Dear Friends and Artists:

New Exhibitions at Gallery Vertigo

An Opening Reception will be held on
Saturday, May 31st from 2 to 4pm

Please join us for complimentary coffee and cake. The artists will be in attendance.
Tigercat! will provide music for the reception.

In Gallery One:
Miranda Aschenbrenner - Space (re)Constructed

Miranda Aschenbrenner is a recent graduate of the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at UBC Okanagan where she was the recipient of several scholarships and awards. The artist has been actively exhibiting her work since graduating including solo exhibitions in Kelowna, Kamloops and Vernon and in many group shows throughout the Okanagan. Her work was included in the exhibition, Exploring Voice, an exhibition of UBC-O third year painting at Gallery Vertigo in 2006. Aschenbrenner has also been active in the Kelowna arts community both teaching and speaking about her work.

 Aschenbrenner's works are completed using acrylic paint applied to small overlapping pieces of wood.  The result lies somewhere between painting and assemblage; on the cusp of two and three dimensions. This series of layered works is based upon an underlying grid pattern and are inspired by the artist's interest in astronomy and satellite images of outerspace. She uses splatters and washes to make reference to stars, nebulae and galaxies far away. It is immediately apparent that the artist is a strong formalist. She plays boldly with layers, colours and textures to create an ambiguous sense of depth and space. The result is an energetic visual effect that can feel both balanced and unsettling for the viewer.

These paintings consist of overlapping pieces of wood placed at ninety degree angles, with flat rectangles and expressive circles painted on them. I see the elements of my paintings as being on a grid system; they are able to slide back and forth and up and down. When arranging these elements, I slide them around until they feel right. I try to create compositions that are balanced and stable as well as dynamic and lively. I want to achieve a sense of contained energy, or a vibration of the individual pieces within their allotted space. (Aschenbrenner)

As a formalist, I am interested in shape and spatial depth. I work with rectangular and curvilinear forms and the spaces between them, using layers to create a sense of depth. A need to create order and rationality in my world informs my work. I have always been a linear person and experience my life as being a series of compartmentalized events. In my paintings, this presents itself in the form of the grid. (Aschenbrenner)

The work goes through several stages of construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction. At various points throughout this process the artist adds painted elements.

This process frees me from my own tendency to become preoccupied with details and perfection as I am forced to contend with the random shapes that are created by tearing and rebuilding. The grid structure is a strategy I have utilized to make sense of the chaos. This process allows me to draw on my logical and linear strengths, while forcing me to work quickly and accept the unintended. (Aschenbrenner)

The layering of objects with a tangible thickness creates a sense of suspension and weightlessness, as if the pieces are floating. Simultaneously there is a tension between the layers that lends the paintings a feeling of vibration.

I want the viewer to be drawn into the paintings, experiencing both the weightlessness and the energy.

In Gallery Two:
Suzanne Phillips - Memory/Recall

Each photograph in Memory/Recall is a visual memory of a place the artist has visited or an experience she has had. The photograph is a means of preserving an initial impression versus a faithful duplication of what the artist sees. Time has dropped a veil over the artist's recollection of the place and the experience and this is reflected by the abstracted and minimal nature of these images. Most of the photographs are digitally produced and processed. Two of the works in the exhibition are lithographic photographs created from slides.

 These memories have become abstractions over time and are portrayed here in line, movement and other elements.  Anything that is unnecessary to the memories has been minimized or eliminated from the images. The subject of each piece has undergone or will undergo change. Some subjects are all around us, a few are difficult to access, one is an illusion and two have been enhanced by a photographic lithographic process. All are representative of a series of photographs made over a period of time. (Phillips)

 

On the North Okanagan Artists Alternative Members Wall:
Hanny Kooyman - Playing with Myth

Hanny Kooyman presents an acrylic on canvas which is part of a series of nine paintings titled "Playing with Myth". The series addresses the subject of myth and the effects mythology has had upon understanding between peoples throughout history and today. Through the study of myth throughout  the ages and around the world, the artist has endeavoured to ask questions about basic truths, and how we choose to define our beliefs.

These nine paintings have been inspired by some form of hope; aware of what is happening in today's world. One could say: reality with a twist, versus twisted reality; my own interpretation of the already interpreted, trying to connect with the old to accomplish the new. (Kooyman)

Kooyman's background is in teaching, but that changed when she immigrated to Canada from Holland. Once in Canada, she became an artist and began to exhibit her work. She recently held her first solo exhibiton at the Salmon Arm Art Gallery and has shown her series "Playing with Myth"  at the First United Church in Salmon Arm.

Not claiming to be a professional, I have always had a strong desire to express myself on paper or on canvas...from childhood on drawing has been my personal therapy to wellness; all the time discovering new ways of expressing. (Kooyman)

In the Window Gallery:
Maureen Long - Recent Work

Maureen Long has always had an interest  in all things creative, including singing, piano and the visual arts. Long is a student at Kalamalka Secondary School in Coldstream where she has gained considerable knowledge and confidence thanks to her art teacher, Brian Monteith. The artist has experimented with many mediums, including clay, watercolour, pastel, pen and ink and coloured pencil. She is now focussing on acylic painting and subjects such as family and friends and things that mean the most to her. Long has begun to exhibit her work locally and has shown work at the Vernon Art Gallery and Gallery Vertigo. This year,  she was the first high school student to have work chosen for Gallery Vertigo's Annual Juried Exhibition. Long was the recipient of a School District 22 Scholarship this year as well as an Arts Award at Kalamalka Secondary School. After graduation in June, the artist will be travelling to France to take part in a year long  Rotary Exchange program. She plans to continue her artistic endeavours there.