating a temporary shift in a musical composition. Once the key of a song is established, an instrumentalist reading the music will encounter a note has been made sharp or flat for that bar and they must adjust. Then the music will default back to the original key for the subsequent bars, until the composer creates another shift somewhere else. At first this temporary change may be a mystery to the individual player, but to the composer there is underlying meaning; a change in the harmony, or a different scale with a particular sound. What might have seemed a random change always has a purposeful intention. The accidental always adds more tension, drama, and interest to the piece.
With these paintings, I gather structures randomly, as you would with a collage, and I start creating parameters and set a course for the work. At first, the paintings seem to be about something unintended; mostly from imagery I gravitate towards but not knowing where it will fit into the work. Some of the strangest references that I choose do seem like random accidentals; not knowing how they will relate to the whole. Often, I’ll find a phrase or image that materializes out of simple curiosity.
I engage with the visual challenge, integrating and editing the accidental imagery into the painting. A quiet interaction takes place between the images, their potential subtext and my brushwork and colour palette. The compositions involve a process that channels energy around and throughout. The process of additions and revisions repeats until ultimately the composition appears resolved. I like discovering beauty or humour that may reveal itself in this process. The paintings involve some free association, which probably also involves my own psychology, but I hope these connections have some universal resonance.
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