Three Exhibitions — closing soon

 

Sassamatt Images are showing at Lipont Art Centre in Richmond, CityScape Community Art Space in North Vancouver and Art! Vancouver during April. All three exhibitions are visual contemplations of the full cycle of natural growth, transitions and regeneration. Like spring flowers, they bloom quickly and yield to summer foliage and salad days. So too, these exhibitions will be closing soon.

Natural Alchemy (CityScape Community Art Space, 335 Lonsdale, North Vancouver) contemplates the forces and cycles present that shape the natural environment. Work in this exhibition documents the intersection where natural materials meet, how they affect each other and challenge the viewer to contemplate time, form and the ephemeral. Closes Saturday, 04 May.

Formulation of Time (Lipont Art Centre, 4211 Number 3 Road, Richmond) displays a poetic inquiry into the fleeting grace in the life cycle of natural flora. The Anthropocene epoch raises questions about what we are seeing, the need to continually look again at the human impact on the ecosystem and the nature of our own impermanence. Closes Tuesday, 30 April.

Art! Vancouver is an exhibition of 500 artists and galleries showing work at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Vancouver Lipont Place present selected works from Sassamatt Images. Check it out 25  – 28 April (Vancouver Convention Centre East, 999 Canada Place).

 

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Formulation of Time — photographing the ephemeral

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In British Columbia, where vegetation is abundant, the symbolic meaning of plants’ life cycles is ceaselessly reflected in artworks. Lipoint Place (4211 Number 3 Road, Richmond),  Formulation of Time is an exhibition that showcases the interpretation of this theme in the experimental photography of Phyllis Schwartz, Edward Peck, Desirée Patterson and Sand Wan.

Phyllis Schwartz and Edward Peck are artists whose practice contemplates the full cycle of natural growth, transitions and regeneration. They use plant-based materials to create photo-based works of art that speak to issues of permanence and impermanence. Their work has the capacity to engage viewers to contemplate ephemerality, change and transition in the ever-changing natural world. Phyllis Schwartz will exhibit plant-based Lumen Prints, and Edward Peck will exhibit high-resolution, plant-based, abstract Scanograms.

Desirée Patterson’s Point De Fusion series depicts natural landscapes and plants that appear to be melting into abstraction. With a high aesthetic value, the series aims to connect viewers by evoking a sense of awe and wonder, with a prophetic underlying current. The title, Point de Fusion, references the melting point of an object at atmospheric pressure; the moment when its physical state changes and it becomes a liquid. As the landscape begins to thaw, the idea of motion is implied in an image that once was still.

Sand Wan’s large-scale, black-and-white Immortality series emphasizes the seemingly tranquil but everchanging forests along the Pacific Northwest coast and Fraser River. With black-and-white photography, which lends timelessness and classic quality to his images, he captures the forests in their prime time and the trees’ last resting place along the coastline where they lie as driftwood.

Saturday April 6, 2019 2-4pm: Public Opening & Book Launch
Exhibition hours: April 6 – 30, 2019 Free admission
– Monday – Friday 10am-5pm, weekends by appointment.
– Also open during Art! Vancouver on the weekend of April 27 – 28, 10am-5pm.
– Closed on Good Friday April 19th.

Lumen Print Workshop by Phyllis Schwartz
Saturday, April 13th, 11am – 3pm (12-1pm beak for lunch)
Admission $15/person
Registration is required: https://lumenprints.eventbrite.ca
The workshop is participating in the 2019 Capture Photography Festival and supported by London Drugs Printing Grant.

 

 

Natural Alchemy — contemplating time, form and the ephemeral

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Natural Alchemy — a group show that contemplates the forces and cycles present that help shape our environment — opens Thursday, 21 March at CityScape Community ArtSpace. The work in this exhibition documents the intersection where natural materials meet, how they affect each other, and how they can challenge the viewer to contemplate time, form and the ephemeral.

The paintings, prints, photography and  installation in this exhibition highlight the beauty, connectivity and impermanence of the biosphere and geosphere, helping us to understand how growth, decay, and geological processes play a vital role in shaping our environment. Presenting artists Phyllis Schwartz, Edward Peck, Katherine Duclos, Pierre Leichner,  and Willloughby Arevalo incorporate organic and plant-based materials, as well as natural processes to help shape the outcomes of their compositions.

Featured in this exhibition are Lumen Prints by Phyllis Schwartz and and Scanograms by Edward Peck. Schwartz makes hybrid camera-less photograms that leave traces and shadows on photosensitive surfaces. Plant enzymes and atmospheric conditions interact with creating alchemical results on the surface of the paper and sheet film, leaving X-ray like marks of shapes and interiors. These Lumen Prints are primal, hovering on the cusp of poetry. 

