Visitors to the Vernon Public Art Gallery are about to be entangled by the artwork of Twyla Exner, and blasted with azure by a three-woman collective that calls itself Lazuline.
Exner’s Systems and Things and Lazuline’s Sky Blue Waters both open Thursday, Oct. 16 with a reception at the VPAG from 6 to 8 p.m.
“I invite the public to come to the gallery to see these two diverse shows while enjoying music, appies and wine,” said executive director Dauna Kennedy Grant.
Exner is a multi-media artist based in Prince Albert, Sask.
The VPAG is hosting her exhibition, System and Things, which is comprised of drawings and sculptures that use discarded telephone wires as both material and conceptual underpinning.
Exner says her work is a criticism of consumer culture based on her exploration of emotional and material impact of electronic technology on individual awareness and experience.
Lazuline features Shuswap artists Lisa Figueroa, Linda Franklin, and Tracey Kutschker, who for the past five years have collaborated to explore their love of nature and the familiar landscapes of home.
Throughout the process, they’ve each discovered that the landscape embraces them, whether it be the vision of Mt. Ida revealing herself after a turn on the Trans Canada Highway, or the smell of fir trees upon arriving home from work in the downtown core of Salmon Arm.
“The concept of exploring the same scene through three diverse styles has evolved from a desire to share creative processes, to searching for their visceral purpose, their raison d’être,” reads a release from the gallery. “Abandoning the safety and isolation of individual studios, they were challenged to coalesce their artistic visions by using a triptych format, and have maintained their specific style while communicating their own version of place.”
Lazuline’s canvases combine to depict landscapes untouched by urbanization, destruction and neglect. Memory and idealism subtly enter into a composition, telling the viewer that what we remember is sometimes more important than what is real.
