grunt gallery is pleased to present Brandon Vickerd’s Chopper. Based out of Toronto, Brandon Vickerd is an artist whose work ranges from site-specific interventions and public performances to object-based sculpture.

Chopper is an exhibition of several sculptural objects that reference 1960s motorcycle exoskeletons abstracted beyond their utilitarian purpose. Materials include mechanical parts, fibreglass, foam, car paint and steel. The sleekness of these sculptures suggests minimalist futuristic forms; their shapes appear aerodynamic, evoking ideas of movement, speed and power. At further inspection, they also appear as unknown relics, distinguished from immediate recognition of their mimicked motorcycle reference.

“Providing a feeling of propulsion, the sculptures in this series seem to be haunted by a lapsed future. In the gleaming hardness of custom paint and polished steel is the faint reflection of the failed project of the futurists and utopian dreamers.”
– Brandon Vickerd, Artist Statement.

Chopper resides in an uncertain limbo, generated from past notions while simultaneously whispering towards an unknown future.

Join us on Thursday February 26 from 7pm – 10pm for the opening reception of Chopper. The exhibition runs from February 26 to March 28, 2015.

grunt gallery presents Crossed, an exhibition by artist Ahmad Tabrizi and curated by Makiko Hara. This multi-media exhibition creates a sense of portraiture compiled of Farsi script, piles of dressmaking pins, and glimpses of the artist himself – both visually and through audio.

Vancouver-based artist Hyung-Min Yoon presents a series of images that draws from an obscure collection of marginal religious illustrations by Albrecht Dürer. Originally used to surround religious texts, Hyung-Min Yoon reimagines their placement and purpose by framing them around contemporary political jokes of various cultures in their original languages.

This challenging combination strikes a balance between different historical and contemporary modes of ideology; the popular and the religious; and the individual and the state.

The Book of Jests is both the exhibition title and the name of the book that Hyung-Min Yoon has produced to house 25 contemporary jokes. Visit grunt gallery to view a selection of prints from the book, a newly created video that documents the book from cover to cover in our Media Lab, and to see the hand-sewn The Book of Jests protected by vitrine.

The opening reception for this exhibition will take place on Thursday September 11th, 7pm –10pm. The opening is associated with SWARM, an annual festival of artist-run centres. The exhibition runs from Sept 11– Oct 11, 2014.

Be sure to attend the artist talk on Saturday, September 27th, 12:30pm –1:30pm at grunt gallery, an event that’s a part of BC Culture Days.

The Book of Jests from Hyung-Min Yoon on Vimeo.

Artist Bio:

Born in Seoul, Hyung-Min Yoon studied at the Korean National University of Arts, Seoul (BFA) and Chelsea College of Art & Design, London (MFA). Her works seek to develop the idea of ‘aesthetic translation’ to uncover meaning in the ambiguities and contradictions that lie undetected in an era of globalization. Yoon’s current interest is in the role that printing technologies have had in the dissemination of ideas through time. Her works have been exhibited internationally in Korea, UK, Switzerland, Austria and Canada. She is currently artist in residence at Gyeongi Creation Centre, Korea.
http://www.yoonhyungmin.com

Essay:

The Book of Jests | Essay by Lorna Brown

Press Clippings:

 Artist reframes old master for modern age

| The Source
http://thelasource.com/en/2014/08/25/artist-reframes-old-master-for-modern-age/

Yoon adds that in her work, she tries to match Dürer’s illustrations to the jokes she compiles. Although the religious drawings and political jokes may seem incompatible, Yoon says that the drawings in this piece are portrayed humorously and compliment her work.

“Dürer is an amazing artist who’s really playful with his drawing so it looks quite light and not that serious. It occurred to me that it’s would be a perfect match,” says Yoon.

Hyung Min Yoon: From Page to Screen

| Canadian Art
http://canadianart.ca/reviews/2014/09/16/hyung-min-yoon/

With that in mind, what does it mean to produce or consume a CD, a DVD or a glue-and-paper book when the music, pictures and literature they contain are now more commonly produced and consumed through one’s phone? Is it both a political and an aesthetic act to continue with these apparently obsolete forms, as it was in the 1980s when the digitization and increased corporatization of the music industry resulted in multi-track tape decks showing up at thrift stores, where they were purchased and put to use by musicians associated with the North American “lo-fi” indie movement? Are we now at a similar place with the hard-copy book?

Join grunt gallery on February 20th for the opening reception of one man’s junk by Toronto-based artist, Laura Moore.

