"Manifestation" by Yechel Gagnon FRESH PICKS V1E6

Vantage Art Projects is excited to announce "Manifestation" by Yechel Gagnon as the sixth edition in the first FRESH PICKS volume!

Yechel Gagnon is an honors graduate in drawing and painting from the Ontario College of Art and Design and holds a MA in Fine Arts, Studio Art from Concordia. A multi-disciplinary artist, Gagnon explores both the pictoral and the sculptural, using plywood as her primary medium. Her museum installations take up entire gallery rooms and create an alternative environment where one is immersed in the palimpsest of her deconstructed/reconstructed materials that are both industrial and organic, manufactured and deliberately hand-made, all at the same time.

"Manifestation" is a digital work that was created during a residency at the National Research for the Contemporary Digital Art in Quebec, and developed as an edition especially for FRESH PICKS. About this edition, Gagnon states:

"The image is a digital work that I created during a residency at the National Research for the Contemporary Digital Art in Quebec. This work is significant because it incorporates all the different facets of my work, by creating a dialogue between my bas-reliefs, the drawings and prints but within the digital realm. This image consists of images of nature, integrated with my carved plywood textures and then I've digitally drawn over the images. This digital work becomes an extension to my practice and is the only one that exists of this series and has never been exhibited, except on my website."

For information on Yechel Gagnon, please visit www.yechelgagnon.com. The artist is represented by the Newzones Contemporary Art Gallery in Calgary and the Moore Gallery in Toronto.

"Manifestation" is a unique opportunity to collect an image from Yechel Gagnon that is an exclusive release from her archive.

Click here to BUY NOW from Fresh Picks by Vantage Art Projects.

FRESH PICKS LIMITED EDITIONS - Exhibition Quality, Archival Digital Prints

Philip Taffe Kabinet Exhibition @ Art Basel Miami 2008
Archival Ink Jet edition released with I.C. Editions in Nov. 2007.

David Hockney Digital Archival Inkjet Prints @ Richard Grey Gallery
Art Basel Miami 2008

Digital printing technology has evolved dramatically over the past years, and both the quality and the options for fine art prints have evolved along with these advancements.

Blue-chip artists such as David Hockney (a pioneer in using digital painting and printing methods), and ABMB '08 Kabinet-featured artist Philip Taffe have recently released, highly-covetable, limited-editions using the same materials and methods as the Fresh Picks editions. At the recent Art Basel Miami 2008, a sell-out series of digital prints by David Hockney were flying off the walls at $9,500.00 per print.

In 2007, Taffe released an archival inkjet print portfolio in an edition of 35 with I.C. Editions. ($3,000.00 USD for a portfolio of three, or $1,200.00 USD per single print.). New York-based I.C. Editions was established by Susan Inglett in 1991 to publish the work of both young and mid-career artists. To date she has published prints and multiples with artists including: Claes Oldenburg, Catherine Opie, Richard Prince, Terry Winters and Andrea Zittel.

Our Fresh Picks editions utilize all the advantages of digital fine art inkjet technology to create beautiful, textural, colour-saturated, archival prints. Our edition volume of 200 at the 10" x 12" size allows us to offer these prints at an amazing price for established and aspiring collectors. Both the fine-art paper and the inks used by Vantage have tested archival properties akin to other print-making methods. Estimates have the archival life span of both the pigments and papers tested for between 75-100 years. Of course, UV protection of any art work on paper further extends the life span of any print or drawing.

Our Fresh Picks editions currently use a high-end Roland professional fine art printer, Sunset heavy-pound archival paper and archival pigment inks. We are further privileged to work with fine art printer and a company that has over 30-years experience in the fine art market, including both digital printing, silkscreen and lithograph printing. (Thank-you Paul, Terry and Alicia for all of your diligence and support!)

Quite simply, our Fresh Picks editions are the most beautiful prints we can make for you with our goal of creating affordable and accessible contemporary art prints.

As technology advances, so do the opportunities for artists to expand their library of tools and materials. What's up next for Fresh Picks? Research into Epson's new revolution in solvent-based printing. Once just for commercial, outdoor applications, this instant drying, solvent-based printing technology is now entering the realm of fine art archival properties . The papers look and feel like chemical photographic medium. As a result, solvent printing seems on the verge of becoming an amazing medium for totally indelible and brilliantly saturated photographic prints.

New technology often raises comments and questions...so let's get the dialogue going...and I'll post some testimonials from our artists about how amazing our Fresh Picks prints really are!

