"Canary" by James Whitman - FRESH PICK Volume 1 Edition 24

The wild bird, endemic to Macaronesia, is gregarious and builds cup-shaped nests while often fiercely defending it's territory. It feasts in flocks while foraging on the ground, and cannot survive without gravity. James Whitman's "Canary" is a wild bird of a different feather.

"Canary" comes from the figures and creatures in the artists "Some Kings" series. Whitman tells us the 'kings' are caricatured alien or ‘other’ subjects generated from a formal play with the construction of face, countenance, and the kinds of social space these can generate. They are purposely deadpan and low affect. They acknowledge us and present themselves, but they don’t elicit our attention or social engagement, and beyond holding our eye, they make no social display. As with wild animals, we don’t share their society and they are indifferent to us.

The kings’ social world, social relations, the state of the land they inhabit and its economics have been bracketed off, left open. We are not presented with the depiction of an imaginary or allegorical society and its functions and relations, but with difference, with our world become different. The point isn’t so much the specifics of that difference, but to depict the absence of our society, the world without our administration. These drawings both depict a certain semi-developed state of the not-wilderness of British Columbia, and shift this familiar mundane land of overgrown logging roads, abandoned fridges, and ten year old spruce over into a fantasy of an unpeopled world. They imagine a world that exists quite sufficiently without any of the very particular forms of meaning peculiar to our species. A world without our presence as witnesses.

James Whitman has an honours BFA from UVic 1998 and is currently represented by the LES Gallery in Vancouver. He is artist, curator, collaborator and has sat on board of the Vancouver Access Artist Run Centre and the ‘536’ curatorial society “with a focus on exhibitions in unusual situations”. He has completed residencies in Leipzig Germany and Dawson City, Yukon. He is a member of the Vancouver-based drawing collective Lions Pile. You can find more work by the artist at LES Gallery, Outbuildings and Livestock and Lions Pile.

Buy "Canary" now from $45+!

"Sweet Smell of Success" by Matthew Sweig - FRESH PICK Volume 1 Edition 23

Welcome to "The Sweet Smell of Success". This series is a fragmented self-portrait made up of the little physical evidence of the artist’s ancestral past. Further to past works dealing with urban debris and the memory of objects, this work strives to illustrate the many ways in which one views themselves. The people are distant maternal relatives captured from old photographs. The screen printed pattern is extracted from monetary notes from Czar ruled Poland from the early twentieth century where Sweig’s paternal family was at the time the photographs were taken in Canada.

Matthew Sweig is educated in the field of Landscape Architecture and practices in Toronto, Canada. Gary Michael Dault of the Globe and Mail’s review of Sweig’s “Reconstruction of a Demolition” exhibit from 2005 could equally describe this piece. “A glance at the picture reproduced here - or even a prolonged study of it - will probably not serve to identify it as a painting rather than a photograph. But a painting it assuredly is, a vastly labour-intensive, black-and-white acrylic on canvas...” More information on the artist’s original works can be found at www.matthewsweig.com. He is represented by the XEXE Gallery in Toronto, www.xexegallery.com.

Buy "The Sweet Smell of Success I" now from $45+!

"Man Trap" by Dana Holst - FRESH PICK Volume 1 Edition 22

Man Trap” by Dana Holst is from a new series "Prey" which explores from a psychological perspective the human/animal instinct to stalk other beings - sometimes for survival but mostly for fun. It is a look at the need to act out upon and keep in touch with primal urges, filtered through a sanitized world of industrial and computer prowess where human hunters use technology against lowly beasts, often to unfair advantage. In the drawing “Man Trap” a young woman in silk tights and a frilly can-can costume lifts her skirt up, concealing her face and exposing her legs and panties, setting her trap. Playfully humorous, drawn with delicate and bold marks in black oil paint on pink paper, “Man Trap” uses feminine wiles alone, with the viewer being the stalked prey. "Prey"evokes fairy tale darkness, surreal charm and wry wit, all commenting on human ignorance and our oblivious desire for fun.