New technology drives the manufacturing of new electronic products. But during this pursuit of the new and improved, what happens with the obsolete?

Laura Moore hand-carves blocks of limestone into outdated electronic devices. Contradicting the indispensability that most discarded electronics face, these tributes monument how once-valuable objects become undesired commodities.

Moore began one man’s junk during an artist in residence program at the Thames Art Gallery. The artist states an ongoing interest in creating tensions between the permanent versus disposable and the interactive versus the inert. The limestone sculptures includes a computer monitor, printer and hard-drive tower measured to a 1:1 scale; stacked onto a wooden pallet.

“Stone, the material of my work, moves me in principal because it is familiar and I find its resistance stimulating. It is the monuments and sculptures that tell our history, it shapes our continents while intriguingly remaining mutable.” – Laura Moore, Artist Statement

(http://www.lauramoore.ca)

one man’s junk questions what happens when an object shifts from a prized possession to a nonentity, and asks you to find value amongst junk, waste and the discarded.

grunt gallery is pleased to announce that this will be Moore’s first exhibition in Vancouver, British Columbia. The artist will be in attendance for the opening reception.

Artist Bio:

Laura Moore has an MFA from York University, a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a Diploma of Art from Fanshawe College.

Currently, Laura’s 2010 series Kernel Memory is installed at the St. Catharines City Hall Sculpture Garden; this work is on exhibit until September 2016. In June 2014, components of Laura’s new series one man’s junk will be installed as part of the Contemporary Art Forum, Kitchener and Area Biennial (CAFKA) and in the group exhibition Material World at the Indianapolis Art Center in Indiana, USA.
In the past, Laura has exhibited her work at; Station Gallery (Whitby ON), Ontario Science Centre, Oeno Sculpture Garden (Bloomfield ON), Thames Art Gallery (Chatham ON), Siena Art Institute (Siena Italy), Shoshana Wayne Gallery (Santa Monica CA USA), Leaside Sculpture Trail (Uxbridge ON), Peak Gallery (Toronto ON), Stride Gallery (Calgary AB), Cambridge Galleries, Glenhyrst Gallery of Brant (Brantford ON) and Anna Leonowens Gallery (Halifax NS).

Exhibition Essay:

one man’s junk: Digital Monument by Luke Siemens

Interview:

Abandoned Machines by Genevieve Michaels

Thank you to the following funders:

Thank you to grunt’s operating funders:

The Audain Foundation
The City of Vancouver
British Columbia Arts Council
Canada Council for the Arts

grunt gallery is excited to announce the exhibition for MAMOOK IPSOOT (Chinook Translation: To Hide or Make Hidden).

This past summer, grunt gallery invited Dutch artist, Desiree Palmen, to visit Vancouver and work with 7 local Aboriginal youth on a collaborative project called Mamook Ipsoot. This project is the Vancouver incarnation of Palmen’s art practice in which she helps youth camouflage themselves into a chosen setting within their urban landscape and photo-document the results. The project took place at grunt gallery this past July; the outcome was 7 unique camouflage images that were created by the youth with the help of the artist.

This project evolved out of Palmen’s performance arts practice of interventions in everyday scenarios. In 1999 Palmen used camouflage suits to intervene and respond to public surveillance cameras that monitored citizens without permission. She later expanded this idea into youth-driven projects in which she helps youth to explore how they connect with their surroundings and affirm their presence in familiar and favorite locations in their home city.

“In Istanbul, this project was called “Saklambaç,” which is Turkish for the children’s game Hide & Seek. Often this project takes place in areas where the youth’s connection to the land is extremely important, whether that be historically, culturally or politically,” says Palmen. “It was great to see the relationships the youth developed among one another during the workshop, each in his or her own individual way, working with huge confidence to blend in with their favorite chosen spot.”

These camouflage images have been produced as bus shelter posters and can be seen in various off-site locations around Vancouver, BC, from October to November.

Bus transit poster locations:

King Edward 20m west of Granville NS
MacDonald 23m North of W. 4th ES
Arbutus 28m North of Valley ES
E. Broadway 32m East of Glen NS
E. Hastings 20m West of Dunlevy NS
Nanaimo 20m North of Charles ES
Renfrew 20m North of E. Broadway ES
SW Marine 20m West of Laurel NS
Victoria 24m South of Kingsway WS
W. 16th 33m East of Highbury SS

Visit grunt gallery from October 16^th–19^th to see the exhibition of the large-scale posters hanging in our gallery. The opening reception will be held on Friday, October 18^th, from 6pm–9pm. Artist Desiree Palmen, Project Coordinator Jolene Andrews, and project youth participants will be in attendance at this event.
Add the Facebook Event.