- Jennifer (the resident technology geek)

Miami Slice

Jen & I are scouting out Art Basel Miami and the adjacent and coinciding art fairs which have been dubbed the Cannes Film Festival of the art world. Miami is certainly hosting her fair share of celebrities this year including Grace Jones, Faye Dunaway, Beyoncé Knowles, and for all you art fans, Jay Joplin, Julian Schnabel, Rachel Feinstein and John Currin, to name a few.

It’s a world where contemporary art meets design meets fashion. Despite gloom and doom in the daily national news, and while everyone acknowledges the crazy hey days (or should that be daze?) of art buying have past, there is still an encouragingly brisk trade happening on the trade fair floors.

Canadian artists are holding their own. While not all claim Canada as home any longer, spotted in International galleries were excellent examples of Rodney Graham, Jeff Wall, Graham Gilmore, Peter Doig, Jessica Stockholder, Steven Shearer, Jillian McDonald, Keer Tanchak, Mike Swaney and Kelly Mark.

We haven’t even made it yet to the Canadian galleries beyond Katherine Mulherin at Aqua and Trepanier Baer at Scope, but hey, we’ve only been on the circuit for 2 days and have the sore feet and swollen eyeballs to prove it.

Some of my favourite pieces so far have been sculptural. A yellow polar bear made entirely of yellow feathers by Paola Pivi (above), a contrasting trio of spotted fiberglass/resin dogs by Yayoi Kusama and a copper maquette of work slated for Canada’s National Gallery by Steven Shearer. Heartening for us at Vantage Art Projects with our Fresh Picks, was to see was the proliferation of quality digital ink jet prints selling well in an envious price range!

This is the land o beautiful people surrounded by a tropical sea where dinner customarily starts at 10pm and revelry for revelry sake ends at dawn. It’s refreshing to see that at Art Basel & friends, painting is definitely not dead, nor is art collecting!

"Sunday May 7, 2006" 2007 by Anna Plesset FRESH PICKS V1E5

"Sunday May 7, 2006" is the provocative fifth edition in the first FRESH PICKS volume. This contemporary trompe l'oeil oil painting is part of a series by the artist, Anna Plesset, that involves isolating and recontextualizing cut-out headlines from newspapers.

Anna says that her work "is a response to the anxiety of modern life. By working on multiple ongoing painting and drawing projects, I attempt to domesticate the surplus of objects and signifiers that we continually navigate on a daily basis: newspaper headlines, email subject lines, bus tickets, dates, found objects, time, etc. At first glance, my paintings and drawings appear to be deliberate, ordered, precise, and resolved; in a sense they seem to tame the very objects and signifiers they contain."

Her work has a strong focus on time and its many dimensions. In her various ongoing projects, some of the issues she has been addressing include: how narratives evolve, ways to account for the passage of time, how to address her own productivity and artistic output, and how our perception of objects, signifiers and artwork itself changes over time.

A key project in this exploration of time is a series of daily drawings that that she has been working on for over three years. Since March 2005, she has recorded the days she works in her studio by filling out standard timecards and making one drawing each day she goes to her studio.

Now Vancouver-based, Anna is originally from New York and received her BFA from Cornell University. In 1999, she was named Artist of Promise by the Cornell Council for the Arts and received the Faculty Medal in Art for greatest promise of future achievement. Since relocating to Vancouver in 2003, she has exhibited her work in New York, Chicago and Vancouver.

Now Vancouver-based, Anna is originally from New York and received her BFA from Cornell University. In 1999, she was named Artist of Promise by the Cornell Council for the Arts and received the Faculty Medal in Art for greatest promise of future achievement. Since relocating to Vancouver in 2003, she has exhibited her work in New York, Chicago and Vancouver. She has recently been included in the show “Hybrid” at Seattle’s Center on Contemporary Art and is preparing for a solo show with Vancouver’s Jeffrey Boone Gallery in 2009. For more information: www.annaplesset.com.

"Worm Hole" by Karen Yurkovitch - FRESH PICKS V1 E4

The William Blake quote "to see the universe in a grain of sand" defines our thought-provoking, fourth-ever FRESH PICKS edition, "Worm Hole", by Karen Yurkovich.

Best known for highly-skilled still-life painting that references Renaissance masters, Karen's selection for FRESH PICKS is a photographic view of a fig branch held by the artist's own hand. "Worm Hole" is a unique glimpse into the conceptual underpinnings of Karen's work and her references to art history. Additionally, this artwork is unique to the FRESH PICKS series and available only through Vantage Art Projects.