Award-winning artist, Dana Holst was born in Kitchener, Ontario in 1972. She graduated from the University of Waterloo with a BA in Fine Arts in 1995. Post graduation, she received the Don Phillips Scholarship resulting in a year long printmaking residency at Open Studio in Toronto.

Her work has been exhibited across Canada and is in private collections throughout North America. Public collections include:The Glenbow Museum in Calgary, the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston; Carleton University Art Gallery in Ottawa; the Alberta Foundation for the Arts in Edmonton; the Art Bank ; the Colart Collection in Montreal and Ernst & Young in Toronto. Original works are available at Latitude 53 Contemporary Visual Culture, Edmonton, Katharine Mulherin, Toronto and Galerie St. Laurent + Hill, Ottawa. Her 2010 exhibition schedule includes the Odd Gallery, Dawson City Yukon and the White Water Gallery in North Bay Ontaro. Her personal web site is www.DanaHolst.com.

Buy "Man Trap" by Dana Holst here starting at $45+!

"Green Crocodile Hermes" by Biliana Velkova - FRESH PICK Edition 21

Shop 'Till You Drop!

And do so in style with "Green Crocodile Hermes" by Biliana Velkova whose work examines consumerism by exploring motifs of glamour, brand names and celebrity culture. Velkova searches for ways to fit these references into her everyday reality, incorporating photography, drawing, performance and social interventions into her art practice. As a teen, Velkova immigrated with her family from Bulgaria to Canada, basically transplanted from a Communist, childhood upbringing directly into Western, youth culture. Such profound culture shock provides an unique perception and fascination with consumerism, in both its shallow and far-ranging, socio-cultural effects.

Biliana Velkova has her BFA from Concordia and is a MFA candidate at the University of Saskatchewan, 2010. She is currently working on using performance and multi-media to blend the line between art, advertising and commodity to another level; producing a body of work that utilizes tools actually used in marketing campaigns, including video ads, poster campaigns, and “product launch” performances. Reminiscent of celebrity marketing campaigns that use a popular icon to create a brand name, this work challenges this phenomenon with the creation of “media-hype” around an unknown persona that is devoid of any famous trademark. This project questions how and when a common person becomes a brand, thus blurring the lines of art, commodity, and social identity. Biliana Velkova is represented in Vancouver by the Jeffrey Boone Gallery, www.jeffreyboonegallery.com.

"Nail Gun" by Mark Mushet - FRESH PICKS V1E20

Nail Gun by Mark Mushet is from a series attempting to wrest some beauty from a typical worksite at one of the area’s many beige condo developments. Rather than focusing on the endless opportunities for “abject landscape” images the artist went for the macro view of the tops of a coiled string of partly oxidized, blued nail-tops. Intrigued by the idea of a casual spray of nails holding together countless square miles of beige stuccoed wall, Mushet likes to imagine the area’s future when only the nails are left on the concrete footing. This image is old-school film photography treated with cross-processing film developing techniques.

Born in North Vancouver in 1963, Mark Mushet has created images in many forms since 1985. He first trained in film and video, producing arts documentaries and shorts for television. In the late '80s he began work in still photography (self-taught) merging macro photography with contemporary music for a series of live slide-projection performances at galleries such as the Western Front and Helen Pitt.

By 1995, Mushet had established a career in editorial and design photography. He has contributed award-winning portraits of cultural, entertainment, business and sports figures to a variety of Canadian publications including Elm Street, The Globe & Mail, The Georgia Straight, Western Living, Vancouver, BC Business and Vancouver Review. He has also contributed to the British new music magazine WIRE and the US publication Fretboard Journal.

He was nominated for a Juno award for photography in the “Best Album Design: Photography” category in 2003 and has received 12 nominations and one win for “Best Photograph” at the Western Magazine Awards and nominations for “Best Portrait” at the National Magazine awards. He continues to produce images for contemporary-music packaging providing CD cover art for pianist/composers Wayne Horvitz and Robin Holcomb, composers Paul Dolden, Dennis Smalley, John Young, Bradshaw Pack, Sergio Barroso, Stephane Roy , Darren Copeland, David Berezan, Forrest Fang and many others.

