“Pomegranate Tree” is a fine art print of an original watercolour by Yael Berger. It is inspired by traditional folk art paintings. Pomegranate trees are actually big bushes, and their shape has inspired a lot of textile and illustration. Pomegranates symbolize plenty, wisdom and fertility, and the fruit is one of the symbols of Rosh Hashanah. The original painting was sold.
Berger is an Israel-based textile designer. After graduating from Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art in Ramat Gan, she worked in the fashion and home textile industry for more than 20 years, had her own design studio and sold funky printed T-shirts. Then she worked for 16 years as a senior sock designer and stylist at Delta Galil Ltd., a leading company of socks and underwear.
Her greatest passion is for colour and pattern, which is reflected in the name of her shop, the Joy of Color. “I hope my optimism and the joy I feel when creating is reflected in my paintings and prints,” she writes. “Nature, everyday objects and folk art inspire me and make me happy. As a minimalist at heart, I try to keep the shapes as simple as possible and let the colour speak. I do hope that my work will bring you joy and happiness.”
Artist Iza Radinsky at Zack Gallery. (photo by Olga Livshin)
Just over 500 years ago, in 1516, the Venetian Republic forcibly moved 700 Venetian Jews to an island, the abandoned site of a 14th-century foundry. In doing so, they created the first ghetto. The word ghetto means “foundry” in the old Venetian dialect.
Rachel Singel (photo from Rachel Singer)
The Venetian ghetto had two access bridges, both guarded at night, and boats also patrolled the canals. Despite the isolation and other restrictions, the republic was relatively tolerant. Inside the ghetto, Jews were free to practise their religion and traditions; they were not forced to convert, as was the case in Spain and many other places throughout Europe. The ghetto became known as a place of study and scholarship, and its population grew from 700 in 1516 to more than 6,000 a hundred years later. The area – which existed until 1797, when Napoleon conquered the republic and gave equality to all citizens – remains a centre of Jewish culture.
Many Jewish and Italian organizations in North America and Europe have commemorated the 500th anniversary of the Venetian ghetto in some way. Here in Vancouver, Zack Gallery, in conjunction with Il Museo at the Italian Cultural Centre, are presenting Stories from the Stones of Venice: The Art of Rachel Singel and Iza Radinsky. The exhibit was the brainchild of Singel, an artist, printmaker and assistant professor at the University of Louisville, in Kentucky.
“The year 2016 marked the 500th year since the establishment of the Jewish ghetto in Venice,” she said in an email interview with the Jewish Independent. “To honour the historical anniversary and the influence of this uniquely urban space, I worked onsite in Venice for two months to create a series of etchings illustrating the buildings, structures and streets of the ghetto.”
That was not Singel’s first visit to Venice. “I first went to Venice in 2012 for an artist residency,” she said. “I have had the opportunity to return to Venice every year since. My artworks have been increasingly influenced by Venice and its fragile state…. The last two years, I have also brought my students to the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica Venezia.”
“The Corner Synagogue” by Rachel Singel. (photo from Rachel Singer)
Singel has exhibited her 10 ghetto prints at the international school and at the Jewish community centre in Louisville.
“Each of the 10 images seeks to call attention to the Venetian ghetto’s importance, not only as an architectural complex within the confines of Venice, but also its worth internationally. Its structures are resonantly symbolic, representing the community’s resolute will to survive and prosper in what was an exceedingly hostile social environment.”
When Singel heard about the exhibition that was being planned at Il Museo – The Venetian Ghetto: A Virtual Reconstruction 1516-2017, which opened on July 25 – she looked into the possibility of engaging with their event. “I reached out to the Zack Gallery director, Linda Lando, about exhibiting my prints at the JCC,” Singel said.
Lando liked the idea of a Venice exhibition, but 10 small prints were not enough to fill the Zack, so Lando invited Radinsky, a local artist, to exhibit her paintings of Venice in the same show.
“Linda Lando saw five of my paintings of Venice before,” Radinsky said. “She asked me if I had more and if I would like to participate in a two-artist show together with Rachel Singel. I was happy to.”
Radinsky’s 14 large paintings and Singel’s prints form the Zack exhibit.
“I love Venice,” Radinsky said. “I first visited it in 2006, with my 86-year-old father. I was awed by the city. It was as beautiful as in the old masters’ paintings I admired as a child in the museums of Moscow and St. Petersburg, even better. Afterwards, every time I go to Europe, I visit Venice. It draws me. It’s quiet there, no cars. People walk and gondolas float on the canals. Nothing artificial, just earthy colours, red roofs, water and sky – and reflections in the canals.”
“Gondolier” by Iza Radinsky. (photo from Iza Radinsky)
In her paintings, gondolas and gondoliers look as intrinsic to the ancient city as the sunlight and shadows, the unique water streets and multiple bridges of Venice. The muted colours coalesce into one another, creating combinations that have no names. The sky and the water blend together, weaving one fantastic, living canvas.