Karen Yurkovich holds a BFA and MFA from the University of Alberta and completed a mentorship in traditional painting techniques with restorer Giovanni Manuali in Italy in 2000. The artist lives between Perugia, Italy and Vancouver, Canada. She has recently completed two solo shows in Vancouver and in Edmonton, and is represented in the first Biennial in Merano, Italy, "DNArt". She continues to teach, with a special interest in traditional techniques and non-toxic methods in oil painting and anatomical drawing.

Traditionally best known for still life painting, the work for Fresh Picks is a photographic view of a fig branch held by the artist's own hand and titled "Worm Hole".

"This fig branch had something eating through it, both adding to its wabi sabi and detracting from its original pristine beauty while adding a sense of mortality...... I chose a fig branch, because of its use for centuries as a way to camouflage original sin by covering up the genitalia, our most animalistic and human trait. The conflict of religion and human existence. Yet a hole is pierced to let us peak through to our natural state or pure form. A worm hole is also said to be a portal that leads from one plane of spatial existence to another by direct means rather than a long journey. Likewise, we go through life in our imperfect state, trying to reach our perfect state and through the wisdom of imperfection we can achieve a direct link to another plane of thought that is seemingly more perfect or immortal."

Fresh Picks is Vantage Art Projects' series of affordable limited edition fine art prints. The series allows art lovers to own work that is current and representative of the contemporary artscape. It is an unprecedented way for artists to share their work with collectors and art lovers across the world. Released twice a month, the artist and work is first announced to our mailing list and is sold exclusively through the Vantage Art Projects website.

"Worm Hole" is a unique opportunity to collect an image from Karen that is an exclusive release from her photographic archive. It is only available through the Vantage website.

For information on Karen Yurkovich, please visit www.karenyurkovich.com. The artist is represented by the Bau-Xi Gallery in Vancouver and Toronto, the Agnes Bugera Gallery in Edmonton, Linda Hodges Gallery in Seattle, and Galleria Della Pina, Pietrasanta Italy.

For more information and media queries about Vantage Art Projects, please visit www.vantageartprojects.com or e-mail luisa@vantageartprojects.com.

Off to a Fresh Start

Vantage Art Projects (VAP) emerged from a desire to do something different in the contemporary art world that could connect artists, curators, galleries, and collectors. Primarily with, but not limited to, the goal of growing collectors for the vast pool of creative talent in Canada, VAP began as an intense conversation over lattes. That expanded to pro/con lists, flow charts and major mark making on white boards. Jen Mawby, one of the 2 principals of VAP had been cooking an idea for a couple of years, reinforced by the inspiration of an American project, Jen Bekman 20x200 and a larger organization in Germany called Lumas. I had been quietly infusing myself in the contemporary fine art world as a gallerist, art dealer and consultant for the past 15 years. Jen, in addition to being an artist, has an extensive background in business consulting, computers and design. With our combined talents, interests and mutual curiosity of "there must be a better way to support the art world, ourselves and still have fun..." VAP was born. A new way to communicate about art!

Where we mirror Jen Bekman is in our offering of limited edition digital prints of cool artists. Where we depart, is that we also offer a couple of other project streams involving catalogues and exhibitions in print. To get us off on our fresh start, we decided to launch VAP with our print projects under our Fresh Picks moniker. I am curating a year of images which we release twice a month (that's 24 artists to watch out for in a year). Think of it as art therapy 24x's a year and you basically receive a page out of a fine art book folio every 2 weeks if you collect the entire offering. The prints come in 3 sizes. A folio case to house the smallest size is in the works. Or frame up a couple and interchange the images over the year for variety.

We launched VAP in October in conjunction with Art Toronto and our 3rd 'art hit' has just been released - check out www.vantageartprojects.com and click onto the Fresh Picks start to take a peek.

The energy at the Toronto art fair was fantastic despite it being the week after the economic sky as we knew it fell and doom and gloom was predicted everywhere. We were encouraged to hear that the keynote speaker at the Art Dealers Association brunch inquired if anyone in Canada was doing anything like Jen Bekman 20x200! That the art world needed to get creative and make art more accessible. Just wish we'd been there to sign him up for a subscription!!! But don't worry, an information package is on it's way to Mr. Corporate Curator :)

In a couple of weeks, Jen & I should have news on Art Miami to share.

In the new year, we'll have news for how artists can submit to us for exhibition-in-print catalogues - how collectors can get their own private collections catalogued - and more.