He is currently co-publisher and Creative Director of Vancouver Review magazine www.vancouverreview.com and is curating its Centrefold visual arts section. His latest photography commission is a set of large format B&W portraits for the Museum of Vancouver’s Velo-City exhibit.

"Best of the Wurst" by Michael Swaney - FRESH PICKS V1 E19

With summer barbeque season in full swing, Michael Swaney's collage and gouache on paper artwork "Best of the Wurst" whets our appetite.

The artwork is a first for the artist in the way in which he created his reference material. Michael built a desk-top installation in his studio, photographed it and then used the photo as the reference material for the resulting collage. This process is a new movement in Michael's work, one where he is investigating the idea of documenting an ongoing performance through illustrating residual elements of the stage set or backdrop upon which a performance may have just taken place.

Michael Swaney was born in Kimberly, BC and has studied both fine arts and graphic design. He was a founding member of the Vancouver Art Collective "Human Five" (2001-2008) and now lives and works in Barcelona, Spain. He has recently published a book with Stickit called "The Performances". Other book projects include "Artifacts of Finland" with Le Dilly and an upcoming project with Picnic Editorial. He has an upcoming solo show in September in Barcelona with Iguapop Gallery.

Although now based in Europe, Michael has kept up his North American connections. Last year he attended the Fountainhead Residency in Miami during which he prepared and installation shown at Miami's Locust Projects during the December art fair mayhem. Additionally, Michael is working with Katharine Mulherin in Toronto and has upcoming projects with Trepanier Baer Gallery in Calgary.

Click here to buy "Best of the Wurst" starting at $45+ !

"Sugar Rush" by Anna Wood - FRESH PICKS V1E18

"A-B-C, Easy as 1-2-3"

As June comes to a close, Anna Wood takes us back to our childhood games of hopscotch and alphabet with her untitled collage, nick-named by us "Sugar Rush".

This candy-coated artwork comes from a now venerable tradition. Collage, formally coined by Braque and Picasso in the last century, is as familiar in the playschool as it is in modern art. Images and text edited from other sources, glued together in an assemblage to create something new. Anna Wood draws from childhood memories of board games with her brother in this work. She has literally deconstructed the games of her youth to express her concerns of today. Anna is a Vancouver-based visual artist who has grown up around art and sculpture - her father is well-known BC-artist Alan Wood.

Anna's playful, colourful works on paper are musings of the artist's mind, a mix of nostalgia with a strong sense of moving forward albeit in a purposely discursive, adventitious, inquisitive way. The topographical map elements in this collage also hint at the adrenaline rush associated with a good old fashioned land-grab.

Buy "Sugar Rush" now and see if you get to slide on a Winegum, get stuck in a Toffee Pudding or go directly to a Sherbert Jet Fountain! (Dice not included. Not recommended for boring adults.)

Buy "Sugar Rush" starting at $45+!

"Mysterious Escapades" by Rebecca Chaperon - FRESH PICKS Volume 1 Edition 17

In "Mysterious Escapades" a girl hides in the shadow of a tree beside a moonlit lake. A fox treads nearby while across the lake a figure looks out of the second story window of a pristine white building. The feral fox and the imposing architecture seem to accompany the spirit of adventure and childish anarchy.

"Mysterious Escapades" is part of a series of paintings from Rebecca Chaperon’s 2009 called "Catholic School Girls Rule". These works attempt to evoke a sense of the collective consciousness. Some of the work in this series touches upon the group mentality gained by donning a uniform and assembling with others of one’s age and stature. Conversely, other paintings in this series, such as "Mysterious Escapades", emit moments of heightened, self-aware solitude and independent agency.

Drawing from the misadventures of various heroines of Victorian literature, Rebecca Chaperon’s paintings often portray a female protagonist within a surreal landscape. Her work aspires to entertain the mind with possible narratives, while suggesting a separate haunting emotive undercurrent.

Born in England in 1978, Rebecca settled in Toronto, Ontario at age 8. She attended Emily Carr University where she studied fine arts until graduation in 2002. She has exhibited her work across Canada and has been featured in several Canadian publications. She currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. For more information on the artist and original work, see www.thechaperon.ca.