“Venice is built on water,” Radinsky explained. “Because of the dampness, it’s hard to maintain the paint of the outside walls of the buildings. The paint often flakes off, and green mold grows close to the water. But gondolas – those look luxurious. Lots of gilt and bright colours, golden ornaments and lush fabrics and cushions for the passengers. Every gondola is an amazing piece of art. In the past, gondolas were part of the Venetian fleet. They could ram into an enemy ship, and their sharp iron bows could cut like knifes. Now, they are tourist attractions, and gondoliers are very friendly and knowledgeable. They wear special hats and traditional striped shirts. They have to study long and hard to learn manoeuvring in the narrow canals. They have to pass an exam and get a licence.”
The artist’s eyes glowed with enthusiasm as she talked about her beloved Venice. “I’ve been there four times already and I want to go again,” said Radinsky.
Stories from the Stones of Venice opened at Zack Gallery on July 27 and continues until Sept. 3.
Olga Livshinis a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
Israeli designer Yifat Jovani sewed clothes for her Barbie doll as a child, but didn’t launch her own fashion line for women until she moved to Vancouver 11 years ago.
Love brought the mother of two to the city. She met her Canadian husband, Tim Matheson, in Tel Aviv and the couple lived there for four years before relocating to British Columbia.
Yifat Jovani’s creations are feminine, elegant and pragmatic, with stylish, flowing layers that flatter the figure. (photo by Tim Matheson)
“My parents taught me that art should be a hobby, not a living, so, for many years, I never had the idea or the courage to make my clothing designs a professional business,” Jovani told the Jewish Independent. “Once we moved here, I realized it’s what I wanted to do.”
Jovani designs women’s clothes in sizes 2 through 12, all of them made from bamboo fabric. Her garments are feminine, elegant and pragmatic, with stylish, flowing layers that flatter the figure. They include tunics, dresses, coats, skirts and tops that can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion. “I like to call my designs clothing for real women, because that’s who wears my clothes – not skinny girls,” she reflected. “My clients are real women who have bodies in different shapes and sizes, and they need clothes that are practical, easy to care for and to travel with.”
Pragmatism is a key word for Jovani, who believes women shouldn’t have to suffer to look beautiful. “With my designs, you can multitask and still look beautiful,” she said. “Wear it to the office, and add an accessory to use it for dinner out or a cocktail party. I think women should have garments in their closets that aren’t just for special events.”
As part of her “real woman” design strategy, Jovani has asked her friends and clients to be her models at the fashion show events she organizes each year, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. “People are telling me, it’s so nice to see how your clothes look in size 10. It makes it more real. And … when I do my photo shoot for my fall collection, I’ll feature a regular model, but I’ll also have a size 10 model.”
Jovani’s designs are available for sale at her online store, yifatjovani.com, and in Vancouver at the boutique Tenth & Proper (4483 West 10th Ave.) and at Kali (1000 Commercial Dr.). They are also selling at boutiques in Duncan, Courtenay, Terrace and Whitehorse. “I’m trying to get into more stores but I’m doing all this myself, and I have two little ones in the house ages 4 and 7,” she said. “My goal is that my clothing will sell in more stores, both in Canada and internationally.”
When asked how challenging it is to be a fashion designer in Vancouver, Jovani’s succinct response encapsulates her determination and drive to succeed. “It’s not about location, because everywhere in the world there is competition,” she said. “In order to succeed, you need to work hard for what you love, be determined, and believe in yourself. If you don’t take action, you don’t get results.”
Visit Jovani’s studio at Muckabout Gift Gallery, 4759 Hastings St., or make an appointment to see her by emailing [email protected].
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
Artists Michael Abelman and Victoria Scudamore share the walls at Zack Gallery in the exhibit Sea to Sky. (photo by Olga Livshin)
In the exhibit Sea to Sky at Zack Gallery, the artists’ works complement each other. Michael Abelman’s seascapes and floral compositions lean towards the pensive and are a little wistful, while Victoria Scudamore’s abstract paintings add splashes of colour and joy to the gallery walls.
“I’ve always liked crafts, since I was a child,” Scudamore said in an interview with the Independent, “but I could never draw. I was a realtor for 30 years. Then, seven years ago, I fell off my bike and broke a wrist. A month later, I decided to take an art class. I thought: I couldn’t draw anyway, I would just have fun.”
“Chakra Forest” by Victoria Scudamore.
She did have fun. But, also during that class, she discovered the style of intuitive, abstract painting and fell in love with it. “It resonated with me,” she recalled. She started taking more classes. “Art became a real passion of mine,” she said. “Now I have to paint every day. I don’t feel whole if I don’t paint. This is my first show, and I’m very excited about it.”
Her elation is unmistakable as she talks about her creative process.
