The July-August exhibition at Smithers Art Gallery is blush blue bloom by Marie-Christine Claveau from Terrace, and Urban Frontiers by Sherri Rogers from Vancouver.
Claveau’s paintings depicting the landscape, flora and fauna of our beautiful region have a graphic quality; rich, bold colours and strong lines are combined with an anatomical accuracy and attention to detail that testifies to Claveau’s deep love of the subject matter. Tree planting, rock climbing, gardening, fishing, mushroom picking, canoeing and hiking are a few of the things that have kept Claveau outside for most of the past 25 years. Born in Québec, she moved west in 2001 at the age of 24 and for three years lived in a VW van travelling throughout North America. Her canvases then were café walls, friends’ vans, guitar cases, wood, rocks… In her van, she used to sleep with tubes of paint so that they would not freeze during cold nights. In 2006, Claveau moved to a small homestead in the Skeena Region with her husband and baby daughter, building a home with a sunlit studio where she can now focus on her art.
Sherri Rogers’ playful paintings focus on the urban environment. A culture is reflected by its artists, and street artists publicly display this culture, reflecting the spirit of a city back to its people. Rogers’ paintings capture urban graffiti, showing the beauty and color that street artists have contributed to their surroundings. They bring up questions about ownership of public space: Who decides what is graffiti and what is legitimate art? Can street art — ephemeral by nature, social media in the street — be legislated? Using acrylics and simulating the spray of aerosol paint using hand-held atomizers, Rogers turns a collage of several street artists’ temporary and often changing murals into one piece of one artist’s work, capturing a moment in time.
Exhibition Dates: July 18-Aug. 12
Opening Reception: Friday, July 21, 7-9 p.m. – free and open to everyone, refreshments provided.
Gallery Summer Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Submitted by The Smithers Art Gallery
