Four acclaimed artists are showing their portrait work in the new exhibition, Heads Up.
Opening Thursday at ARTE funktional in Kelowna’s The Factory, the exhibition features works by David T. Alexander, Ann Kipling, Robert Bigelow and Malcolm Mooney.
ARTE funktional owner Carolina Sanchez de Bustamante of Vernon developed the idea for Heads Up after visiting Alexander’s studio in Lake Country a few months ago. It’s there she discovered his portrait series, and then invited the other artists to take part in a new group exhibition at her gallery.
“While these four artists have portraiture in common, their approach and aesthetic is unique to each of them. Each has decades of individual creative research that provides viewers of the artwork deep insights that goes far beyond the superficial,” said Sanchez de Bustamante.
Featuring drawings, collages, mixed media and prints, Heads Up speaks to the artists’ concepts of investigations of a particular person or their imaginative thoughts in exploring shifting identities.
Alexander’s works in the exhibition are primarily on paper. Using commercial papers such as millboard used in bookmaking, heavy card made from prairie wheat stalks, or archival papers, Alexander says each type of paper reflects a different patina and surface that is unique to each finished portrait.
The winner of the first Audain Prize in 2004, and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Emily Carr University, Kipling, who lives in Falkland, has made a lifelong commitment to the medium of drawing.
Working exclusively on paper, she has established herself as an important figure in Canadian art. Her work can be found in public and private collections across the country.
Born in Los Angeles and now living in Vancouver, Bigelow has taught painting, drawing and lithography at Simon Fraser University, Capilano College and the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr) and was an associate professor and associate dean at the faculty of fine arts at Montreal’s Concordia University.
His works have been collected by galleries and museums around North America.
Born in New York and now living in Calgary, Mooney is a singer, poet and visual artist, who was the original vocalist with the late-’60s, early-’70s German rock band Can.
He has performed and exhibited his artwork extensively over the past 30 years, most recently at White Columns Gallery in NYC and at Skyline College Art Gallery in San Bruno, Calif.
Heads Up runs from Aug. 6 to Oct. 17 at ARTE funktional, 1302 St Paul St., Kelowna. Open Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