“I’m an abstract expressionist. I try to capture emotions in my paintings,” she explained. “I want to show movement, colours in motion, to show connections. To paint abstract, I need to be in a dreamy space. I often listen to ’70s rock music and sometimes I dance when I paint. Once, I accidentally knocked off a bottle of ink onto one of my paintings, but I didn’t throw it away. I saw something in the pattern of the ink stains and painted over it, used it.”
Scudamore feels adventurous in her approach to art, ready to respond to any stimulus, be it a forest, a seashore, a flower, a bird, an ink stain or a stray thought. “I often paint two paintings at a time,” she said. “I feel freer to explore this way. Like a scientist, I experiment with colours, shapes and textures. Sometimes, I fall in love with a certain palette and do a series based on those colours. It’s all intuitive. I never know where I’ll end up when I start a painting. The beginning is the most exciting moment for me, a mystery. I’m child-like when I paint. I’m in the realm of fun.”
Her happiness in creating art makes her brave and self-confident. “I don’t compare myself with other artists,” she said. “Sure, Michael [Abelman] has been painting for 20 years; he has much more experience than I do, but I think artists shouldn’t compare with each other. It steals joy. We are all on different paths, our own paths.”
Abelman agrees with that sentiment. “I’ve been painting for 20 years but only showing for five years,” he said. “Like Victoria, I don’t compare myself with other artists, only with myself. My art is changing, evolving.”
Sea to Sky is Abelman’s second show at the Zack. His solo show in 2014 was a rainbow explosion of flowers but, this year, his paintings demonstrate a different level of maturity. Although half of his paintings are still flowers, their colours are more pastel and the ambience more contemplative. “It feels like another stage in my art and in my life,” he said. “Maybe I’m getting older.”
“Red Ship Entering Bay” by Michael Abelman.
Half of his exhibited paintings this year are ships: in winter and in summer, in the morning mist and in the glowing sunset. “I painted ships before but, recently, I find myself drawn to them. My ship paintings are quiet, while the flowers are always louder, exuberant with colours. I still paint flowers, but I wanted more. If you could find beauty in a tulip you could find beauty in a ship, too. I wanted to show it.”
Abelman said ships reflect a sense of exploration but also of loneliness. “A ship is always alone amid the vast ocean, and even near the shore,” he said. “You could see lots of ships in Vancouver. They arrive and depart daily. I take pictures of them when I walk along the waterline, then I take different things from different photos for my paintings.”
He constantly works on improving his skills and widening his range of expression. “Professionally,” he said, “I’m an accountant, but I never tried so hard in accounting as I do in art; never enjoyed accounting so much either. In art, I’m driven. I want to succeed, to be better. I don’t care if I sell, but I want to paint better. I’ve been taking art classes for years, and the more I learn, the more I realize how much I still need to learn.”
Like Scudamore, he paints every day but, unlike his partner in the show, his deep immersion in art doesn’t come easily. “Painting is hard for me,” he admitted. “You go into your own world for hours at a time. It’s a form of meditation. I have to focus, so no music for me when I paint. Sometimes, I listen to the news, but mostly I concentrate on my art.”
In spring 2014, an open call was circulated inviting artists to submit proposals for artworks to be included in the new Delbrook Community Centre in North Vancouver. In response, 64 artists from across Canada and the United States submitted expressions of interest. Among the few chosen was Mia Weinberg’s “Close to Nature’s Heart.” The official opening takes place at the community centre June 24, but visitors can see it at the centre anytime.
Weinberg’s “Close to Nature’s Heart” transforms the floor surface of the centre’s main lobby level and adjoining exterior plaza into a giant canvas. A unique cement skimming process was used to embed the image of a magnified leaf skeleton, complete with stem and veins, across the polished cement floors. The artwork invites visitors to “come in and play,” as many of the leaf veins display the names of local streets. For newcomers to the facility, the street names provide a visual prompt to navigate through the space.
As an artist specializing in site-specific public art projects, Weinberg is driven by the belief that art has the potential to make us more present and engaged in our world. Born in London, England, she moved to Vancouver in 1987 and graduated from Emily Carr University in 1994. Since that time, her work has been exhibited across Canada and internationally. Her art practice explores the interplay between the natural environment and the places where we live, our personal memories and our collective civic and cultural stories.
“In my public art projects,” writes Weinberg in her artist’s statement, “I often juxtapose imagery of local plants and maps of the surrounding area to celebrate connections between them, and to uniquely ground each piece in the place where it will be installed.”
About “Close to Nature’s Heart,” she explains, “The big leaf on the floor is a fanciful approximation of reality, not a realistic street map – a visual invitation to engage the imagination. Children, their parents and visitors of all ages will see the individual components of their neighbourhood – the streets where they live – reimagined as vitally connected to each other and part of a living, thriving organism that draws its strength from each individual part and in turn nourishes the whole. It is my hope that the artwork will spark an ongoing sense of play among kids as they seek out their own streets and their friends’ streets. On a more practical level, the veins will provide visitors with a subtle and beautiful visual wayfinding that will guide them into and out of the building and to the reception desk from the elevators.”
