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| CVAG Show N Tell Series•Artist Talks & Workshops | |||
| Admission is by donation (suggested minium $2 - $5) Wednesday afternoons at the gallery, from 3:30 to 4:30pm Starting September 9th 2009, CVAG introduces its informal lecture/forum series titled “Show N Tell at CVAG”. The Show N Tell takes place Wednesday afternoons at the gallery, from 3:30pm to 4:30pm, open to the public, admission is by donation (suggested minium $2 - $5) Why Show N Tell? Any person with an interest in the visual arts is invited to host a 'Show N Tell'. Whether you’re an art student, art collector, art practitioner, or supporter this is an opportunity to promote your cultural involvement with arts in the valley and meet others in the arts community to exchange ideas, contacts and information. Do I have to show my own artwork? No, as long as it is visual arts related, you can give a talk about art or artists that you like (or don’t like). - It can be about your travels that relate to visual art (museum, gallery, architecture, etc). - You can present about art movements that interest you. - Maybe you collect something and would like to share it with others. - Maybe you have a thesis to share. - Maybe you have a cultural theory to share? And yes, you can show your own artwork too! FMI or to present a Show N Tell, contact Anh Le programs@comoxvalleyartgallery.com or 250-338-6211 top of page |
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| Wednesday, January 20, 2010 3:30 to 4:30pm Ron Pogue You Can Have What You Want A project documenting the changing face of Cumberland Ron Pogue completed his Fine Arts diploma at North Island College and a BFA in Photography at Emily Carr University in Vancouver BC in 2001. He served on the Board of CVAG from 1997-99, and was the editor and production manager of the NIC student newspaper during his time there. Pogue has also worked as a Studio Tech at NIC, Digital Photo Lab Operator at Studio One in Courtenay, commercial photographer’s assistant, and Photo Lab Tech at Emily Carr University. You Can Have What You Want was originally inspired by the lofty standards of Eugène Atget, 1857 – 1927; a French photographer noted for his photographs documenting the architecture and street scenes of Paris and Brassaï (Gyula Halász), 1899 – 1984, a Hungarian photographer, sculptor, and filmmaker who rose to fame in France. Pogue’s practice has followed a much less idealized pathway, often finding him documenting garbage on the street. The project is also intended to explore notions of Home, and the ways in which we seek our place in the world, and how we mark our territory once we have chosen it and called it our own. Pogue is also exploring concerns of public and private space, trespass and voyeurism, the latter perhaps being an undertone of any photo-documentation. top of page |
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| A Special Show N' Tell Presentation Tuesday, January 26 , 2010 1:00 to 4:30pm Ping-Cheng Lu, Tony Ong, Hsun-Ping Wang, Ya-Chu Kang, Sun-Yen Chen & Chun-Cheng Chien These six Taiwanese artists have been invited to participate in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games to create artworks. Ping-Cheng Lu is a designer and artist who uses metals, daily living objects and recycle materials, and is involved in landscape planning and design of large-scale facilities and playground equipment. Tony Ong is a ceramic & multi-material artist and director of Kiln Art Enterprise Co. Ltd. Being committed to education in ceramics, he has organized a number of national and international seminars. He has traveled extensively to research and study ceramics including Japan, China, Singapore, Nepal, USA. Hsun-Ping Wang is a fiber artist, multi-media artist and Graduate student of National Tainan Art University. Wang tells us: “The fun of anti-cute, anti-traditional, anti-symmetries anti-aesthetics is my biggest pleasure in creation. From this point, the ugly family was born.” Ya-Chu Kang is a visual artist working with installation and mix-media. Recent projects explore the relationship between the body and the external environment. The materials of this project are on paper, plastic sheets, cloth and other fiber to combine complex media and imaging, use space as the presentation device. Shu-Yen Chen is a fiber art instructor of aboriginal communities and Don-How University. Making art, for Chen, is a reconfirmation for the sense of self existence, a route to dig inside and link self to the surroundings, it is, as well, an effort and a proof of a life to work against time passing by so that there could be something or some traces left over. Chun-Cheng Chien is a mixed media sculptor and art teacher of Taipei Municipal Fuxing Senior High School. ”Corresponds to the relationship between man and nature” is the creation of long-term focus for Chien. He deeply studied the relationship between ecology, time, and space and so on into his art works. top of page |
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010 A Few Art Works I Don’t Like: Have you ever wondered what makes art work bad? Is it the subject matter? Maybe it is the materials or the brush strokes perhaps. |
 Donald Judd, Untitled, 1967 |
