untitled, 2005
Graeme Berglund
acrylic on board
18 x 22 in.
courtesy of Douglas Udell Gallery
enlarge

Graeme is a self taught Vancouver based painter and a regular contributing illustrator for the Georgia Straight. Graeme is currently writing his first novel titled, "Dredged your Bath." He is the lead vocalist for the band Revenue Kanada, and is one of the founding members of the now defunct Fracture Industries, Vancouver's largest art collective. He is also at work on designing his first line of gothic japanese inspired furniture which is set for a spring 2006 launch. Graeme's artwork is represented in western Canada by the Douglas Udell Gallery.

Furaha (Joyful Happiness), 2005
Lisa Birke
oil on canvas
60 x 36 in.
courtesy of BAU-XI Gallery
enlarge

Lisa Birke is a practicing artist in Vancouver working primarily in painting, sculptural installation and most recently performance art. Since graduating from Emily Carr Institute in 1999 ( BFA), Lisa has had both private and public solo exhibitions in Vancouver, Toronto, Los Angeles and the Netherlands. Using black humour as a backdrop, her work acts out an eclectic mix of mass media, pop culture and kitsch imagery. She references art history and makes social observations about consumerism, human impact on the environment, biological manipulation, social stereotyping and the loss of identity in the modern world. Lisa is an art educator at Emily Carr Institute and has given numerous lectures on her work, travel and creative process.

And the birds resting in the tree sang, sawa sawa, amani, umoja, 2005
Norah Borden
acrylic on canvas
48 x 16 in.
courtesy of Winsor Gallery
enlarge

From a tranquil countryside to turbulent seascape, Norah draws upon her experiences to articulate a wealth of emotions. Her time spent in the wine country of the Okanagan, Alsace, Burgundy and the Barolo region of Italy gives her paintings a quality that resonates with the intrinsic beauty of the countryside. In contrast, the compelling black waves of the Irish Sea and the silvery qualities of the Pacific west coast create a moody atmosphere revealing the mystical influences of wind and light on water.

Boy at a Wall, 2005
Charles Forsberg
oil on canvas
83 x 41 in.
enlarge

Charles Forsberg has been painting in Vancouver for fifteen years. He is a self-taught, intuitive abstract artist that works exclusively with oils. Charles maintains an independent philosophy and has mounted several solo exhibitions to showcase his work. Ten years of volunteering with the Vancouver Art Gallery as a docent giving educational art tours has helped Charles gain a greater insight into how people look at art and how art affects its viewers. Influences range from local painters Gordon Smith and Jack Shadbolt to Mark Rothko, Anselm Kiefer and Cy Twombly. His work can be found in private and public collections in North America.

Breakfast, 2005
Gretchen Gammell
acrylic on canvas
24 x 36 in.
courtesy of Winsor Gallery
enlarge

Gretchen graduated with a degree in painting from Oregon College of Arts and Crafts. She has exhibited her watercolour and figurative paintings for the past four years in Portland, Oregon. Since graduating, she continues to exhibit her work both locally and internationally. Gretchen has also been commissioned to create a series of paintings for a new hotel in Seattle, Washington. Her work remains rooted in exploring the female form and mind, while balancing such personal issues with the pleasure and intrigue she finds through the unusual colour and mark-making of her abstract paintings. Gretchen is represented in Vancouver by the Winsor Gallery.

Source, 2005
Jim Gislason
oil on mesh
42 x 34.5 in.
courtesy of Elliott Louis Gallery
enlarge

Jim Gislason was born in Vancouver and studied both painting and printmaking at the Emily Carr college of Art and Design where he graduated in 1988. Since then he has divided his studio time equally between Vancouver and Montreal. Jim is represented by the Elliott Louis Gallery in Vancouver Canada. Jim has had numerous solo exhibitions in Canada and is in private and public collections internationally.

Uhuru (Freedom), 2005
Tanya Gleave
mixed media
26 x 26 in.
courtesy of Peter Kiss Gallery
enlarge

Tania Gleave received a B.A. in Asian Studies and Japanese in 1990 from the University of Victoria. For several years her work took her overseas to places such as Europe, Angola, Antarctica, and South America. In 1999, she received a diploma in Textile Art and Design at Capilano College. Since then, Tania has attended classes at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design and printmaking classes at Dundarave Print Works. Her works have been regularly exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in the Greater Vancouver area since 2000. Tania's mixed media works explore aspects of recollection and the imprecise elements of familiarity in memory. Drawing on her background in textiles, she develops evocative surface textures and images through a process of layering, often combining several mediums such as monotype, drawing, painting, etching and encaustic.