"Reconfigured Grid Painting No. 1" by Jeff Depner - FRESH PICKS V1E16

This month we have been happily driven back to abstraction with "Reconstructed Grid Painting No. 1" by Jeff Depner. This artwork is part of an ongoing discourse exploring compositional structure through the relationships between colours.

Concepts of math, science and colour relationship in art have been quite literally defined in the cubist works of Picasso or Braque, and etherically in the neoplasticism of Piet Mondrian and more currently in the mind-bending op art works of Bridget Riley. In an attempt to create something unique, artists cannot help but be influenced by previous art forms and the conversation of contemporary art cannot help but draw on past discussions. Historians like John Gage and Martin Kemp have added thorough text to the visual discussion, yet it never ceases to delight the eye when contemporary artists delve into the chat. Depner’s work suggests a digital cubism although entirely hand done with the energy of his brushwork evident in his original paintings. His obsession with the grid and colour balance or imbalance to flesh out meaning resonates with time and place. And while the grid is not new in art, Depner’s reconstructions pay homage to the ongoing discourse.

Using the grid as a framework, Depner's 'reconfigurations' use color, form and surface to address the visual, physical and psychological. The color harmonies are intuitive and are used in conjunction with pattern, rhythm and variation to invoke a sensory experience which hovers somewhere between language and the senses. Each color and form is linked inextricably to the next forming clusters of color chords. These chromatic relationships are used rhythmically to allow colors to travel across the picture plane vertically, horizontally and diagonally. As a whole, these units combine to create a sort of 'abstract sign,' operating separately from speech and writing patterns with the intention of seizing the viewer on an unconscious or automatic level.

Jeff Depner graduated from the Illustration and Design program at Capilano College in 1998 and is currently represented by the Jeffrey Boone Gallery in Vancouver BC Canada. For information on original paintings, please see www.jeffreyboonegallery.com.

Click here to buy "Reconfigured Grid Painting No. 1" from $45 + !

"Bitter Ends" by Katie Bond Pretti - FRESH PICKS V1E14

“Loves me, loves me not, loves me, love me not, loves me, loves me not, loves me...”

Katie Bond Pretti illuminates intimacy in "Bitter Ends", a gently gestural abstract painting featured as Fresh Picks Vol.1 Edition 14.

Pretti says, "I'm not one to plan things out, exactly - I don't even keep a sketchbook. There is for me, however, a difference between making those broad strokes on a large canvas and holding a delicate sheet of paper on your lap to work on. Both of these have their value in my practice. Bitter Ends is a series in the smaller, intimate vein. In terms of treatment of negative versus positive space and colour harmony, it has influenced several larger pieces on paper as well as a canvas series which I plan to include in an upcoming show. This one piece is my favorite. I hope you like it.”

Freely scribbled calligraphic mark-making on solid fields of mostly neutral colours blur the line between drawing and painting combining “bare astringency and sensual indulgence”. This could easily describe Pretti’s work but rather, is an explanation of the work of American Abstract artist Cy Twombly both on Wikpedia and in a Retrospective tome by Kirk Varnedoe. There is also an uncanny synchronicity with Twombly’s favourite French poet, Mallarmé who directly inspired musical creations by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Toronto based musician Jeremy Strachan, a key figure in indie rock and improvised music in Canada, created a woodwind solo in response to Pretti’s installation, The Heart of the Matter in 2007.

Katie Bond Pretti is a 2004 honours graduate of OCAD. Her work has been featured in Elle Canada, Fashion Magazine and Canadian House and Home. Her book - Sonority of Words - is in the collection of The National Gallery of Canada and she is in the 2008 Carte Blanche Vol. 2: Painting, The Magenta Foundation. She is represented by the LE Gallery in Toronto. For information on original works please see www.le-gallery.ca, www.femmart.com and www.katiebondpretti.com.

