Preview of the Visual Arts | April-May 2010

Penticton Art Gallery
199 Marina Way ✆250-493-2928
www.galleries.bc.ca/agso/
tues-fri 10am-6pm sat-sun 12-5pm.
Thru May 16 MAIN GALLERY Laurie
Papou: Storm, mixed media work that
uses themes of nature to examine
human’s resilience to adversity and
change through acts of reinvention and
acceptance of the absence of control;
THE PROJECT ROOM AND TONI ONLEY
GALLERY Connections - Visual Arts Students
of Penticton, Princess Margaret
and Summerland Secondary Schools,
highlight the creative output of grades 9
to 12 students.
PORT ALBERNI
Ahtsik Native Art Gallery
7133A Pacific Rim Hwy
✆250-723-3425 888-324-8745
www.gordondick.ca
thurs-mon 10:30am-5pm. Owned and
operated by Tseshaht artist Gordon
Dick, the gallery showcases original
works by Nuu-chah-nulth artists and
artists from other First Nations showcasing
wood and stone carvings, jewellery,
weavings, photographs, prints
and structural decorative pieces (doors,
beams, gates, panels). Thru Jun 5
Andrew Dexel En-paa-uk, Candace
Campo, Patrick Amos, Dorothy Jarvis
and painted drums by Patricia Soop,
“Ancestral Translation: Through a
Painter’s Palette”, featuring emerging
and established First Nations artists
showing a variety of painting styles
from traditional-realism to traditionalcontemporary.
PORT MOODY
Port Moody Arts Centre
2425 St Johns St ✆604-931-2008
www.pomoartscentre.ca
PORT MOODY ARTS CENTRE: mon-thurs
10am-8pm fri-sat 10am-5pm sun 12-
4pm, closed holidays, SCOTIABANK
GALLERY: 2501 St John St, mon-thurs
10am-4pm, fri 10am-5pm. Apr 8-May 9
MAIN GALLERY Monica Deac, “Divine
Game”, oil on canvas; PLUM GALLERY
www.23sandy.com
Andrea Benson: Hands and Minds
23 SANDY GALLERY, PORTLAND OR – May 6-29, 2010 Portland artist Andrea Benson has successfully
worked in ceramics, papermaking, printmaking, photography and collage. After receiving a
BFA in Art from Penn State and a BFA in Interior Design from Marylhurst University, she has painted
with encaustics for the past seven years.
For her new work in Hands and Minds, Benson has combined drawing, paper and encaustic to
create a fanciful group of figurative paintings. Showing her interest in inner narratives and memories
that translate into the universal, the mixed media panels reveal opulent layers of drawing and collage
embedded within the depths of wax medium. The radiant and milky effect of the encaustic method
enhances the transitory, fantasy-like subjects of her artwork.
For her subject matter, she has used subtle hand gestures to reflect avenues within the mind. Benson’s
romantic vision is executed
through the elegant compositions
where we see dream-like characters
in graceful poses. As the artist
states, “Hands, arms and stance
are explored as handmaidens of
the mind – a mind imagined as
Andrea Benson, Takes Two (2009), encaustic on paper and drawing on wood
panel [23 Sandy Gallery, Portland OR, May 6-29]
individual, collective, cultural and
environmental.”.
The facial identity of Benson’s
“handmaidens” is mostly obscured, as if the figures are meant to act as metaphors for emotional
events or archetypal experiences. In Wader, a sensual woman emerges from an ethereal water-like
reflection. Her hands and arms are in full focus while the rest of the softly rendered composition
depicts surreal sensations. In Hanging Meadow, an elongated woman is draped in delicate clothing
that literally spills into a foreground of cartoon-like flowers. Allyn Cantor
WALLS AND SCOTIABANK GALLERY Candice
Perry, “Distant Memories”, drypoint
etching; PLUM GALLERY DISPLAY CASE
Vladimir Chackharian, “Jewelry and
Fine Engraving”, precious metals; 3D
GALLERY Thinking about Green, group
show, various media; May 13-Jun 6
MAIN GALLERY Won-Hee Pigeon, “Windsong
and Rhythm”, acrylic on canvas;
PLUM GALLERY WALLS AND SCOTIABANK
GALLERY Barbara Day, “Seasons”, oil on
canvas; PLUM GALLERY DISPLAY CASE
Deanna Welters, “Shibori Silk”, shibori;
3D GALLERY Clay for You artist group,
“Traditional Korean Pottery”, clay.
PRINCE GEORGE
★ Two Rivers Gallery
725 Civic Plaza ✆250-614-7800
www.tworiversgallery.ca
wed-sat 10am-5pm thurs 10am-9pm
sun 12-5pm. Thru May 2 Norman
Yates, “Landspaces in the 21st Century”,
charged with movement, colour
and light, explores the work of the last
decade; Group Exhibition, “Drawn”,
30 PREVIEW ■ APR/MAY 2010 ★ OPEN LATE ON FIRST THURSDAYS