Untitled, 2005
Angela Grossman
mixed media on mylar on paper
24 x 36 in.
courtesy of Diane Farris Gallery
enlarge

While still a student at Emily Carr College Institute of Art in 1985, Angela Grossmann was introduced as one of the Vancouver Art Gallery's "Young Romantic" painters most likely to influence the course of painting in that decade. Over the past 20 years, Angela has continued to be a significant force in the Canadian art world. In her work, she has devoted much of her career to examining themes of displacement and social margins through the use of collaged and transferred discarded materials. In an early series titled Affaires d'Enfants (1987), Angela painted on the insides of suitcases abandoned by an agency in Paris that once sponsored summer camp holidays for orphans. In 1991, she created (Sign)ifying the END of the (Second) 2nd World War using photographs of unknown European children found in second-hand shops.

Kristopher Grunert
enlarge

Kristopher Grunert is both a commercial and fine art photographer working in Vancouver. Photography allows him to share his discoveries of the world with the world. Growing up on a farm in Saskatchewan, Canada, Kristopher developed a strong sense of curiosity. As a child he would watch airplanes fly over head and wonder where on earth all those people were going. He credits the prairie landscapes for developing his vision. Vast skies, endless roads, linear horizon, extreme temperatures. This boils down to a strong spatial sense and connection to the land. Kristopher uses composition and light to capture the essence of an environment. Kristopher graduated with a photography degree from Langara College.

At The Heart Of Us, 2005
Gabryel Harrison
mixed media, concrete, steel
courtesy of Jacana Gallery
enlarge

Born in Tauranga, New Zealand. Canadian citizenship. Lives and works in Vancouver. Education: Liberal Arts, University of Victoria, Canada. Ryerson Photographic Arts, Toronto, Canada. BA Ottawa University, Fine Arts, Canada. Diploma in Art Therapy. Private Collectors: New York, Paris, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Texas, Toronto, Victoria, Vancouver

Soccer Players #1, 2005
Heidi Johansen
35mm light jet print
25 x 16 in.
enlarge

The nebulous time between childhood and working life is the dominant subject in Heidi Johansen's new work. Some subjects in her photographs swim their way through rich landscapes of her native Norway ; some drink, gamble or literally piss their way along. Through obsessive color alteration she takes images that could be called snapshots and transforms them into proper pictures. The marriage of concept and construct, the relationship between the gritty confusion of the subjects and the grain and dust left in the printing process, work to give the viewer the full picture viewing experience. Heidi Johansen's photographs speak to the gut, as well as the brain.

Untitled, 2005
Chris Jordan
enlarge

Chris Jordan is a Seattle-based photographic artist whose work focuses on the detritus of American consumer society. This year his large-format color prints have been exhibited in Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Fe and Milano, Italy, as well as receiving critical attention in more than one hundred newspapers, magazines and web logs around the globe.

Samburu, 2005
Duncan MacCallum
old growth Douglas fir, industrial enameled MDF acrylic paint
32 x 40.5 x 7 in.
enlarge

Born in Sweden and raised in Canada , Duncan MacCallum is a self-taught artist, interior designer and furniture builder whose work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions across greater Vancouver since 1983. Originally concentrating on sculpture, he gradually developed an attraction to the worlds of painting and photography. As his art continued to grow and evolve he found himself returning to his love of the three dimensional world, creating a hybrid that combines both painting and sculpture.

These Hands, These Feet, 2005
ReBecca Miller
polaroid transfer on archival paper
22 x 30 in.
enlarge

Currently living in Vancouver , ReBecca Miller is a Canadian artist who combines the exotic flair of her travels with the landscape of urban realism. ReBecca studied Fine Art and Design at Concordia University in Montreal after which she traveled to Vietnam where she lived for three years. While immersed in this culture, ReBecca explored its nuances through the lens of her camera. This ongoing discovery prompted extensive travel throughout South East Asia and continues to propel ReBecca into new projects. Recent trips to China , the outback of Australia and a return to Vietnam have contributed to the visual landscape of ReBecca's ongoing work.