Purchase a set of the Mamook Ipsoot Art Cards here! Limited edition.

Press Clippings:

Vancouver Sun – Mamook Ipsoot: What’s hiding in the landscape?

Read an article on the project from “The Source”.

Mounira Al Solh, The Sea Is A Stereo, 2007- ongoing (Courtesy of Sfeir-Semler gallery Beirut and Hamburg)

Exhibition Title: “The Sea Is A Stereo”
Artist: Mounira Al Solh
Opening: Thu, October 11, 2012, 7-10pm
Dates: Thu. 11 October 2012 – Sat, 1 December 2012

Description:

“The Sea Is A Stereo” by artist Mounira Al Solh, introduces us to a group of men who swim daily at a beach in Beirut, Lebanon. This practice of swimming takes place despite varying circumstances relating to weather, the change of seasons, and the conflict of war and politics. The work is made up of several elements that use video, photographs and audio-recorded interviews. While these men are connected through their swimming ritual, Al Solh further connects these men to their surroundings, practice and socio-political issues by means of a visual and audio-based installation. This exhibition will take place in the main front room at grunt gallery.

“…Every day they turn their back to the city where they live to dive in the sea. As if they voluntarily wait on a threshold, finding a comfortable place for themselves between emigration and immigration.”
– Mounira Al Solh speaks about “The Sea Is A Stereo.”

The exhibition will also include a newly created work by Mounira Al Solh, entitled, “A Double Burger and Two Metamorphoses: a proposal for a Dutch Cat, a Dutch Dog, a Dutch Donkey, a Dutch Goat and finally, a Dutch Camel”. An ongoing project created in 2010, the artist forces herself to be locked inside an empty house for three days while she communicates through scripted conversations. Al Solh talks both as herself and as different animal personas: “We speak about the difficulty of reading different philosophers and thinkers like Rousseau, Lyotard, Taussig and Multatuli. And also about the impossibility to dance slow, or to get a hug or a kiss when most needed, for instance.” Through this theatrical process, Al Solh finds a method to refer to the process of waiting for residency through video and the construction of cuckoo clocks, which operate as an Entr’acte, meaning “between the acts.” This project will be exhibited in the gruntKitchen Media Lab.

The exhibition will run at grunt gallery from October 11th to December 1st , 2012. This exhibition is a part of the Institutions by Artists week; Vancouver artist-run centres and community partners will present special projects that link to the themes of the Convention.

Bio:

Mounira Al Solh studied painting at the Lebanese University in Beirut (LB), and Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam (NL). Al Solh is currently doing a research residency at AIR in Antwerp for making the third NOA magazine issue. She has had solo shows at Sfeir-Semler Gallery in Beirut and at Kunsthalle Lisbon in Portugal. Among many others she has exhibited at New Museum, New York in 2012; Haus Der Kunst, Munich; Manifesta 8, Murcia, Spain; The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai; Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and Al Riwaq Art Space, Manama, Bahrain – all in 2010; and at Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe; the Galerie Nord, Kunstverein Tiergarten, Berlin; and the 11th International Istanbul Biennial in 2009. Her video Rawane’s Song received the 2007 jury prize at VideoBrasil. Her video installation As If I Don’t Fit There was part of the first Lebanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007. (http://www.mouniraalsolh.com/)

Exhibition Title: Do The Wave
Artist: Jonathan Villeneuve
Opening: Thursday September 6, 7-10pm
Exhibition Dates: Thu, 6 September 2012 – Sat, 6 October 2012

“Do The Wave” by Jonathan Villeneuve

 

Grunt gallery is pleased to present an electromechanical installation by Montreal artist Jonathan Villeneuve. This exhibition is occurring in conjunction with SWARM and the New Forms Festival. Do The Wave, 2009 (Faire La Vague) will be on view at the gallery until Saturday October 6.

Villeneuve makes poetic machines by assembling familiar materials that he barely transforms. His works move, emit light and produce sounds in ways that challenge one’s assumption about it’s imaginary function.

“My work is made out of common objects and materials – familiar elements that evoke the architecture of the everyday. I assemble these elements in ways that highlight their poetic and narrative potential. My installation triggers a physical reaction in the visitor, particularly due to the scale of the piece and it’s uncanny movements. It evokes a personal and embodied experience with architecture as constructed environment.

