The Amelia Douglas Gallery is showcasing three Canadian artists for this year’s New West Cultural Crawl.
The gallery is showing the new exhibition City Squares, featuring the work of John Steil, Judy Villett and Martha Jablonski-Jones, from Aug. 1 to Sept. 14 – with extended hours on Aug. 10 and 11 for the Cultural Crawl.
The exhibition features a series of 48 works by the three artists in three different media, focusing on visual details of the urban environment. For City Squares, Jablonski-Jones has worked with acrylic paints, Villett with textiles, and Steil with pen and ink.
Jablonski-Jones has lived in cities for most of her life, including Vancouver, and takes inspiration from the sights and sounds of those surroundings.
“There is so much about a city that makes me want to capture it: the secret nooks and crannies; the rich textures of things weathered by time and human occupation,” she said in a press release. “People don’t always appear in my paintings, but they’ve clearly left their imprint on the space.”
Villett, who now lives in New Westminster, grew up in Alberta surrounded by generations of quilters and has been combining traditional techniques with contemporary design for many years.
“The world around us is colourful and filled with texture,” she said in the release. “I love taking those elements from nature and the patterns of our everyday living to create landscapes in fabric and thread.”
Steil is a Vancouver-based visual artist who works in watercolour, acrylics, collage, ink and more.
“I enjoy the outdoors and spend a lot of time there, so the landscapes where I travel, wander and hike were an early source of inspiration,” Steil said.
Leah Gray, acting arts events officer for the college, says a common thread runs through the work of the three artists.
“In City Squares, the artists examine how the contemporary urban layout of North American cities seeks to contain and regulate anything intrinsic or accidental through its strict grid-like matrix,” she said in the release. “Within this rigid format, however, the necessary messiness of human occupation continues to affect its contents: eroding, decaying, growing or evolving in unbidden ways.”
An opening reception for City Squares will take place during the Cultural Crawl on Saturday, Aug. 10 from 1 to 3 p.m. Refreshments will be provided, and visitors will be invited to make their own City Square art at the craft table.
The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and closed on regular Sundays. On the weekend of the Cultural Crawl (Aug. 10 and 11), it’s open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
An artists’ talk will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 6:30 p.m.
The gallery is on the fourth floor of Douglas College, 700 Royal Ave. See www.douglascollege.ca/artsevents for more details.
