Piñata
featuring Meaghan Kennedy & Ali Bruce
January 29 – February 14, 2015
 
Old movies, soap operas, and sitcoms keep these artists company. Romance from daytime TV to the late night drive-in, onscreen couples inspire many of the good and bad habits we bring into relationships, or work hard to avoid mimicking, and some of them deserve to get hit over the head. We all know the feeling of being love sick—nothing else matters, you could get smashed in the head with a big stick and who even cares! So go on, hit them with your best shot. This show features pinatas by Meaghan Kennedy and art by Ali Bruce.

See photos from the show on Flickr >

Invite your friends on Facebook >

Meaghan Kennedy made her first piñata over five years ago for a local cable access show, she immediately fell in love with the craft and left the world of high-end retail to pursue a whole new career as a professional piñata artist. Her one-of-a kind papier mache creations have been commissioned by clients around the world, and have been displayed in restaurants and art shows. Meaghan has been featured as an Artist in Residency for Pop Culture Activist Rusty Blazenhoff’s Electric Dreams Inbox Zine. She was also selected for the Interesting Vancouver speaker series at the Museum of Vancouver. Meaghan and her piñatas have been featured in GQ, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Huffington Post, The Globe and Mail, CTV AM, Steele on Your Side (CTV News), Elle Canada , Vancouver is Awesome, and Ion Magazine.

Ali Bruce is an artist living and working on the east side of Vancouver. Her work is wavy and weird, inspired by illustration, street art, print and sign making. She has a growing interest in the city’s consistently changing creative spaces, its wide range of studios, variety of artists, and the co-cultural habits and lifestyles of people in general. Ali is from Kenora, Ontario which causes her to seek out the small town vibe within the “big” city. She has a BFA in visual art and is currently pursuing design.

Eros and Thanatos
Featuring Nomi Chi & Pandora Young
January 8-24, 2015
 

Eros and Thanatos, the life drive and the death drive. The impulses to east, kiss, play, love, and live, or to sleep, surrender, die, and rest. They embody our curious attraction to both creation and destruction. In this show, artists Nomi Chi and Pandora Young turn inwards and meditate upon our own antipodal desires, and the morbidity and splendour of our humanity. See photos from the show on Flickr >

Nomi Chi is a Vancouver-based artist currently juggling careers as a tattoo artist and a student. Her current focus is illustration, however her creative interests span indefinitely: she paints, tattoos people, sculpts and is even double-jointed.

Pandora Young is an illustrator living and working in beautiful Vancouver British Columbia Canada. She holds a degree in illustration from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2014). Her favorite food is sushi, and her favorite hobby is taking naps.

This 90 minute class gives you everything you need to make an easy-to-maintain succulent terrarium. All materials will be provided, but feel free to bring some small accents of your own (bones, rocks, shells, etc). No experience necessary — beginners welcome!

Arinn Westendorf didn’t expect to become a florist, but after three years, it’s safe to say that things have gotten kind of serious. You can find her at V & J Plant Shop on Granville Island, making good designs and bad jokes. Her other creative pursuits include portrait photography and fibre art.

Interview with Vancouver street artist Fred Joyal aka Joy
MUSIC: “At The Count” by Broke For Free
INTERVIEW, VIDEO & EDIT: Chris Bentzen

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Interview with Vancouver piñata artist Meaghan Kennedy
MUSIC: “The Great” by Broke For Free
INTERVIEW, VIDEO & EDIT: Chris Bentzen

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Let’s make homemade Valentine’s cards for anyone & everyone! Remember as a kid when making shit was fun? And, all craft-making materials magically appeared? Check it: an afternoon of making stuff and drinks. Everyone is welcome: singles, couples, & dudes too. Hells yah! This is Vancouver. Crafting materials provided.

Ingrid Nilson teaches yoga all over the city and the world. Join for a class, find her Ingrid Yoga Facebook page with a daily schedule. An advocate of positive body image for all, Ingrid is on the board for Project True, a local non profit.

Angela Gooliaff is a practicing and national-exhibiting visual artist who draws a lot of insects, especially ants. A recent artist residency acceptance in France will soon take her career international. To pay the rent, she is a background actor. Watch closely, you may catch the back of her head in Arrow.

LEGO as a muse? Seriously? How could a designer, or any creative professional, possibly find inspiration from a simple plastic toy brick? Creative Blocks & Coloured Bricks will feature a blatant disregard to traditional creative process tactics and focus on playful techniques for smoothing out the speed bumps of creative blocks. We all love the thrill we feel when an idea forms, a project takes shape, the imagination surges, and a client smiles. I look forward to sharing how one particular playful process not only brought back the fun of creativity, but also serendipitously re-awakened essential design principles and practices. Work should be fun. Let’s play.