For more about Weinberg’s public artwork, visit miaweinberg.com/engraving. For information on the other two works selected by Delbrook Community Centre, visit nvrc.ca.
Gail Dodek Wenner conceived the group exhibit Physician Heal Thyself … and Others, which is at Zack Gallery until June 25. (photo by Olga Livshin)
The new exhibition at Zack Gallery, Physician Heal Thyself … and Others, includes four artists, all of them local physicians near retiring or recently retired. Regular visitors to the gallery probably will be familiar with the work of two of them – Ian Penn and Carl Rothschild, who have exhibited at the gallery before – but maybe not that of Arturo Manes and Gail Dodek Wenner.
Rothschild’s contribution to the show is a selection of small, colourful paintings, which look like snapshots of his garden or a street around the corner. Each one is accompanied by a poem written by the artist. Together, they represent his impression of his home city and its healing potential.
“Preventative Medicine” by Carl Rothschild. (photo by Olga Livshin)
Penn’s part of the show is more dramatic. It includes a video and several photographed pages from his journal, where he documented the before and after of his complicated spinal surgery in 2016. His display fits the theme of the show almost too perfectly for comfort.
Manes’ paintings – his method of spiritual healing – are based on Roman Vishniac’s book of black-and-white photographs, A Vanished World.
“The Shoah has been for me a defining event not only in Jewish history but human behaviour, which I’m trying to come to grips with,” Manes said in an email interview. “Black-and-white photographs in Vishniac’s book impressed me greatly…. I used those images of my people prior to the Holocaust as a template for my paintings. By adding colour and a free rendering, I hoped to express the feelings the photographs have evoked.”
He said Physician Heal Thyself is the first exhibit in which he has participated, although he has been painting since childhood. “I’m not an artist – I’m a physician who paints. I was honoured to be invited by Dr. Gail Wenner to be a part of this show.”
Dodek Wenner invited the other doctors to participate in the show, as well. It was she who came up with the theme.
“I always loved art, but I loved science, too,” she told the Independent. “I chose medicine as my career, but art has always been my hobby.”
As an artist, she is very versatile. At one point or another, she has tried various media: painting, ceramics, textiles, photography, Hebrew calligraphy. In practising medicine, however, she stayed true to one direction: mothers and babies. “In the past 26 years, I delivered 2,000 babies,” she said. “But I made the decision to stop delivering. It’s time for a change.”
One of the precursors of her decision was going back to school, to Emily Carr University. In 2009, she received a diploma in fine art technique.
“Weaver” by Arturo Manes. (photo by Olga Livshin)
“I took a class, Business of Art,” she recalled. “One of the assignments was to pitch an idea for a show to an art gallery. I chose a theme: healing, what it means to be a doctor and what Judaism says about healing. I chose the Zack Gallery, and I decided to invite several Jewish physicians to participate. All for a school assignment. I didn’t actually do it at that time. I did mention it to Yosef Wosk, who is a friend, and he said it was a great idea.”
A few years later, Wosk reminded her of the idea, and she finally contacted Zack Gallery director Linda Lando. “I pitched the idea to Linda in 2016,” Dodek Wenner said. “We brainstormed it and came up with a few names of Jewish physicians who were artists.”
That was the first step. The next step was to determine what she wanted to paint for the show. “I needed to explore what healing meant to me,” Dodek Wenner explained. “Personally, I always went to my parents’ beach house when I needed to do some healing. So, I thought, what was it about the ocean that healed me?”
After some contemplation, she came up with four steps of healing. “The first one is the acknowledgement: yes, there is a problem. There is a fear, and a doctor has to acknowledge that fear in her patient. Next comes compassion, which leads to the doctor assuring her patient: I can help you. The third one is wisdom. Doctors have a huge body of knowledge. They study for many years, and they share their knowledge with the patient, use what they know for healing. Last is comfort. Comforting the patient is very important at every stage of the healing process.”
After formulating these concepts in her head, she explored what Judaism says about healing. “I looked in the siddur, the Jewish prayer book, and found all four of those concepts of healing, both body and soul, in the first couple pages,” she said.
She knew she was on the right track but wasn’t sure how to showcase her ideas through art. “I went to the beach house again, walked along the shore, and I knew,” she said. “The ocean represents all four facets of healing, too.”
Her paintings, two distinct series of five paintings, are all different interpretations of the shoreline. The ocean is sometimes quiet, sometimes turbulent and the colours of the waves fluctuate from light blue to deep green. The foam, created with the use of medical gauze, plays in the sand among the shells. The shells are real, collected by the artist along the same beach she loves so much. “I scooped them with a cup,” she said.