"Have Your Cake And Eat It Too" by Leah Rosenberg - FRESH PICKS V1E13

Have your cake and eat it too, says San Francisco-based artist Leah Rosenberg. Not prone to wordy explanations, she often bakes cake in lieu of writing an artist statement. Leah's work is part performance, part painting and part sculpture. Occasionally she enlists groups of people to make the elements of her art through "punching" parties.

"A cake to me is a work of art with the intention of generosity. It is beautiful, it is structural, it is an evocative work of color and balance. And then people eat it. They consume it. They find it too sweet or too sticky or too vanilla-y. And then they move on. This is the generosity of art. Create with intention and then, set it free."

Short, sweet and succinct. This month's FRESH PICK wants to you have it all...

Leah Rosenberg is a Canadian artist living and working in the US. She completed her Master of Fine Arts degree in 2008 at the California College of Art in San Francisco. For more information about Leah's artistic confectionery: www.leahrosenberg.org

CLICK HERE TO BUY "HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO" STARTING AT $45+

"Tapatisserie" by Ruth Jones - FRESH PICKS V1E12

This months Fresh Pick is a blend of old and new, by master weaver and contemporary artist Ruth Jones. A strikingly contemporary portrait of a young girl holding a cake - the cake melding into the girl and the girl melding into the cake - rendered in the centuries old technique of discontinuous weave tapestry. A show-stopping piece at the recent exhibition at Gallery Atusi, Tapatisserie was completed especially for the "Let Them Eat Cake" exhibition.

Inspired by a pivotal scene in the 2006 Academy Award winning film Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola and contemplating the traditional historical creative outlets for women of so-called domestic arts, Let Them Eat Cake featured the work of three artists, in diverse mediums, who were asked to turn the entire concept on its ear. The modern world is driven by desire for sex, money and food, not necessarily in that order. Cake is a delicious metaphor for life. In response, Tap(àt)isserie by Ruth Jones was described by Jennifer Moss of the Vancouver Sun in a Feb. 2009 review as exquisitely crafted and slightly disturbing woven tapestry.....It features a woman holding out a melting pastry. The woman, with her hair piled on top of her head like some kind of elaborate St. Honoré cake, somehow channels Marie Antoinette, whose glib remark in the face of starving French peasants is the basis for the title of this show.

Tapestry has a special place in the annals of art history - it was the most important figurative form of European art in 16th Century Europe. The Metropolitan Museum in New York has an entire department devoted to tapestry arts. The "weaving enthusiasts" who know thing or two about tapestry were blow away by Ruth's virtuosity on the loom. This type of weaving is completed entirely side-ways from the back-side and the artist does not see the right-side until the piece is completed. (Not to mention that small to mid-sized original tapestries by Ruth are typically valued at the price of a small car). Those of us who just love good contemporary art were amazed at the psychological tension in the image and the layers of interpretation related to food, sugar, consumption and female adornment.

In her artist statement Ruth explained the following about "Tapatisserie": “In France where I learned to weave, the French for Tapestry and for Pastry is very close; so close that in fact you can turn one word into the other with one letter swap. I also notice that both art forms require care and are in the making and share a role as custom creations given to commemorate an event, arrival or passage. I played with spelling the two names out as one word, and liked it very much, because, in the saying of it, the meaning becomes “Your Pastry” which suits the gesture of offering that I intend.”

Ruth is a member of the American Tapestry Alliance, the Canadian Tapestry Network and of S.T.A.R.S., a British Columbia-based tapestry initiatives organization. Following degrees in Classical Studies from the University of British Columbia and in Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute, she completed the graduate program in Tapestry Design and Production from the National School for Decorative Arts in Aubusson, France. Her work and her commissions are included in the collections of IBM Corporate Headquarters, New York, Canada Governor General Official Residence, Ottawa; Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver; Nesbitt-Burns BMO, Vancouver; Intrawest Squaw Valley; and Canada Morgage & Housing Corporation, Vancouver.

For more information on Ruth Jones: http://www.ruthjones.ca/

Click here to buy TAPATISSERIE starting from $45.00+

"Before/After" by Sascha Yamashita - FRESH PICKS V1E11

"Double, double toil and trouble,

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble".