I build structures that are activated by mechanical, electrical, and electronic mechanisms while addressing the modern notion of the autonomous object. This pseudo functional amalgam address pataphysics and refers to the idea of the gadget, the ‘thing-a-ma-jig’, a thing of a vague utility, with an imaginary functionality.

By researching the mechanisms of construction of time through movement I aim to push my work beyond it’s own materiality. More than just simple objects, my structures activate the space through their sound, as well as through their animated play of light and shadow in the exhibition space. These elements, as time-based and intangible, extend the sculptural quality of the work and accentuate its character as time-architecture.” (jonathan-villeneuve.com)

Faire la Vague / by Jonathan Villeneuve from PERTE DE SIGNAL on Vimeo.

Made possible, in part, through support from:

Conseil des arts et des lettres

PRESS CLIPPINGS:

Canadian Art: Sound Waves, Microscopes Bring Science-Fair Feel To Grunt Gallery
The Georgia Straight: Artists Jonathan Villeneuve and David Khang take on complex themes…

“Sharks” by David Khang, laser-etching on cells stained & fixed on glass slide

Opening: Thursday Sept 6, 7-10 pm
Exhibition Dates: Thursday, Sept 6 to Saturday Sept 22, 2012

grunt gallery and CSA Space are co-presenting Amelogenesis Imperfecta (How Deep is the Skin of Teeth), and Beautox Me, two related bodies of work that merge David Khang’s dual vocations – in art and dentistry.

grunt gallery is exhibiting Amelogenesis Imperfecta (How Deep is the Skin of Teeth), a project that combines disciplines from art and dental science to produce microscopic laser-drawings onto epithelial cells. This work is based on research conducted at SymbioticA Centre for Excellence in Biological Arts at the University of Western Australia. Khang experimented with growing enamel producing cells into shapes referred to as “enamel sculptures”. While the project did not reach its original objective to grow enamel, the cells produced during this experiment were cultivated onto glass slides providing an area in which the cells could be drawn on with a precise cutting laser.

The exhibition includes an essay on David Khang’s project, “Mashup Destinies” written by Kóan Jeff Baysa. Kóan Jeff Baysa is a physician, curator, designer, writer, critic, Whitney Museum Independent Study Program – Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellow, and a member of AICA, the association of international art critics. The essay is commissioned by Grunt Gallery. Click here to read the essay.

Khang’s practice is informed by education in psychology, theology, and dentistry. He received his BSc (1987) and DDS (1991), both from the University of Toronto, before pursuing his BFA from Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design (2000), and MFA with Emphasis in Critical Theory at UC Irvine (2004). He teaches sessionally at the Emily Carr University of Art+Design.

This exhibition is located in grunt gallery’s Media Lab. There is an opening reception, in association with Swarm 13, on Thursday September 6th (7-10 pm).

Location:
grunt gallery 350 E 2nd, hours: Tue-Sat, 12-5
Beautox Me will be exhibited at CSA Space, See Pulpfiction Books(2422 Main Street) for admission.

Made possible, in part, through support from:

The Hamber Foundation

PRESS CLIPPINGS:

The Georgia Straight: Artists Jonathan Villeneuve and David Khang take on complex themes…
The Georgia Straight: Fall arts preview: David Khang bridges the gap between science and art
Canadian Art: Sound Waves, Microscopes Bring Science-Fair Feel To Grunt Gallery

Curator: Tania Willard

“The Guitar” by Jamasie Pitseolak

BLIZZARD: Emerging Northern Artists looks at indigenous artists working in the North who are using their traditions to forge new ideas around contemporary art. The exhibition and publication, in development for over two years, looks at the influence of Inuit and Northern traditional art forms and how these are translated by a younger generation of artists whose roots are in the North. How does the landscape and context of the North influence the visions of its young artists and how do our interpretations of that dreaming—our preconceptions about the North—influence our understanding? Curated by Artist/Curator Tania Willard, whose recent curatorial project Beat Nation (co-curated with Kathleen Ritter) just closed at the Vancouver Art Gallery, BLIZZARD looks at a younger generation of Northern Artists schooled in the traditions of their artists families, but breaking barriers by questioning relationships that tie North and South.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

grunt gratefully acknowledges core funding from the Canada Council for the Arts Visual Arts Section, the British Columbia Arts Council, the BC Gaming Policy & Enforcement Branch, the City of Vancouver and our membership and donors.

Specific programs have also been funded by Heritage Canada, The Vancouver Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, The BC Arts Council, The Saskatchewan Arts Board, The Audain Foundation, Province of BC Cultural Services Branch, Arts Now, and Arts Partners in Creative Development.

We thank all funders and supporters of our programs.