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| Wednesday, February 3, 2010 3:30 to 4:30pm ROBERT MOON VISUAL ARTS - During and After the Cultural Revelation of the Sixties Robert Moon graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1970 with a BFA in painting and an MFA in printmaking. He taught printmaking and drawing at the University of California at Berkeley and at San Francisco State University 1971-79. Moon actively showed in galleries and museums in New York and California from 1970-86. Arriving in Canada in 1986, he pursued a career as a Scenic Painter and Special Effects Coordinator in the film industry. Moon presently maintains a studio in Tin Town where he produces art work in a variety of materials as well as design sets for the local theater community. He most recently designed sets for the Courtenay Little Theatre pantomime, Cleopatra in De Nile. Visual Arts - During and After the Cultural Revelation of the Sixties will be an eye witness account of the sixties during the cultural revolution in San Francisco. Robert Moon began his studies in 1963 at the San Francisco Art Institute. It was about this time that many changes in attitudes swept through society and the arts. This talk is the personal viewpoint of an artist who lived through the changes and how those experiences molded his career and philosophy of art. top of page |
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| Wednesday, February 10, 2010 3:30 to 4:30pm Film Screening: CHRISTO IN PARIS Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Deborah Dickson & Susan Froemke, 1990 / 58 mins About the Film: Winner of the Grand Prize at the Amsterdam Film Festival (1990) and Best Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival (1990), CHRISTO IN PARIS explore’s Christo’s escape from Bulgaria, his early years as a struggling artist, his romance with Jeanne-Claude and the fulfillment of a ten-year obsession: the wrapping of the Pont Neuf (French for ‘New Bridge’ is the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine) in Paris, France. “Never did anyone look at the Pont Neuf as much as the day it was hidden . . . Christo teaches us to see.” - Jack Lang, French Minister of Culture About Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Christo (born Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, 1935) and Jeanne-Claude (born Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, June 13, 1935 - November 18, 2009) were a married couple who created environmental works of art. Their works include the wrapping of the Reichstag in Berlin and the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris, the 24-mile-long artwork called ‘Running Fence’ in Sonoma and Marin counties in California, and ‘The Gates’ in New York City’s Central Park. Coincidentally Christo and Jeanne-Claude were born on the same date. They first met in Paris in October 1958. To avoid confusing the public and art dealers they used only the name ‘Christo’ until 1994 when most of the works were retroactively by ‘Christo and Jeanne-Claude’ and some were by ‘Christo’ alone. They flew in separate planes, in case one crashed, the other could continue their work. Jeanne-Claude died, aged 74, on November 18, 2009, from complications of a brain aneurysm. top of page |
 Christo and Jeanne-Claude  Pont Neuf in Paris, France |
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| Wednesday, February 17, 2010 3:30 to 4:30pm MEGAN WILSON DAMN THE REGIME! Art and Other Things We Impose On Ourselves Megan Wilson was born in Saskatoon, spent much of her childhood in Auroville, India and eventually moved to Vancouver to attend the University of British Columbia (BHK). She received a BFA from Emily Carr Institute and a MFA from Simon Fraser University. She currently resides in Cumberland and is a sessional instructor at the North Island College and Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Since 2003, her work has been exhibited in Canada, the USA, England and Wales. Damn the Regime! Art and Other Things We Impose On Ourselves will take a look at the mostly overlooked but habitually controversial art-making practice loosely defined as ‘Durational Performance’. In the most general terms, Durational Performance describes artists who impose a regime on their daily life and dare to call it art. When confronted with these practices, the primary question for the viewer is often WHY?! This talk will attempt to address this question through a discussion of work by Vito Acconci, Bas Jan Ader, Sophie Calle, Tehching Hsieh, Ellie Harrison and many others. top of page |
  Tehching Hsieh |
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| Wednesday, February 24, 2010 3:30 to 4:30pm MARTIN HAGARTY, Architect, M.A.I.B.C. WHAT MAKES A GREAT MODERN PUBLIC BUILDING? Martin Hagarty was born and raised in Victoria, arriving in the Comox Valley in 1973. After technical training at BCIT, and working with local artchitect Alan Murnaghan, he started his own home design business in 1980. In 1991, an invitation to volunteer with a major project to restore homes destroyed in the Oakland Hills Fire (USA) resulted in Martin completing his BA at UVic and then his Masters of Architecture in 1997 at UBC. Martin joined the firm of Thomas Dishlevoy Architecture in Comox in 2000, and was a Project Architect with Dishlevoy & Hagarty Architecture until 2008. He now has his own firm based in the Comox Valley. What makes a Great Modern Public Building? is based on travels by Martin and his wife, Sue, through Europe, New Zealand and Australia in 2008/09 including attending the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona in October 2009. We will view iconic buildings they explored and see some of the best examples of expressive modernism and examples of other buildings that tried hard but didn’t succeed. Martin will also discuss the qualities that define expressive modernism and how they make a building ‘great’. top of page |