Providing Shakespeare's witches with fuel for the fire must have been demanding work, and the wood-stoked pot over which they said their ritual incantation holds water for our new FRESH PICKS EDITION.

"Before/After" by Sascha Yamashita reminds us that an artist's work is thankfully never done. This stunning photograph from his "Before/After" Wood Pile installation references the following ancient Zen Buddhist proverb: “Before enlightenment - chop wood carry water. After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water.”

Through considering daily tasks and rituals in an artful manner, Sascha reminds us of the work ethic and repetitive hands-on-labour traditionally a very noble part of an artist's working life. This ritualizing of artmaking has a long tradition, including such conceptual trail blazers as Bruce Nauman and Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Nauman said of this own understanding of art work and repetition that if “I was an artist and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing must be art” - suggesting his belief in the power of art to ritualize labour and mark it as important. In her 1970's "Maintenance Art Performances", Ukeles also turned repetitive “house work” into “art work” through performing domestic labour in a fine art context such as on the steps of a museum.

Wood Pile specifically considers repetitious and ritualized art practices through the allegory embedded in the work to question the “interwoven relationships of viewer/art object and process/result”. Finally, with "Wood Pile", there is the further suggestion that art practice approached in this fashion can lead to enlightenment, and that after enlightenment, there is still much more artwork to be made.

Sasha is a young conceptual artist who’s work draws from literature, art history, religion, philosophy, pop, Japanese and Canadian culture. Canadian-born to one Japanese and one Canadian parent, the conflation of culture plays a natural role in Sascha’s work. A year 2000 visual arts graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Sascha has shown his work in galleries across British Columbia and Washington State including: the Museum of Northern BC, Helen Pitt Gallery, Kamloops Art Gallery, Viking Union Gallery and the Back Gallery Project. In 2008 Sasha co-founded Vancouver’s Gallery Atsui and is currently an acting director. For more information go to: http://www.galleryatsui.com/.

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"Height of Land" by David Pirrie - FRESH PICKS V1E9

"Climb every mountain, ford every stream. Follow every rainbow, 'til you find your dream."

David Pirrie has us deep in wanderlust this month with "Height of Land", his topography and outward-bound inspired drawing done just for Vantage Art projects.

David describes the artwork as "a bit of an experiment for me. I wanted to get in between the contours of our land. I’ve taken a section of the Waddington Range in BC and drawn it on mylar. Randomly selecting a contour line, I followed it with paint brush in hand. Having been in the area, I could actually visualize where my brush was taking me, leading me to some rather interesting ideas on mapping and the many metaphors one can associate with it."

A a result, this artwork encourages us layer by layer to strip away the contours, mapping out a wayward journey that ultimately leads to repose.

David Pirrie lives and works in Vancouver, BC and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University in 1991. Since 2001 he has exhibited in Turin Italy, New York, Seattle, Bologna Italy, Toronto, and in British Columbia at the Surrey Art Gallery, Simon Fraser University Gallery, the Kelowna Art Gallery and State Gallery. His most recent solo exhibition was Codified Topographies at the Douglas Udell Gallery in Vancouver.

One of the constant variables in David’s work over the years has been a close analysis and detailed study of his subject, be it mountain topography, the human body, or car crashes. David has also been an avid mountaineer for 20 years, and has climbed many of the mountains in his paintings. His new works continue an almost scientific inquiry of mountain topography in Western Canada. Like a form of cataloguing, the paintings and drawings are a type of meditation on nature, geography, technology, and mapping. Quoting from David, “codification plays to the core of seeking knowledge, ascribing meaning, value and ranking. These ideas also play to the core of my being an artist, however, where I depart from the science of objectivity is trying to relay the emotional and physical situations where our need for accurate definition is way beyond our grasp”.

To see more of David's work and to purchase additional art, go to:
David Pirrie Website
Douglas Udell Gallery
Headbones Gallery

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE "HEIGHT OF LAND" BY DAVID PIRRIE STARTING AT $45.00

VANTAGE ART PROJECTS - ION Magazine #54 Interview

Pick up ION Magazine #54 (with its swanky new re-design) and turn immediately to page 34 for the skinny on Vantage Art Projects and our FRESH PICKS limited editions. Angela Grossman, Sandra Lopuch/Ben Edmiston and Mark Delong's editions are the featured illustrations for the article.

