Doll-headed portraits will once again be filling the gallery for Andrea’s fifth solo show. “Toy Babies” marks a return to a theme Andrea drew upon for her first solo show at Hot Art Wet City, while building upon the subject by adding objects used in subsequent work. It’s in the details that a continuation of the use of personal symbols can be seen, with hidden jokes and meanings, and a few surprises! These portraits of mid-century toys are created using cutout shapes to feature paintings and scratchboard illustrations. Andrea takes her inspiration in part from vintage children’s toys and books, her cultural heritage, and the memories of her childhood understandings of the world.

Click here to see photos from the show on Flickr >

Andrea Hooge is an artist living and working out of her home studio in East Vancouver. She focuses mainly on figurative oil paintings and scratchboards, and while many of her works are on wood or hardboard panel, she also creates unique cutouts that move away from conventional shapes. These have been made to stand alone or to overlap and create larger and more dynamic pieces. In addition to her previous solo shows at Hot Art Wet City, Andrea has shown her work in various group shows within Vancouver. Andrea earned her BA from the University of the Fraser Valley, where she majored in Psychology and minored in Visual Arts.