  Sydney Opera House |
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| Wednesday, March 17, 2010 3:30 to 4:30pm JULIA CRUCIL THE MAP AS ART Julia Crucil quit teaching high school English and Social Studies after fifteen years, and enrolled in the Fine Arts Program at North Island College. Now, entering her fourth and final year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts through Emily Carr University, she has been returning to her academic roots, exploring topics in literary criticism, historiography, cultural theory, social psychology, and criminology as they apply to visual arts. In real life, she has a brilliant and funny husband who is in deeply lost in his Master’s thesis, two tween step-children, and a bent for traveling rivaled only by her love of a unique microbrew. THE MAP AS ART will discuss the ways contemporary and historical artists are using concepts in geography and the language of maps and geographical diagrams, towards the end of global awareness. We will examine the work of Antonia Hirsch, William Patterson Ewen, Julie Mehretu, Ross Racine, Fernando Vicente, Val Britton, Paula Scher, Francesca Berrini, and Emily Prince. top of page |
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| Wednesday, March 31, 2010 3:30 to 4:30pm Fran Benton, Curator Nanaimo Art Gallery AGAINST EXCAVATION: How I Used My Art To Keep Sane Fran Benton lives and works on Vancouver Island. She has degrees in visual arts from Camosun College, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, and the University of Victoria. Her studio practice currently includes work in video, sculpture, performance, painting,and drawing. Fran is a keen recycler and often uses found objects to create new work. She teaches art at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo. Her teaching areas include sculpture, ceramics, contemporary art practice, and digital art processes. Fran is currently seconded to the Nanaimo Art Gallery as curator. Against Excavation: How I Used My Art To Keep Sane will explore Fran Benton's experiences creating art projects that deal with the issues of environmental destruction and urban overdevelopment. She will be showing the ways she found to take her art practice in different directions by working outside of the gallery experience. Fran Benton Exhibition, CVAG Public Gallery March 6 - April 17, 2010. top of page |
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Johann Peter Wieghardt: Art Talk, January 16 Jackson 2Bears: Performance, March 5 • Clare Singleton: Workshops & Art Talk, March 27 Fran Benton: Art Talk, March 31 • Gregory Ball: Art Talk, April 17 |
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 Johann Peter Wieghardt  J.P. Wieghardt, The Machine As Metaphor For The Cosmic Oil on canvas, 2008 top of page |
Art talk features portrait painter & sculptor Johann Peter Wieghardt Comox Valley Art Gallery presents exhibiting artist Johann Peter Wieghardt in an Art Talk at the gallery on Saturday January 16th at 11am. Admission to the talk is by suggested donation of $2 – $5. About the artwork In an exhibit titled BEHIND THE FACE, Johann P. Wieghardt will be exhibiting oil paintings, acrylic paintings and carved/assemblage wood sculptures which are colourful, expressive and somewhat disconcerting portraits of humans and animals. These are not portraits meant to flatter, but rather to reveal and probe into the psyche of the subject, reflecting us to ourselves. Wieghardt paints what he calls “Conceptual Realism”; “…that besides our consciousness and perception, a pure reality exists which we can experience through thinking, feeling, and awareness, this is the realism I aim to communicate with my art.” He states that often we think we know another person, but asks us to consider what is truly behind the face of another person. He aims to combine classical art processes from the tradition of art history, sociological events, and a deep spiritual dimension to tell a visual story of his surroundings and culture; one that is full of fantasy, imagination and magic. About the talk: Wieghardt will discuss his ideas and inspiration BEHIND THE FACE, namely that we think we know someone, but truly we only understand our idea of that person. He believes that can never know exactly what is behind the face of someone else and that inside each of us is a world that we cannot share with each other. He states that through intuition we each can gain a greater recognition of our essential nature and meet on common ground. He will use a number of art pieces in the exhibition to explain his artistic approach. About Johann Peter Wieghardt Johann Peter Wieghardt was born in Westfalia, Germany. He apprenticed as a wood sculptor for 3 years 1984-87 in Michelstadt and then completed a German BFS/MFA at the Academy of Fine Art, Braunschweig. Emigrating to BC, Canada in 1996, he currently resides in Vancouver, working out of studios in Vancouver BC and Berlin, Germany. His artwork has been exhibited in various cities in Germany and Spain and several Vancouver galleries. Johann Peter Wieghardt, BEHIND THE FACE CVAG Public Gallery, January 16 - February 27, 2010. |
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 Chief Joseph Brant Memorial, Brantford, Ontario, 1886 |