Thank you Michael M, Samantha L and Vanessa L.

We Heart ION!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD AND READ THE ARTICLE (PDF).

"Reminisence" by Fred Fraser FRESH PICKS V1E8

Vantage Art Projects is completely romanced by our new Fresh Pick limited edition. The image has the nostalgic and melancholy aura of a Marilyn Monroe or a Brigit Bardot film still from classic cinema. Almost voyeuristic, for us at Vantage, "Reminisence" is an iconic image of modern beauty.

The method by which Fred created this image is timely and poignant. It is the end of an era in film photography. Polaroid has stopped producing it's instant film, and although Fuji will continue making a type of instant film, it was Polaroid that was synonymous with the medium. More to the point, each type of film stock has always had it's own distinct quality, and it's own champions for that very reason. "Pola, au revoir mon vielle ami".

Fred discovered an old stash of 3"x4" film in his supply cabinet, long out-dated, most unusable. Massaging a few of the packets back to life, approximately a dozen frames were salvaged. An impromptu photo shoot with a willing studio assistant as a model allowed Fred to achieve the goal of simply making an image, instead of capturing a moment. The shoot was entirely for Fred's own enjoyment as a "shooter" and to go back to using the outdated film on a large format camera simply for the pleasure of photography. Fred says "it's difficult to say what the picture is about and I think the picture is it's own best description. When I shoot for pleasure - my pleasure - I shoot what I feel, or what I see. Sometimes the photo is narrative, sometimes it's interpretive or just a selective rendering that draws attention to some color or shape. Often my photos are little visual jokes or puns and usually I am the only person that gets the joke; and that's ok."

Fred Fraser is a Vancouver-based photographer with a successful commercial career. Fred got his education in photography as a result of being a failed piano player. Essentially self-taught, the artists that inspire Fred are more often writers and musicians then other photographers due to how he connects best to the passions of other people. More of Fred's work can be seen at: www.fredfraser.com.

Buy "Reminisence" from Fresh Picks now, starting at $45.00.

FRESH PICKS! OWN THE FRESHEST THING IN CONTEMPORARY ART TODAY.

"Redbeard Rides a House Grave of Green and Yellow" by Sandra Lopuch & Ben Edmiston FRESH PICKS V1E7

Fresh Picks is pleased to release our first edition of a collaborative work. Sandra Lopuch and Benjamin Edmiston's "Redbeard Rides a House Grave of Green and Yellow" is a brand new, unique, mixed media work following on the theme of Redbeard launched at Gallery Atsui in Vancouver in their "No Strings Attached "exhibition in 2008. The edition will be released on Sunday, January 18, 2009.

Canadian West Coast-based Sandra Lopuch, trained at ECIAD, the Carl Malmsten Institute for Wood Technology and Design in Stockholm, Sweden. Sandra is trained as an industrial designer and completed some impressive design internships before teaming up with New York based illustrator Benjamin Edmiston (Ben). Sandra refers to her textile stitchery work as "painting with string".

Ben is originally from Bethlehem, PA. he attended the Tyler School of Art and now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He creates imagined civilizations of vibrant, decorated and often moustached characters. Ben's latest group of drawings derives from his interest in seeing the face as an endless template to navigate formal issues. Totem poles, birthday hats, and masked thieves are reoccurring images inhabiting his work.

"Redbeard Rides a House Grave of Green and Yellow", is an original illustration by Ben, embroidered in string by Sandra. The result is a colourful, tactile, multi-layered work.

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.

Fresh Picks is a unique opportunity to collect an image from Sandra Lopuch and Benjamin Edmiston that is an exclusive release from their collaboration. It is only available through the Vantage website. Buy "Redbeard Rides a Grave House" now.

For information on the artists, please contact sandralopuch@gmail.com.

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

"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.

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

"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.