Peck’s series, Arrangements, is drawn from discarded bouquets, set aside as they wilted but to still full of colour, shape and still in transition, perhaps always in transition as decay eventually rekindles life. He took these discards and after some contemplation, arranged them into compositions, in which he explored their new colours, shapes and fragile state. These works were made using a high resolution scanner, producing a series of Maranasati meditations or a momento mori.

Natural Alchemy
March 22 – May 4,  2019
Opening Reception: Thursday, 22 March (7 – 9 PM)
CityScape Community ArtSpace (335 Lonsdale, North Vancouver)

 

NEW WORK — North Van Art Rentals Show

Eight Sassamatt Collective photographs are in the North Van Art Rentals collection, three by Phyllis Schwartz and five by Edward Peck.  The two most recent acquisitions will be on show in Art Rentals Show, a salon syle exhibition. The exhibition runs 14 February – 15 March (Cityscapes, 355 Lonsdale, North Vancouver). Work on show is available for rent or sale. This is an excellent opportunity to buy more art and get in to the spirit of Valentine’s Day.

Longevity, new work by Phyllis Schwartz, is a selection from a series of Lumen Prints made at Finn Slough. Seeding the Wind, new work by Edward Peck is a selection from Arrangements, a series of images that captures flowers as they transition from bud to bloom to death.

https://nvartscouncil.ca/events-exhibitions/art-rental-show/

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Longevity — now available at NORTH VAN ARTS RENTAL

Longevity is a Lumen Print from a series of photograms made from plant materials gathered at Finn Slough, a tiny fishing community in Richmond British Columbia, Canada, where approximately 30 residents live in wooden houses along a marshy riverbank. The indigenous and cultivated plant materials used to make the photograms reference a community that is inextricably connected to the environment and persistently adaptable to the encroaching built environment that challenges its existence. Of particular interest are the ginkgo leaves, an ancient plant that has adapted to environmental transformations or thousands of years. The ginko tree, one of the most ancient plant forms dating back 2.5 million years, is a symbol of longevity. 170 ginkos survived the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Longevity is now available for rental or purchse at NORTH VAN ARTS RENTAL

Finn Slough Art Show

Finn Slough: Ancient Memories

Art About Finn Slough Show, sponsored by the Finn Slough Heritage and Wetland Society, includes work by Sassamatt Collective artists Phyllis Schwartz and Edward Peck. This unjuried show features work inspired by late Fall visits to Finn Slough, a small historic fishing village at the junction of Number 4 Road and Dyke Road in Richmond, one of the last tidal communities of the West Coast.

The Lumen Print series by Phyllis Schwartz was made from plant materials gathered at Finn Slough, a tiny fishing community in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada where approximately 30 residents live in wooden houses along a marshy riverbank. The indigenous and cultivated plant materials used to make the photograms reference a community that is inextricably connected to the environment and persistently adaptable to the encroaching built environment that challenges its existence. Of particular interest are the ginkgo leaves and horsetail ferns, both ancient plants that have adapted to environmental transformations or thousands of years.

Tidal Zone is a series by Edward Peck made from persistent observations of Finn Slough as Fall transforms the landscape from colour to the spare elements of winter. His series captures the marsh habitat on the Fraser River that has been lost to human settlement and industrial development. This struggle is reflected by the contrast of a dynamic landscape in full colour and the austerity of black and white structures endure the elements.

AAFSS is held at the Richmond Cultural Centre located at 7700 Minoru Gate, Multipurpose Room. The show is open on Thursday, April 9 from noon to 9:00pm, Friday, April 10th from 9:00am to 9:00pm, with an evening reception and guests speakers, Saturday, April 11th from 10:00am to 5:00pm and its ends on Sunday at 3:00pm.

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Winter Lumen Prints — Arizona Show

 

Finn Slough Landscape

Finn Slough Storm

Two recent Lumen Prints have been selected for exhibition in Light Sensitive 2018, a signature exhibition of photography created using traditional darkroom and alternative photographic processes. Both of these prints were made using materials gathered at Finn Slough, a tiny fishing community in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada where approximately 30 residents live in wooden houses along a marshy riverbank. The indigenous and cultivated plant materials used to make the photograms reference a community that is inextricably connected to the environment and persistently adaptable to the encroaching built environment that challenges its existence.

These Lumen Print photograms are made by placing plant materials on black-and-white photo paper, which were exposed to both sunlight and the elements for 48 hours and then processed in fixer. The plant enzymes and atmospheric conditions interacted with the photo-emulsion to produce unexpected results on the surface of the paper, leaving X-ray like marks on both their shapes and interiors. The atmospheric conditions affecting these prints were especially unusual — work that was set out on a cold December night was visited by a slushy snowstorm that was followed by freezing weather that adhered the prints to the developing table for an additional day of soaking up diffused light. Carefully, these prints were thawed and released; the impact of this distress can be seen in the unique marks on the photosensitive surface.