If you're reading this and you're curious, log onto our site, sign up for our newsletters and announcements and get yourself or a friend a Fresh Pick!

artfully yours,

S

"Its Third Fall" by Carrie Walker - FRESH PICK V1 E3

“Its Third Fall” by Carrie Walker - FRESH PICKS Volume 1, Edition 3 - For Immediate Release - Vancouver, BC, November 13, 2008 – Vantage Art Projects is thrilled to present Fresh Picks, our series of affordable limited edition fine art prints.

"It's Third Fall" by Carrie Walker is the third edition in FRESH PICKS Volume 1. This skilled monochrome image is reminiscent of old masters drawings and etchings, and was rendered in graphite and oil painting medium on board. The artwork is exclusive to FRESH PICKS, as the original is from the artist's private collection and is one that she intends to never part with. This artwork has also never before been exhibited or published.

"It's Third Fall" remains true to Carrie's oeuvre, where her fauna-based subject matter and the corresponding titles have an ambiguous, humorous and often tender quality. Carrie's choice of subject matter is generally small domestic or field animals, with the occasional predator thrown in for dramatic effect.

She has been described by art writer Lee Henderson as "an unorthodox taxonomist, whose focus has been metaphor, the subjectivities of language, and the emotional pitch in our depiction of animals in art". This artwork is a portrait of a cottontail rabbit lying on it's side. The ambiguity lies both in the interpretation of the state of the animal – sleeping or expired - and in the visual interpretation of some of the drawn passages. Certain parts of the artwork are abstracted such that the haunches of the rabbit can also be viewed as a windswept and craggy landscape.

Carrie Walker graduated with a BFA in Visual Arts from Emily Carr Institute in 2002. Since then, her drawings and paintings have been exhibited in galleries in New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver and London. She currently lives and works in Vancouver. For information on Carrie Walker, please visit www.carriewalker.ca. The artist is represented by the Kristi Engle Gallery in Los Angeles. www.kristienglegallery.com. Get Carrie's Fresh Pick Today at www.vantageartprojects.com !

What we've been up to...Vantage News to date.

November 16, 2008 -FRESH PICKS VOLUME ONE, EDITION THREE released yesterday, November 16, 2008. "Its Third Fall" by Carrie Walker has an old masters feel while being true to Carrie's contemporary drawing based practice.

October 30, 2008 - FRESH PICKS VOLUME ONE, EDITION TWO released today. "Phone Home at Midnight" by Mark DeLong is a unique, collage and mixed media artwork in Mark's signature urban outsider style.

October 19, 2008 - Fresh Picks annual subscriptions to Volume One now available through the Vantage Art Projects Website.

October 9, 2008 - FRESH PICKS first limited edition "Meander" an exclusive artwork by Angela Grossmann goes on sale today, Thursday, October 9, 2008 from www.VantageArtProjects.com.

October 5, 2008 - FRESH PICKS and Vantage Art Projects successfully launched during Art Toronto. Our first limited edition "Meander" by Angela Grossmann goes on sale Thursday, October 9, 2008 from www.VantageArtProjects.com.

September 19, 2008 - Our safe subscribe mailing list sends out our first e-blast - news about the upcoming launch of Fresh Picks and our very, exciting first artist! Fresh Picks is launching at Art Toronto at a private VIP reception Oct. 5, 2008.

August 19, 2008 - Vantage Art Projects now offers e-newsletter updates about projects, products and calls for submission using Constant Contact and "safe subscribe".

July 31, 2008 - Luisa Santos joins the Vantage Art Projects team as our project coordinator. Welcome Luisa!

July 21, 2008 - Vantage Art Projects web site goes live with initial information about this "new way of communicating about the arts". The principals are Sherri Kajiwara and Jennifer Mawby, with project coordinator Luisa Santos.

"Phone Home at Midnight" by Mark DeLong - FRESH PICKS V1 E2

For Immediate Release - Vancouver, BC, October 30, 2008 – Vantage Art Projects is thrilled to present Fresh Picks, our series of affordable limited edition fine art prints.

"Phone Home at Midnight" by Mark Delong is the second edition in the first Fresh Picks series. This artwork incorporates collage and computer graphics with drawing and painting. Done in Mark's signature "urban outsider" style, the artwork is bold, whimsical and playful, and punctuated by vivid day-glo accents.