“My paintings don’t show one particular place,” she added. “They are the essence of a shoreline. Each piece is different, but they all connect.”
Physician Heal Thyself opened on May 25 and continues until June 25.
Olga Livshinis a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
Barbara Heller in front of “Regeneration,” the work she created in collaboration with botanist Elena Klein. (photo by Olga Livshin)
Through the art of weaving, internationally acclaimed local artist Barbara Heller explores the world – and she doesn’t shy away from controversial topics. Themes of politics and destruction, renewal and society attract her exactly because of their complexity.
Heller’s road to the tapestry arts wasn’t straightforward. Her first bachelor degree was in psychology. “I started a master in psychology and, as part of the program, I had to keep an art journal,” she recalled. “It made me happy, much more so than psychology, so I decided I wanted to go to an art school. But, at that time, an art program would be mostly about ideas, concepts. If I wanted to learn techniques, I needed a program in art education.”
After earning a certificate in art education, Heller taught printmaking for awhile, but an allergy to the chemicals used pushed her to seek another form of artistic expression. She took some evening classes in tapestry-making, and loved it. She started showing her work at craft markets and art fairs.
“Tapestry-making is a slow, time-consuming process,” she told the Independent. “Sometimes, a large tapestry takes a year to complete. But the meditative aspect of weaving fits my personality. I need slow. I need time to think, to contemplate what I am doing. When I make a tapestry, I can stop at any moment, which was convenient when I was younger. I rented my studio on Granville Island the same year I got pregnant, 36 years ago.”
She continued her art while raising her son.
“With a tapestry, I’m creating the canvas along with the image, and I like that,” she said. “Dealing with mistakes is much harder than in a painting, so I go slowly to get it right the first time. It is almost a dialogue between me and the tapestry on my loom.”
In the beginning, Heller taught tapestry, but she doesn’t do so any longer. “I learn by doing,” she said. “It’s the best way to learn. I often find it hard to explain in words all the concepts and ideas that go into my weaving. I still make presentations and lectures at the professional conventions and shows, for the experienced artists, but I don’t want to explain the alphabet to the beginners anymore. I want to have more time for my tapestries.”
Her latest creation, “Regeneration,” took a year to complete. This large tapestry, made in collaboration with botanist Elena Klein, is part of the group show Connections that opened on May 11 at Craft Council Gallery on Granville Island. The concept of the show was collaboration, an exchange of ideas between three textile artists and their non-artist friends.
“Tzimtzum” or “Transcendence,” by Barbara Heller.
“For a long time, I had this image in my head of bombed-out buildings in Syria,” Heller said. “I wanted to use it for a tapestry, but I didn’t know where to go with it. Then, I met with Elena, and we talked. That’s how I found out that certain species of pine trees drop cones that don’t release their seeds unless a forest fire occurs. The seeds then germinate in the earth newly cleared of large trees by the fire. Suddenly, the image of my tapestry took shape.”
The tapestry has three distinct sections. The bottom layer is flames, blazing with red, yellow and orange, gorgeous and deadly. The middle part is what comes after, and these grey ruins could almost be anywhere in the world. The aftermath of a fire, whether man-made or natural, is the same: ash, devastation, fear. But hope won’t be denied, and the top part of the tapestry represents rebirth: a green field with the pinecones scattered around. The artist’s message is clear: new growth will come out of the wreckage. Life will reassert itself.
The same message of life arising from destruction or death manifests in another of Heller’s large tapestries, “Tzimtzum” or “Transcendence.” In 2016, she was invited to submit a piece to the 15th International Triennial of Tapestry in Lodz, Poland. “I wanted to work on an image with birds and wings, starting with tragedy, but ending with hope,” she said.
The tapestry depicts a stylized ladder. The darker blue rungs at the bottom incorporate a dead bird, a recurring image for the artist. From that low point, the ladder climbs, punctuated by several pairs of wings, with the shades of blue gradually lightening towards a white radiance. “The ladder has many interpretations,” Heller says in her artist’s statement. “It can be seen as a metaphor for our life, as a link, a liminal space between birth and death, heaven and earth … matter and spirit…. For me, they [the rungs] are stepping stones on the path of spiritual attainment, of transcendence.”
After six months in Poland, the tapestry came home, and it is currently on display at Christ Church Cathedral on Burrard Street, as part of the show (in)finite. The exhibition, featuring 30 Canadian textile artists, opened on May 25 and runs until June 4, with an opening reception on May 27. The show Connection on Granville Island continues until June 22.
Olga Livshinis a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
Johanan Herson is coming from Israel to Art! Vancouver. (photo from Johanan Herson)
“I am very much looking forward to seeing all the new artwork coming from around the world,” Lisa Wolfin told the Independent. “We have some giant heads coming from Miami, some art made out of spider webs, metal sculptures and some really crazy stuff – can’t wait to see it all together under one roof.”