Jackson 2Bears: Friday, March 5 8:30 - 9:00 pm Performance-Conjuration: Channelling the Ghost of Mohawk War Chief Joseph Brant Joseph Brant (1742–1807): "Our wise men are called Fathers, and they truly sustain that character. Do you call yourselves Christians? Does the religion of Him who you call your Savior inspire your spirit, and guide your practices? Surely not. It is recorded of him that a bruised reed he never broke.Cease then to call yourselves Christians, lest you declare to the world your hypocrisy.Cease too to call other nations savage, when you are tenfold more the children of cruelty than they. No person among us desires any other reward for performing a brave and worthwhile action, but the consciousness of having served his nation. I bow to no man for I am considered a prince among my own people. But I will gladly shake your hand." Joseph Brant to King George III  Jackson 2Bears Jackson 2Bears website Jackson 2Bears Exhibition, CVAG Public Gallery March 6 - April 17, 2010. |
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  'Arbutus Blue Bird', from the Parallels of Movement series top of page |
Clare Singleton: Saturday March 27 10:00 - 11:30 am Youth workshop ‘Drawing Birds and People’ Register by March 20, cost $30 includes some supplies 1:00 - 3:00 pm Adult workshop ‘Painting Birds and People: Exploring Migration’ Register by March 20, cost $40 includes some supplies 3:30 - 4:30 pm Art Talk ‘The Growth of Artistic Process’ Admission by donation, suggested $2 - $5 This talk will be based on Clare Singleton’s work Parallels of Movement, in which screen printed birds, angels and figures on acetate are suspended to allow the slightest movement of a person on their journey to move the birds and figures. The viewer becomes part of the journey and part of the Parallels of Movement. Singleton will begin the talk discussing the evolution of her career through commercial and educational endeavors to the present where she is focused on the creative process. This will be an interactive talk inviting artists in any discipline to discuss their creative process. About Clare Singleton: Clare's personal quest is to paint and do inquiries through art of the joy in small town life which she feels is fast disappearing. Travelling across BC and Canada regularly she finds the wild and open places inspiring, and the privations of basic living only enhance the power of her work. "The prairies, the bird migrations, the fields, and the clouds shape a people. These overlaps fascinate me." She considers herself a story artist, documenting small town Canadiana in painting, soft sculpture and storywork. Clare Singleton Exhibition, CVAG Public Gallery March 6 - April 17, 2010. |
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 'Tagging Red', acrylic on silk, 2009 top of page |
Fran Benton: Wednesday March 31 Art Talk 3:30 - 4:30 pm ‘Against Excavation: How I Used My Art To Keep Sane’ Admission by donation, suggested $2 - $5 Fran Benton will talk about her experience creating art projects that deal with the issues of environmental destruction and urban overdevelopment. She will be showing the ways she found to take her art practice in different directions by working outside of the gallery experience. About Fran Benton: Fran Benton lives and works on Vancouver Island. She has degrees in visual arts from Camosun College, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, and the University of Victoria. Her studio practice currently includes work in video, sculpture, performance, painting,and drawing. Fran is a keen recycler and often uses found objects to create new work. She teaches art at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo. Her teaching areas include sculpture, ceramics, contemporary art practice, and digital art processes. Fran is currently seconded to the Nanaimo Art Gallery as curator. Fran Benton Exhibition, CVAG Public Gallery March 6 - April 17, 2010. |
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 Rotation #5, graphite on paper top of page |
Gregory Ball: Saturday April 17 Art Talk 1:00 - 2:00 pm ‘Transfigurations: The Sublime and Profane’ Admission by donation, suggested $2 - $5 Artistic History: Gregory Ball was born and raised in Victoria, B.C. In his early teens he apprenticed as a gardener in his father’s landscaping company and worked in some of the wealthiest neighborhoods of Victoria. While gardening, Ball began to consider both the natural landscape in which he worked and the power structures that dominated them; two themes that would appear in hisfuture art practice. After completion of the Visual Art program at Camosun College in Victoria program in 1984, Ball graduated with an honors degree in drawing and painting from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1986. He continued to work as a fine artist until his acceptance into the Banff Centre's Artist in Residence program in 1989. After a year at the Banff Centre Ball moved to Montreal, Quebec and embarked on a Graduate Degree in Printmaking at Concordia University where he graduated in 1994. He then returned to Vancouver Island and, in 1999 accepted a position in the Visual Art department at Malaspina – University College in Nanaimo, B.C. Ball continues to teach in the areas of drawing and printmaking and was curator at the Nanaimo Art Gallery on Campus from 2005 to 2009. Gregory Ball Exhibition, CVAG Public Gallery March 6 - April 17, 2010. |
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