Drawn Festival Vancouver

Descent II by Jane Everett

Looking for something to do this weekend in Vancouver? Why not check out the Drawn Festival before it wraps up? My mom and I have been checking out galleries participating in this event around the city for the past week and I have come to the conclusion that there is a lot of bad art in the world. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of excellent art in the world as well. You just have to hunt for it.

As a visual artist, I found that this festival inspired me in two ways: there was the "Holy cow-this is magnificent-I will never be this good-look at those marks!-that composition!-woooooow" reaction and then there was the "this looks like something I did in eighth grade" reaction (and I don't mean that in a good way, I wasn't that magnificent in eighth grade).

Regardless, there was a lot to look at. Here are some of the galleries and artists that I thought were highlights.


I'll start with the best. Out of all the galleries we looked at (and that was at least 11), the selection of work at the Jennifer Kostiuk Gallery in Yaletown was my favourite. I thought the artists selected showed an interesting variety of media as well as superb technical skill that all played with the idea of what this thing we call "drawing" is. The pieces that stood out to me were these gorgeous bottles created by artist Jim Dingilian. These were created using smoke (yes smoke!) and I'm guessing retractive mark making. The result is these hauntingly beautiful scenes that remind me of memories that someone has try to bottle up but are slowly slipping away (Oooohhhhh that's deep)

The Pendulum Gallery housed the main exhibition for this event. I love the feeling of walking around this space: the openness of the glass combined with Alan Storey's looming sculpture overhead. This was a juried exhibit that featured artists from across Canada. Some of my favourites were pieces by Erin Schwab (above), Pauline Brown, Nick Lepard, Val Nelson (fantastic interior drawing), and Ted Barker.



The fun embroidery work of Takashi Iwasaki caught my eye at the Elliott Louis Gallery. They reminded me of colourful mobiles and one of the employees (it could have been Elliott Louis for all I know) was talking with my mom and I about how these works reminded him of Paul Klee and Miró.

Diane Farris Gallery had some interesting things on display including some work by Angela Grossman (lovely figures....but I'm partial to drippy stuff) and amazing charcoal pieces by Monique Fouquet.

Last but not least, I'd like to mention the amazing drawings of Jane Everett that are on display at Granville Fine Art. Her gorgeously evocative mark making adds so much life to these images and I could look at them forever.

Some of the exhibits have wrapped up and some are up until August 7, so just check the Drawn Festival website before you head out. My mother and I tackled our list of must-see galleries into two lists: the downtown core and the Granville Street area. (Naturally, we had to swing by Go Fish on our Granville Street gallery day.)

All in all, an interesting festival that I hope they bring back again next year......(I was never good at writing conclusions. It's a good good festival. 'Nuff said).