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Johnathon Vaughn Strebly has decades of experience and involvement in the creative industries, generating positive results for the people and organizations he works with. Committed to encouraging growth as well as change in the creative and applied arts, Johnathon is a past president of CAPIC Vancouver and currently sits as President of the vibrant GDCBC Executive. He is a founding committee member for Creative Mornings Vancouver and a contributor to local design institutions. Johnathon was the Program Coordinator for three design programs at Langara College, where he directly influenced the growth of young designers by teaching them the tried and true principles of design while balancing the difficult challenges of today’s design environment. Due to a lifelong obsession for fine food and drink, Johnathon is the co-creator of Gourmet vs Gourmand, a video based celebration of food culture. Johnathon is an old school punk rocker turned design professional. The mohawk may be gone but he still stands by its ethos: Create change from the inside.

Boobies & Wieners is back for a second year with an even bigger (and longer) show! With tons of art from 100+ mostly local artists, this show features immature, crass, explicit, cartoonish, odd, dirty, and sexy art featuring nude subjects. Viewer discretion advised. See photos from the show on Flickr >

Artists include: Two Dimes, Rhandi Sandford, Ken Gerberick, Janis Corrado, Katy Springer, Alicia Eisen, Liang Ding, ARGH!, Nicole Stishenko, Michael King, Natasha Broad, Antoine Marchildon, Kelly Baker, Pippa Lattey, Colin Mitchell, Yolanda Mason, Greg Glover, Joni Taylor, Kathryn Lancashire, Pierre Leichner, Stephanie Arnot, Anna Bu Kliewer, Alexandra Dewar, Carl Parker, Hailie Beaulieu, Mika Senda, Ashlee Marcus, Caroline Dahlmanns, Trevor Jansen, Marina LeClair, Laura McIntosh, Andrea Hooge, Mass Produced Art, Jane Q Cheng, Cheryl Carpenter, Mike West, Desireé Cassidy, Jules Bussey, Vanessa Lever, Carmen Ostrander, Natalie Schmidt, Emily Galloway, Julie VanOyen, Nomi Chi, JW Tatum, Sahar, Tamas, Kirsten Hatfield, Cole Pauls, Mandy Lau, Scott Peace Miller, Anastasia Watson, Roxanne Gagnon, Karla Monterrosa-Morales, Sheri Alexander, Kathleen Lim, Louie Yan, Maritza Louis, Matan Berson, Jennifer Ho, Ari De La Mora, Francine Delgado Alvarez, Luis Gadea, Lera Nyukalova, Stephen Wimbush, Vince Hemingson, Suite Charlie, Amelia Garvin, Rachael Stableford, Brent Haddow, Matt Redway, Devin Rosychuk, Patricia Klobchar, Sean Karemaker, Dana Statham, Michelle Bruton, peg leg, Klaus Pinter, Joel Rich, Jennifer Chernecki, Erin Gibbs, and Aaron White.

In addition to the main exhibit, we also hosted three mini-exhibits:

Art or Bust, curated by artist Jenn Brisson, turns breast casts of breast cancer survivors into works of art. The cast will be sold in a silent auction with 100% of funds given to Rethink Breast Cancer. Artists include Andrea Hooge, Alison Woodward, indy, Jenn Brisson, Jesse Schilperoort, Phresha, Sean Karemaker, Troy Steen, and Wendy Sexsmith.

XOXO: Art Love and the Internet, from DuJour Marketing and Fang Ling Lee, is an erotic art exhibit with a focus on the sensuality and seductiveness of the female form and how it has helped shape and mold the Internet landscape. Works from Aaron Tsuru, Aaron Tsuru, Katlyn Hubner, Guillem Rovira, Meghan Willis, Zhamak Fullad, Boo Weed, Stormy Ent, Steve Prue, and Gracie Hagen. A portion of proceeds will be donated to Rethink Breast Cancer.

Dr Sketchy’s Anti Art School will be showing a sampling of the sketches created by our art monkeys, based on all the sexy Vancouver burlesque models we have drawn in the past 7 years! Featuring Ed Chee, Aaron White, Vincent Smith, Lynn Falconer, Maritza Louis, Mike West, Jenn Brisson, Shary Contrary, Megan Majewski, The Tooninator, Arwynne O’Neill, Francine Delgado Alvarez, Thomaz Magno, Jim Newton, Ricardo Osuna, Andrew Poole, Dino Pai, Bob McAfee, and Alicia Eisen. Artists of all skill levels are welcome at our events, and with poses ranging from 1 minute to 15 minutes, a variety of erotic and funny artwork has emerged from the dark corners of our sketcher’s minds. Dr Sketchy’s Vancouver, hosted by Shary Contrary, happens on the third Tuesday of every month at Hot Art Wet City. Plus a special edition of Dr Sketchy’s on October 25 featuring Bruce Wang as Penis Satan!