Wolfin is the founder and director of Art! Vancouver, which this year takes place May 25-28 at Vancouver Convention Centre-East. She is also an artist herself and will be bringing recent work to the fair.
“Over the past year,” she said, “I have contemplated what to make for the show that is new and unique and have come up with my new series called I Feel. It is a portrait series made from different materials: oil on canvas, mixed media on wood panel, and photography.”
Her current work is contemporary, she said. “What I have found in the many art fairs that I have attended is that artists are using recycled materials and making them into creative art forms. My newest series is made out of my kids’ things they used when they were young. Sometimes, it feels like I am back in kindergarten being free to just play with materials, not thinking what you are trying to make out of it, just doing. Who doesn’t want to be a kid again?”
“Golden Hour,” acrylic on canvas, by Michael Abelman, one of several Jewish artists whose work is part of Art! Vancouver, which runs May 25-28. (photo from Art! Vancouver)
As more people have become aware of the art fair – this is its third year – inquiries have come from around the world, said Wolfin. And CBC Arts’ Amanda Parris “is flying out from Toronto to host the show and speak in a panel talk on Saturday at 3 p.m. Joining Amanda on the panel is Barrie Mowatt, who presently runs the Vancouver Biennale.”
Art! Vancouver opens on May 25, 7 p.m., said Wolfin, with “The Face of Art, where the artists walk down the runway carrying their artwork, so the attendees can put a face to the art to know who the artist is. People are curious as to who are the makers of the art – at this show, the artists are mostly in attendance, where people can come to meet them.”
Among those artists are several from the Jewish community, including Wolfin. Also presenting their work will be Johanan Herson, who is coming to the fair from Israel, and local artists Michael Abelman, Lauren Morris, Taisha Teal Wayrynen and Skyla Wayrynen.
“I will be showing mostly the soft art, textile art, but will have some of the sculpture works and acrylic paintings as well,” Herson told the Independent about what he’s bringing with him. “Le Soleil Gallery [on Howe Street] is showing the full range of my work and will continue after the fair to handle my artwork.”
Herson said he’s been to Vancouver a couple of times before, when he was a student at Banff School of Fine arts. He is originally from Montreal.
“I grew up in Montreal and visited Israel on various occasions before making aliyah,” he said. “In fact, I had come to study at the Bezalel Academy just after the Six Day War and hated it. I traveled the world before coming back to Montreal and the Canadian sense of pluralism and diversity. I came back later [to Israel] to understand the meaning of my Jewishness and fell in love with an Israeli woman, of a 10-generation family, and find myself part of this dynamic society.”
In terms of his artwork, Herson said, “I know that my soft art is a product of being at the right time and the right place, where this technique evolved, and I did look into the possibility of doing it in Quebec, but … the soft art is definitely an Israel discovery and development.
“My Canadian identity is one of respect for everyone, the celebration of diversity and acceptance of the other, and I cherish my Canadian roots and heritage and am proud of my citizenship. My work in Israel and my Jewish identity has always been part of who I am wherever I am and was part of who I am as a Canadian and an Israeli. I hope that my commitment to making the world a better place for everyone would have guided me if I had never left Canada, although perhaps the intensity of living and creating in the Middle East has challenges that are unique to Israel.
“I believe in the good in humanity,” he continued, “and have always sought to defend the less-privileged and suffering … whether they are in Montreal, Tel Aviv, Ramallah or Africa, and seek global communication as a platform to making the world a healthier and safer place of love, respect and opportunity for a better life for everyone. I do so as a Canadian Jewish Israeli artist.”
“Welcome to my World,” latex on canvas, by Skyla Wayrynen. (photo from Art! Vancouver)
He gave the example of an exhibit of his work that just closed at the University in Minnesota. The exhibit, he said, was “part of encouraging dialogue between the Jewish student and Islamic student bodies. The message is that we must pray and work for a better world, that tikkun olam is to wake up every day and say that the world has been created for me alone, and that I must make it a better place for everyone.”
Teal Wayrynen is working toward a similar goal – making the world a better place – in a different way.
“I received my associates degree in psychology from Capilano University and am graduating this year with my bachelor’s degree from Simon Fraser University,” she told the Independent. “I will then combine my art with my counseling and do a master’s program for art therapy after I travel for half a year.”
At last year’s Art! Vancouver, Teal Wayrynen featured her Pop Icon collection. This year, she said she is “experimenting with charcoal and acrylic paint and drawing female bodies.”
Right now, her favourite medium is acrylic paint mixed with spray paint, she said. “I just started to mix mediums and use molding paste, acrylic paint and charcoal on top,” she added.
Morris has also been delving into new methods and media.
“I have continued predominantly working on flowers, however, I have introduced a new colour palette, as well as more abstraction within my floral pieces,” she told the Independent. “I’ve also continued with my free, fluid style and introduced some abstract landscapes using the new colours. My inspiration comes from the beautiful flowers that seem to surround me every day. Every season brings on something new and I am inspired by their shapes and colours.”
