`The hustle and bustle of urban life is what excites artist Verna Vogel. In a multi-step process, the Calgary painter first stitches patterns onto a canvas, then layers oil glaze on top, in turn mimicking the way our cities are built up over time.`Kristina Urquhart. WHERE Magazine, January 2011.
This exhibition presents new contemporary paintings by Calgary-based
artist Verna Vogel. `Ecosystems` explores the interrelated elements
of the urban environment.
Vogel builds her paintings with surface textures stitched into the
canvas, over which are layered many glazes of translucent and opaque
colour. Her methods reflect the intricate nature of an idealized
human city, evolved in layers over time, and in which each textured
detail is important for a balanced functioning of the whole. These
works require the viewer to observe closely and from a distance to
experience each carefully constructed image of the urban ecosystem.
Verna Vogel received a Studio Arts Diploma from Capilano University in North Vancouver in 1997. In 1998 she was the recipient of an Asia-Pacific Student Award,
which enabled her to study at the Malaysian Institute of Art in Kuala
Lumpur for one year. While studying abroad she began to focus on
urban environments, and in 2005 made her first stitched canvas. She
has been experimenting with facets of this technique since then.
Vogel has participated in group and solo exhibitions across Canada,
and her works may be found in collections throughout North America and Europe.
`Creating work in this way appeals to me on several levels.
The kaleidescopic effect created by contrasting surface textures, translucent colour glazes, and multiple paintings - which can be hung together in different ways to create larger images - is reflective of the shifting nature of the city environment.
The harmonious integration of sewing and architecture - traditionally separated into womens' and mens' work, using soft and hard materials - creates a subtler layer of contrast.
Finally, the city has a feeling of permanence, but will eventually decay and cease to exist. My paintings have a fleeting quality, but they are made with archival materials and may outlast the cityscapes which inspire them!`
`Where I live - the downtown core of a large city - is a place of contrasts, a world of multiple shifting layers created and inhabited predominantly by humans.
The many buildings clustered in the core of the city create a strong visual impact with their kaleidescopic variations of shape, form, texture and colour. The view from my 14th floor flat inspires in me a kind of 3-dimensional feeling of floating among the buildings; they are not towering above me nor seen from a distance, but rather we exist together somewhere between earth and sky. They, like I - like most people - have a deliberate external veneer which conceals the activity within.
In the growing city, buildings are continually going up and coming down.
The internal structures visible during demolition and construction fascinate me, as do the materials - rough lumber, rebar protruding from concrete slabs, tarps billowing over unfinished windows, dust and gravel - all are an indication of the work of human hands.
Compare to the finished product: all evidence of physical humanity hidden, internal structures enclosed in a flawless sheath of clean, smooth glass and steel and concrete. Some of the buildings look almost alien, as though they just dropped down from the sky in present perfect manifestation - but human actvity continues, concealed inside offices, shoppng malls, restaurants and corridors.
this internal/external contrast, the many layers of perception possible in my environment, and the intricate beauty of it all, are what I try to communicate in my works.` Verna Vogel
EDUCATION
1995 - 1997
Capilano College, N. Vancouver, BC
- Studio Arts Foundation Program
1998
Institut Seni Lukis (MIA), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- 3rd year fine art studies
- traditional oil painting and Chinese ink painting
- recieved Asia-Pacific College Students' Award
1996 - 2002
Basic Inquiry Studio, Vancouver Institute of Art, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
- self-directed study of drawing and painting the human figure
EXHIBITIONS
2000 - 2005
Basic Inquiry, Vancouver - several group and solo shows
Untitled Art Society gallery, Calgary - several group and solo shows
Epcor Centre +15 window, Calgary - solo show
Steeps Urban Teahouse, Calgary - solo show "Enjoying The View"
Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, Calgary - "Studio Arts Sale"
2006
Artspace Gallery, Calgary - group show
Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, Calgary - "Studio Arts Sale"
30dayartist.com - featured artist in June.06
2007
Kurbatoff Gallery, Vancouver - group show
Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, Calgary - "Studio Arts Sale"
30dayartist.com - featured artist in June.07
2008
Axis Contemporary Art, Calgary - group show
Axis Contemporary Art, Calgary - solo show "1000 Furnished Rooms"
Kurbatoff Gallery, Vancouver - group show
Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, Calgary - "Studio Arts Sale"
2009
Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts - "Art-O-Rama" group show
Okotoks Art Gallery, AB - "Art of Gardening" group show
2011 Solo Show. Kurbatoff Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Collections
S2 Architects, Calgary
Talisman Energy, Calgary
Greg and Lynn Robb private collection
Memberships
Alberta Society of Artists
Artists' Circle at Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, Calgary
