Streets
featuring iHeart, Joy, Slingshot, Wrk(less), & MW Bowen
September 4-26, 2014
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.