She has been working on a new series for Art! Vancouver, Morris said, “experimenting with a couple of new techniques and colours. They will be mainly florals and will all coordinate in style so that there is consistency within my pieces. I work predominantly in acrylic.”
She added, “I am hoping that my growth as an artist is shown in my new pieces and that my work continues to evoke my viewers’ emotions through visual imagery.”
Art! Vancouver opens May 25 at the convention centre with a VIP preview at 6 p.m. and the gala at 7 p.m. The show runs May 26-27, noon to 8 p.m., and May 28, noon to 5 p.m. A one-day pass is $15 (online) or $25 (at the door); $8 for children under the age of 14. A multi-day pass is $40 and a VIP pass is $100. Tickets to the opening gala are $30. Visit artvancouver.net.
Orly Ashkenazy’s “Strings.” (photo by Olga Livshin)
The Festival Ha’Rikud group exhibit at Zack Gallery, Celebrating Friendship, presents 23 artists in a variety of styles and media. Each artist, in his or her own special way, explores the theme of friendship.
Photographer Judy Vitek interpreted the theme literally. The children in one of her photos and the texting teenage girls in another live hundreds of miles apart, on different continents, but their friendships are unmistakable.
Gaye Collins’ “Friendship through the Sands of Time.” (photo by Olga Livshin)
On the other end of the spectrum, the abstract canvas by Lauren Morris could be seen as a medley of lines and colours, intertwining and mixing like friends at a party. Or perhaps it is a firework explosion. Or a flower bouquet a friend brought one summer afternoon.
Flowers bloom in Carl Rothschild’s paintings as well, but there is nothing abstract in his imagery. Maybe the artist glimpsed his poppies and lilies in a friend’s garden or on a neighbouring street. Cheerful and unblemished, his flowers are his friends. They wave their bright petals in recognition of their creator’s love for his home city.
In contrast to Rothschild’s decidedly local milieu, Gaye Collins’ painting, “Friendship through the Sands of Time,” feels like an exotic metaphor. Two black figures stroll away from the viewer through a vague landscape, reminiscent of yellow dunes or poetic imagination. The painting is dreamlike, and the figures undefined. Friends or lovers, they tell a story everybody knows, but nobody remembers.
Another metaphor, Jennie Johnston’s small and elegant quilt, is a labyrinth, a place of search and contemplation, a path leading into the heart. Whose heart? Everyone must decide for themself.
Lori-ann Latremouille’s “Flowers of Friendship.” (photo by Olga Livshin)
Between conceptuality on one hand and photographic precision on the other, two paintings stand out – two of the few where faces play the major role. While Yodhi Williamson’s “Chance Meeting on 4th Ave” conveys the simple joy of accidentally bumping into an old friend, Lori-ann Latremouille’s “Flowers of Friendship” channels a more complex narrative. In it, undertones of doubt and surprise mingle with recognition and kinship in the artist’s deceptively transparent double portrait.
Faces also appear in Sima Elizabeth Shefrin’s two tiny fabric panels, but here they resemble primitivistic art, innocent and childlike, ideas rather than portraits. In both panels, an Arab and a Jew refuse to succumb to the current political facts – they want to be friends.
Hope also emits from Alina Smolyansky’s shining piece “Jerusalem Domes of Faith.” Three temples of three different faiths grow out of the same root, united inside one hand, one hamsa, one finite world.
Alina Smolyansky’s “Jerusalem Domes of Faith.” (photo from the artist)
Pamela Cohen explores a different aspect of hope: an aerial view of a brightly coloured patchwork of countries and borders. Could friendships develop across those delineated borders, as the artist implies? Or is it wishful thinking?
Orly Ashkenazy’s composition “Strings” doesn’t feel very hopeful, although its meanings resonate on many sublayers. At first glance, the painting is a random collection of rough face drawings. They look like pencil sketches. A tangle of cotton strings stretch and intersect, cross and turn, connecting those faces. The strings bind them, bind us all; however, a splash of red paint runs from top to bottom of the painting, dividing it into two separate parts like a river of blood. No string crosses the river, no connection manifests between its two sides.
A tapestry by Vladimira Fillion-Wackenreuther. (photo from the artist)
Another work, a tapestry by Vladimira Fillion-Wackenreuther, pays tribute to Prague, the city of the artist’s youth. Tinged with nostalgia, the woven image is playful, uplifting. It reflects Prague’s medieval architecture, its culture-infused streets and traditional Czech marionettes. The city is indisputably the weaver’s friend, and she invites all of us to join in the friendship.