Mark is a self-taught Vancouver-based artist working in sculpture, video, printing and painting. His work has been shown to a steadily expanding audience. Early this year, TV Books (of "Tiny Vices" fame) published Sbooky Booky his first monograph of drawings, paintings and comics (www.tvbookshop.com). Mark is currently preparing for a sixteen-page spread for Pyramid Power with fellow Canadian artist Jason McLean. The images from that series will be used in an upcoming group show at the Nog Gallery in London, England. To date, he has participated in numerous group shows around Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia.

Fresh Picks is Vantage Art Projects' series of affordable limited edition fine art prints. The series allows art lovers to own work that is current and representative of the contemporary artscape. It is an unprecedented way for artists to share their work with collectors and art lovers across the world. Released twice a month, the artist and work is first announced to our mailing list and is sold exclusively through the Vantage Art Projects website.

"Phone Home by Midnight" is a unique opportunity to collect an image from Mark's interesting and innovative body of work. It is only available through the Vantage website. For information on Mark DeLong, visit www.bambi.org.uk. He is represented by LES Gallery in Vancouver, BC, TV Gallery in New York and Perugi Artecontemporanea Gallery in Padova, IT. Get Mark's FRESH PICK while we can still say that we knew him when...www.vantageartprojects.com

"Meander" by Angela Grossmann - FRESH PICKS V1 E1

Vantage Art Projects is thrilled to announce the launch of The Fresh Picks limited-edition print series with renowned contemporary artist Angela Grossmann.

“Meander” was chosen for us by Angela and is a never-exhibited artwork from her own private collection - one that she intends never to part with. The artwork is a signature double-portrait of two young girls walking, rendered in Angela’s signature mixed-media technique. Full of atmospheric texture, this double portrait captures not only the tension between adolescent vulnerability and obstinence, but also captures a strikingly contemporary tone through the
dress and the posture of the girls.

Since graduating from Emily Carr, Angela reputation has grown steadily. She earned her MFA at Concordia University and later taught at Ottawa University before returning to Vancouver. Angela’s work has been shown widely around Canada, the United States and Europe with a career total to date of nearly 20 solo exhibitions and innumerous group exhibitions. We are honoured to be launching FRESH PICKS with an artist of Angela’s stature and generousity.

Fresh Picks is Vantage Art Projects’ series of affordable limited edition fine art prints. The series allows art lovers to own work that is current and representative of the contemporary artscape. It is an unprecedented way for artists to share their work with collectors and art lovers across the world. Released twice a month, the artist and work is first announced to our mailing
list and is sold exclusively through the Vantage Art Projects website. “Meander” is a unique opportunity to collect an image from Angela’s highly covetable and collectable body of work. Furthermore, “Meander” is only available through the FRESH PICKS series, sold only through the Vantage Art Projects website, www.vantageartprojects.com.

For more information on Angela Grossmann, visit www.angelagrossmann.com. Angela is represented in Canada by Diane Farris Gallery in Vancouver, B.C. and the Edward Day Gallery in Toronto, Ont. Collect Angela's FRESH PICK today at www.vantageartprojects.com.

Lee Henderson collaborates with VAP on The Byron Aceman Collection

Talented up-and-coming Canadian writer Lee Henderson will be collaborating with Vantage Art Projects on THE BYRON ACEMAN collection, a project to archive and document the collection and to create a bound book publication showcasing and interpreting Mr. Aceman’s choices as a private collector.

Working with Mr. Henderson is an artistic pleasure as he is an avid supporter young contemporary artists through both his writing and curatorial projects in cities such as Vancouver and New York. As an art writer, Mr. Henderson is a frequent contributor to both Border Crossings magazine and Canadian Art Magazine. In September 2008 he launched his first novel with Penquin Books entitled “The Man Game”. More information about the author can be found on his personal website www.leehenderson.com.

Vantage Art Projects encourages discourse and writing about the arts through commissioned catalog essays and articles. For our private collections projects, story telling plays a key role in the interpretation of both the collection and the collector. A private collection is both a passion and a labour of love for the collector. Therefore, a collection of artworks is also a collection of stories; the stories about the individual artworks, the stories about the artists and the story about the collector and the nature of the collection. Vantage Art Projects provided collection archiving and evaluation services including photo-docmentation of the artworks including installation photographs showing the way Mr. Aceman lives and works with his collection.

The BYRON ACEMAN COLLECTION private publication with an interpretive forward by Lee Henderson will be published and released later in 2008, and launched at a VIP reception in Vancouver. For additional information about our Private Collection services please contact luisa@vantageartprojects. For ongoing information about our projects and services register for our “safe subscribe” mailing list at www.VantageArtProjects.com.