Special thanks to our sponsors:

Art by Two Dimes

Conceived by Jim Hoehnle and Chris Bentzen in 2004, Hot One Inch Action is the original, one-night only show of button art and social interaction from Vancouver, BC. The tiny art of fifty different artists is reproduced on one inch buttons. These limited edition buttons are displayed on the gallery wall and the audience is offered the opportunity to buy randomly selected buttons in mixed bags of five for $5. Didn’t get the button you want? Trade with the people around you… how bad do you want that button?! That’s when the hot action starts. hotoneinchaction.com

Artists include: Aaron White, Alison McLeod, Amy Tom, Andrea Hooge, Anne Emberline, Antoine Marchildon, ARGH!, Arinn Westendorf, Baby Bear, Brent Haddow , Cang Nguyen, Carelle B Dunn, Carla Bragagnini, Celia Chung, Chad Murphy, Chelsea O’Byrne, Christel Chan, Daniel G Poggenpoel, Danika Dunn-Rydh, Doug Savage, Emily Szabo, Eugenia Leung, Flavia C, Flavie Dufrenne, J-Ray, Jackie Klobucar, Jenn Brisson, JL Martin , Joel Rich, Jon Moretta, Joni Taylor, Kathy Lea Moyou, Kazimir Simpson, Kelli Rule, Kimberly Parker, Kirsten Hatfield, Kris G Brownlee (KGB), Laura Bonnie McIntosh, Lauren Corrado, Lori Dean Dyment, Mandy Lau, Mark Atomos Pilon, Megan Majewski, Mika Senda, Nancy Vo, Phresha, The True Peg Leg, Tina Dee, Vivian Huang, and Winnie Won Tsuen Yiu.

Bringing street art inside! A group show featuring local wheatepaste and stencil artists iHeart, Joy, Slingshot, Wrk(less), and MW Bowen.

See photos from the exhibit and opening night on Flickr >

M W Bowen is an illustrator, painter, and street-artist living and working in Vancouver BC. He is interested in examining and dismantling social norms that hinder our progress as an inclusive society and world. “I have always bristled at art that needs a thesis to explain what it is trying to say. A great deal of art I see in galleries seems to be a winking-match between artists and I believe strongly that this kind of work ostricizes the general public. I want to make art that is all-inclusive, and that’s why I love street-art and why I am honoured to be a part of this show.” mwbowen.com

iHeart was born somewhere in western Canada, sometime in the late ’80s. Given the nature of what he does, iHeart, remains anonymous and claims he is “just a boy with ideas, opinions and a whole lot of aerosol.” iHeart’s social commentary establishes a dialogue with the viewer that asserts his populist ideals. iHeart’s work has been seen in Chicago, New York, Portland and Seattle and has been published in Ion Magazine, The Province, VancityBuzz, The Huffington Post, The Source, Le Monde Libertaire and Freewriter Magazine. iheartthestreetart.com

Joy studied fine art at the Trois-Rivières University in Quebec, Canada, graduating in 2001. His work is utterly for fun and is therefore full of joy! Each canvas or street art piece contains a door open to multiple interpretations. His canvas becomes the medium for full and free imagination. In the same vein, he uses a mixed technique to avoid being forced into my work. Applying layers with anything that he can get his hands on, spray paint, wax pencils, china markers… The brain is a muscle and an immense playground that asks only to be used. He does not want to be put in a box. He wants freedom of imagination, free to use any medium and have no bar. The joy of creating! fb.com/aka.the.joy

Jenn “Slingshot” Brisson is new to the street scene but not so new to the local scene, having shown her art in homes and galleries across Canada and the U.S. for most of her life. Slingshot’s love for the macabre and eerie along with an art career in Classical Animation for over 13 years became the perfect formula for her mischievous dolls and curious creatures to come to life. Keep an eye out for them… cuz they may have an eye on you around town, too. jennbrisson.blogspot.ca

Grandson of a talented painter and son of a kick-ass rock and roll guitarist, Wrk(less) fell in love and awe with art and pop culture at a very young age. Blame Star Wars, artists, directors, writers and comic book gods. He honed his skills in the dark of his room, laughing all the way. Later he discovered hip-hop and house, the streets and graffiti. It soon became time to add his own expression. Today he creates multimedia work with a camera, spraypaints, paper and photoshop. He rips pages from books, creates collage with texture, only to finally go and wheatepaste a bizarre and sexy character over the whole thing to confuse and titillate. And sometimes, like a superhero without a clue, he goes out into the night to create what some call vandalism. Others call it street art.