Can You Read This, 2005
Mark Mizgala
oil on canvas
30 x 36 in.
Courtesy of Winsor Gallery
enlarge

Mark Mizgala was born in Montreal in 1963, and graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1987 where he was awarded full scholarship for three consecutive years. In his graduating year he was the recipient of the prestigious Ontario College of Art and Design Medal. In 1991, after attending the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University , Mark joined Palmer Jarvis Advertising (Vancouver) where he worked as art director/creative director for the next ten years. While there, Mark went on to win numerous international awards for creative excellence, including a Cannes ( France ), The New York One Show, Communication Arts Magazine, and Archive Magazine (Germany). Mark currently paints full time at his home in Vancouver, and is represented by the Winsor Gallery. His work is collected throughout North America and Europe.

Unbound, 2005
Christian Nicolay
installation, mixed media on paper on board
Courtesy of Elliott Louis Gallery
enlarge

Born 1977 in Edmonton Alberta; after receiving his BFA at Okanagan University College in Kelowna BC (1996-2000), Christian Nicolay hitchhiked across Canada with a wooden chair on a Canada Council Travel Grant recording sounds and constructing a viewer participation performance as part of a cross country gallery exchange. He has exhibited and performed in numerous spaces across North America including Public, Commercial, and Artist Run Art galleries. His interdisciplinary art practice combines performance, sound recording, installation and video, exploring the relationships between order and chaos, and the unity of opposites. He summarizes his art and life by "paying attention to systematic confusion".

the girls, 2005
Catherine Pulkinghorn
branded cellulose fibre
12 x 8 in.
enlarge

Catherine Pulkinghorn works with fire and branded text/symbol in fibre and mixed media. Her succinct, minimalist work reflects her conjectures made after lengthy research into situations where human dynamics are intense, complex, and universal. The branding practice articulates the essential visceral experience of being permanently, subconsciously, intimately affected by others.

Untitled, 2005
Danny Singer
archival ink jet print
24 x 36 in.
Courtesy of State Gallery
enlarge

Danny Singer's career as a photographer encompasses a span of over 30 years. During the late sixties and early seventies he was involved in film productions as cameraman and also behind the scenes as director. Singer's series of photographs of small town mainstreets in Alberta and Saskatchewan , began in 1999, continue the artist's fascination with movement in space and time. Singer's interest in the social and geographic mapping of small towns reflects his prairie roots, growing up in Edmonton and summers spent visiting family and friends in surrounding small towns. He lives and works in Vancouver.

Unity/Success, 2005
George Vergette
resin enamel, graphite and acrylic on photograph mounted on paper
27 x 22 in.
Courtesy of Bjornson Kajiwara Gallery
enlarge

George Vergette's work is as difficult to describe as it is to photograph. The work eludes the filmic process or photographic process. Layers of fused resin structured to generate great visual depth are, in person, spellbinding, whereas the camera diffuses the image in the distortion of visual reflections. As an experience the work conjures the emotional and spiritual depth of Mark Rothko. Much like Rothko's work, the pieces require direct experience by the viewer, reproductions do not suffice. The work has, at times a transcendant quality evoking a contemplative and thoughtful mood. Other moments find works infused with text or more literal drawings jarring us into a state debating moments of quietude and angst, paralleling the dichotomies most of us experience in life, individually and culturally.

Resting, 2005
Liza Visagie
oil on linen
8 x 11 in.
enlarge

"Painting is a visual experience concerned with clarifying thought and to awaken in us the simplicity and unity of an impression." Liza's area of focus is landscape painting. Her plein-air oil sketches are further developed in the studio. The observational skills needed when working outdoors and the more scrutinizing practice of studio work, leads to the synthesis of the known facts found in reality to the hidden. The shapes, tones and colours found in nature are the language she uses throughout her work.

Nalari, 2005
Richard Edward Wlodarczak
mixed media on canvas
24 x 36 in.
Courtesy of Artworks
enlarge

Richard Edward Wlodarczak, born in Winnipeg , Manitoba , received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with Honours from The University of Manitoba in 1994. He then went on to receive his Master of Fine Arts Degree from the renowned School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996. Travel in Europe followed, helping Richard experience both his heritage and the master works of art history first hand. Now living in Vancouver, Richard continues to work through and beyond his German Expressionist and American Abstract Expressionist influences with his new body of work. His paintings display formal and metaphorical relationships where an awareness of composition, colour and space provide a balance for chaos and disorder. Modern in sensibility, the mystery of the primitive remains. Richard's work can be found in private and corporate collections in Canada , The U.S., and Europe.