Many other artists are featured in the show – Aurel Stan, Ava Lee Millman Fisher, Beryl Israel, Claire Cohen, Gail Davidson, Joel Libin, Joyce Ozier, Monica Gewurz, Marion Eisman, Patricia Haley-Tsui, Sidi Schaffer – and each has enriched the concept of friendship with his or her unique perspective, talent and skills.
The exhibit opened May 4 and runs until May 22.
Olga Livshinis a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
A photograph of Deadvlei in Namibia, by Judi Angel, is part of the exhibit Eye Lines, at Zack Gallery until April 30.
Five years ago at Zack Gallery, Judi Angel had a solo show of photographs from her time as a volunteer in Asia and Africa. Most of her work from that period was portraits of people she met during her travels. By contrast, her new solo exhibit, also the product of her travels, features no people – instead, her latest works transform landscapes into geometry, into lines, colours and shapes. The title of the new Zack show, Eye Lines, reflects the artist’s new approach.
“Each photo in this show has a leading line,” Angel said in an interview with the Jewish Independent. “That line attracts the viewer’s gaze, builds a narrative. It takes your imagination on a journey. You look at the image and you ask questions. Where are we? Where are we going? How do we get there? What is beyond the frame?”
Her fascination with lines started in recent years. “I took a photography class on developing your own style,” she said. “I hadn’t noticed how much I use lines in my images until I went back over my photos, thousands of them. Then the lines emerged as something important, so I decided to exploit that direction and enjoy what comes of it.”
She doesn’t consider herself a professional photographer, despite the artistic quality of her photos. “Photography is a serious hobby for me. I’m not trying to make a living with it,” she said. “I want it to be fun and challenging. I’m looking for new ways to express my vision of the world.”
Judi Angel (photo from Judi Angel)
Awhile ago, she began experimenting with her craft. Layering, double exposure, conceptual photography and a new medium for her images – sublimation printing on aluminum – are only some of the new things she has played with recently. But finding unusual images and original angles are still her primary goals.
“Five years ago, when my husband and I volunteered in impoverished countries, my photos were like a documentary. Now, I want to experiment more,” she said. “We still travel, but the trips are shorter. We don’t want to leave home for long periods of time; we have eight grandchildren. But we often travel specifically to places I want to photograph, like Africa – it is a visual feast for a photographer.”
Earlier this year, she and her husband traveled to Namibia. “We went there particularly for photography,” she explained. A few photos in the exhibit come from one of the major Namibian tourist attractions, a ghost town, called Kolmanskop, in the Namib Desert. According to Angel, Kolmanskop was a mining town founded in the earlier 1900s by German settlers to mine diamonds. The miners built their town in their homeland’s style.
“It had all the amenities: a hospital, a casino, a school, even a ballroom,” she said. “Unfortunately, by the middle of the 20th century, the mine’s diamond production petered out and the town was abandoned.”
Today, only sand and tourists move among the empty buildings, and Angel’s photographs demonstrate the power of both. The desert irrevocably reclaims its own, encroaching on the former human dwellings, creeping in through broken windows and open doors. The rippling sand dunes inside the houses look eerie, almost alien beneath the pastel-coloured walls.
A different alien landscape meets the travelers outside, in the desert. Angel’s photos of the desert reflect the stark contrast of blue sky and yellow sand. The colours are blinding. “There is a new railway there, in the desert, but the sand always moves. It covers the rails every day and has to be constantly cleared,” she said. Her photograph of a sand dune a couple of metres high, piling across the straight line of rails, is awe-inspiring and achingly beautiful.
Another unique desert photograph sports three colours instead of two. A grove of dead trees stretch their long-dry branches upward, adding dark brown to the blue-and-yellow combination of the desert. “The trees have been there for 600 years,” said Angel. “The dryness of the desert preserves the wood from rotting and crumbling, so they just stand there.”
Most other pictures in the exhibit reveal architectural elements, as seen through the artist’s lens. Several of them are in the monochrome palette, while all the desert pictures use colour. “I like colour, especially the warm yellows, reds and blues, but sometimes, black-and-white is the only option,” she explained. “In my geometrical photos, black-and-white emphasize lines, while colours would be distracting.”
Her architectural photos are not precise copies of real life but rather an enhanced fantasy, a capriccio on an urban theme. One of her favourite image-manipulation programs is Photoshop. “Some photographers say that using Photoshop means cheating, but I don’t think so,” she said. “Photoshop is my tool, like paintbrushes for an artist. It has so many creative possibilities, and I experiment with them.”
Angel’s experimentations led her to join the Capture Photography Festival, and the current show at the Zack is part of the festival. Launched in 2013, this year’s festival presents photography at more than 70 galleries and community spaces throughout Vancouver.
“I like visiting their shows – so many outstanding artists,” said Angel, noting, “They have judges to ensure that every participating photographer and every exhibition are on a decent level.”
Eye Lines opened at the Zack on March 30 and will continue until April 30. To learn more about Angel’s work, visit judiangel.com.
Olga Livshinis a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
