The void is about to be filled with new exhibitions opening at Vernon’s Gallery Vertigo this week.
In Vertigo’s Gallery One, Kelowna poet Marilyn Raymond and Lake Country artist Lois Huey-Heck have collaborated in the exhibition, The Void: Empty & Open.
The show features a dozen poems layered over ink and brush paintings on canvasses large and small, including a large sight-specific painting on glass.
“The creators elected not to have the words describe the images nor have the images illustrate the poetry, but rather to have the two art forms compliment, stretch and even perhaps contradict each other,” said curator Judith Jurica, adding the artwork is more like musicians jamming than it is like an illustrated book.
A teacher and writer, Raymond will be reading some of her poems at the exhibition opening reception at Vertigo Saturday. (Her chapbook, All Shapes, All Forms, a collection of 20 poems, will also be available at the gallery.)
Huey-Heck will talk about her paintings, which are largely brush and ink with acrylic paint on canvas and mixed media/watercolour on paper. (Huey-Heck’s book The Spirituality of Art, co-authored with Jim Kalnin, is also available in Gallery Vertigo’s gift shop.)
Opening in Vertigo’s Gallery Two is Harold Coego’s Sound Memories.
The Vancouver artist’s mixed media drawings are executed on sheets of music, creating an interesting juxtaposition of lively and expressive marks laid over an underlying structure of geometric, hard-edged lines and symbols.
“The universality of the languages along with the universal sound of the music itself permits to gather these two abstract concepts and display them in a visual formula. The memories become the voice of the music and with its waves, ripple the colours, giving them forms while printing hidden messages,” said Coego.
Also opening on the featured NOAA Members Wall is recent mixed media work by Vernon’s Angelika Jaeger.
All exhibitions run from now to Oct. 22 at Gallery Vertigo, 3001-31st St. upstairs. Saturday’s opening reception, starts at 7 p.m. Live music by vocalist/guitarist John Pulfer will be featured. Entrance is by donation.