Light Sensitive, juried by scott b. davis founder of the Medium Festival of Photography, will show at Art Intersection, a gallery and workspace in Gilbert, Arizona, that promotes the intersection of photography with related art forms. The exhibition runs from 06 Marth thru 21 April (207 North Gilbert Road, Gilbert Arizona). Open reception is Saturday, 10 March, 5 – 7 pm).

Double Gifting

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Artists by nature are not hard-wired to boost, promote, or sell their work. Buyers usually want to know more about the works that attract their attention and perhaps purchase. That more can be the backstory, the technique or inspiration, and it is often said that it is not the work that is sold but the story that is bought.

For some artists, that conversation is difficult. In my own artist practice, all of this is the case. If I could bring that story to life in conversation, there would be no need for me to make a drawing, photograph, artist book or ceramic sculpture. I came to value (and now miss dearly) art school critiques because I learned how to speak more confidently about the backstory, techniques and inspiration in my artist practice. Having said that, this blog feels somewhat like shameless self-promotion, but it could also be a year-end summary of where my work can be found, where this work can be purchased.

TRUTH AND BEAUTY Digital Gallery presents Illuminations, a selection of my recent lumen prints. This exclusive, inaugural Online Exhibition aims to reach a broad international audience and enhance ongoing programming at the Vancouver gallery. Visit the DIGITAL GALLERY to enjoy this inaugural exhibition of Lumen Prints.

CITYSCAPE ART RENTALS (335 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver) holds a small collection of my work for rent, rent-to-own, and purchase. A selection of my work will be exhibited the 2018 Art Rental Show (opening 11 January through 03 February 2018).

THE BROOKLYN ART LIBRARY (28 Frost Street, Brooklyn, NY)/ Sketchbook Project now sells high-quality prints of pages from nine of my sketchbooks in their collection. Sketchbook Collection

If you are in Texas, Ocean Shores, one of my Lumen Prints is among the 39 alternative process photographs on exhibition in unique: alternative processes at ASmith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas thru 14 January 2018. This exhibition affirms my interest in what constitutes a photograph and the experiments, historical and contemporary, which push the boundaries and yield unique results. It is also available for purchase.

My ceramics are currently for sale at the Gallery of BC Ceramics and the Port Moody Art Centre. Know that each of my works embodies thoughts about craft, the enjoyment of music bouncing off my studio walls while I work late into the night and artistic risk. The Gallery of BC Ceramics also sells Seeking the Nuance (second edition), a collection of heritage glazes along with essays about the Vancouver ceramics community in the 70s.  Check it out
Winter Treasures 
thru 22 December,  Point Moody Art Centre, 2425 Johns Street,  Port Moody
Christmas Dove Ornaments 
thru 24 December,  Gallery of BC Ceramics, 1359 Cartwright Street, Granville Island

Gifting is an art form in its own right, and in this season of gift giving, a gift of art is a double gift because it gifts the artist as well. More about my photography continues at http://www.sassamatt.com

unique — alternative process photography exhibition

If prints could talk, Ocean Shores might tell the viewer that it is a trace and shadow of purple broom buds native to the craggy Pacific shore. Chamaecytisus purpureus, less prominent than the common yellow broom, is now considered an invasive plant consuming beachfront real estate.

It was the colour of this broom that first attracted me to collect a few sprigs for a series of Lumen Print impressions made on sheet film. What remained after a full day in the sun was a photogram that would be transformed into fixed images using sodium thiosulfate. Next, the sheet film was scanned and again transformed in a digital photography space where I constructed an image reminiscent of the plant material, the residual sand and the light falling on the shore at dusk.

Currently, Ocean Shores is among the 39 alternative process photographs on exhibition in unique: alternative processes at ASmith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas thru 14 January 2018. This exhibition affirms my interest in what constitutes a photograph and the experiments, historical and contemporary, which push the boundaries and yield unique results. When I agree to submit to an exhibition, I surrender, leaving curators and preparators to work their magic. In this space, the image is again transformed when set in a visual conversation among unique alternative process photographs selected by Christina Z. Anderson.

 

 

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Lumen Print Exhibition 24/7

TRUTH AND BEAUTY Digital Gallery presents Illuminations, a selection of my recent lument prints. This exclusive, inaugural Online Exhibition aims to reach a broad international audience and enhance ongoing programming at the Vancouver gallery.

Illuminations, a series of Photograms, assembles impressions of materials placed on photosensitive paper using organic materials gathered from the beach, the forest, and the street. I record traces and shadows made by the various debris on sheet film. These handmade negatives are then digitized and transformed into an illumination of their original organic form.

Visit the DIGITAL GALLERY to enjoy this inaugural exhibition of Lumen Prints.

Turbulence
Pigment ink on cotton made from a handmade negative using a Lumen Print process