Preview – The Gallery Guide – April-May 2007

DIANE FARRIS GALLERY, VANCOUVER – Apr 5-28 Chris Woods
continues to query our automotive aspirations in his second series
of work about car culture, The Magic Hour, Part Two. In 2004, he
examined the dark side of car advertising in The Magic Hour, Part
One. The images in Part Two revel in the sense of mastery afforded
by cars.
Several paintings depict figures holding swords aloft, extolling
the powers granted to them by their cars and feeling
indestructible. “Six-Point Adjustable” features a woman crouched
in front of her car wearing nothing but a bulletproof vest. In
“Professional Driver, Closed Course”, a woman stands behind her
open car door deflecting bullets. Using a combination of
photographs shot in his studio, ads culled from magazines and
stock photos from the Internet, Woods continues to question not
only the influence of the car over us, but our choice in using cars
– especially SUVs and other “road weapons” – against ourselves.
He asks, “Does the car seek to bless us or destroy us”
Woods is known for posing his Gen-X friends in parodies of
consumerism. His McTopia series probed the ubiquity of fast food
franchises, including our devotion to corporations like
preview
Chris Woods: The Magic Hour, Part Two www.dianefarrisgallery.com
Chris Woods, Six Point Adjustable (2005)
oil on canvas [Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver
BC, Apr 5-28]
McDonald’s and Burger King. His images have appeared on the cover of Adbusters magazine, in
Saturday Night magazine, in the films Clerks 2 and The Corporation, and numerous other
publications. In 2004, as he and his friends entered their thirties, Woods moved from earlier themes
of teenage angst and the “religion” of fast food to the automobile industry. He has had numerous
solo shows in Canada and the United States. Mia Johnson
IMAGE COURTESY DIANE FARRIS GALLERY.COM
ic”, brimming with optimism and
booster spirit of Vancouver in the
1900s and “Boom Bust War”, a serious
look at how local residents struggled
through the Depression and
World War II; Thru Sep 16 Allen Sapp,
“Through the Eyes of the Cree: The Art
of Allen Sapp”, combines art, photographs
and artefacts to chronicle the
daily life of the Cree of west central
Saskatchewan; May 4-Jan 1, 2008
Rice is Life, cultivated for over 5000
years in more than 100 countries, on
every continent except Antarctica, rice
sustains two-thirds of the world’s population.
This exhibit explores the agricultural,
spiritual and artistic significance
of rice; May 19-Nov 4 Levelling
the Playing Field, the Asahis played
baseball like no others. They were the
only ethnic Asian team in the Vancouver
League. They were legendary and
they had a dream until banished to
internment camps during WWII.
Vetrova Studio & Gallery
102-1118 Homer St ✆604-722-6987
www.vetrovastudio.com
tues-sun 10am-5pm or by appt Thru
Apr 20 Holy Face, group show of
original icon paintings in traditional
egg-tempera technique; May 26-Jun
10 Travel Journal, group exhibition.
★ VIVO
(Video In and Video Out)
(formerly Video In Studios)
1965 Main St ✆604-872-8337
www.videoinstudios.com
mon-sat 11am-6pm Apr 1 Basic
Electronics and Circuit Bending; Apr
10 Knitting Circle; Apr 26 Cue Up; Apr
19-21 Signal + Noise Festival, media
based performance and installation.
Westbridge Fine Art
1737 Fir St ✆604-736-1014
www.westbridge-fineart.com
mon-fri 9:30am-5:30pm sat 10am-
5pm Apr 14-28 and May 12-26
Online Auction: Collectable Paintings
and Prints, an excellent selection
of Canadian and international paintings
and prints to be sold online at
our regular monthly fine art auction.
To view this sale go to www.westbridgeauctions.com;
Also representing
local Vancouver artists Sue Cowan,
David J. Edwards, Pamela Holl
Hunt and Kim La Fave and the Estate
collections of Mildred Valley Thornton,
(1890-1967), Sonia Cornwall,
(1919-2006) and Peter Paul Ochs,
(1931-1994).
Western Front Gallery
303 E 8th Ave ✆604-876-9343
www.front.bc.ca
tues-sat 12-5pm Thru Apr 21 Fiona
Bowie, “Slip-host”, features video
installation that moves between two
parallel worlds- “Slip”, a cartoon-like
molecular environment of brown
drudgery compared to the quirkiness
of “Slip”. Playing with conventions of
media, narrative and scale, Bowie creates
an imaginative work that creates
reciprocities between two disparate
worlds to reconsider notions of consciousness,
consumption, beauty and
oblivion; Apr 28-Jun 2 The International
Flipbook Festival, a celebration
and exhibition of hand-powered
cinema designed and decorated by
54 PREVIEW ★ OPEN LATE ON FIRST THURSDAYS