Interview with Vancouver artist Ilya Viryachev
MUSIC: “Porto” by LASERS
INTERVIEW, VIDEO & EDIT: Chris Bentzen

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A group show of figurative paintings, drawings, and illustration inspired by aging, old age, and history. Features Jay Senetchko, Ilya Viryachev, Courtney Colbon, Jeremiah Birnbaum, Laura Bifano, Andrea Hooge, Russell Alton, Mandy Tsung, and Drew Young.

See photos from the show on Flickr >

 
Two faced. From the simple meaning of being ambidextrous, marked by deliberate deceptiveness especially by pretending to have one set of feelings and acting under the influence of another. Sophia Ahamed explores emotion and expression through portraiture and structural form using a combination of painting and illustration methods in her digital work, produced as prints for the show. Jose Rivas explores social behaviour through colour, spacial tension and animal imagery. Art for the series is done in acrylic and oils on stretched canvas.

See all the work from the show on Flickr >

Sophia Ahamed is a graphic artist living in Vancouver, BC. She is a young creative who has worked internationally on a wide rage of projects and has had her work featured in various publications. Her illustrative work is a balance between hand drawn, digital renditions which creates beautiful contrasts of colour and depth through out each piece. Only through pain can we begin to understand what happiness really is and allow our selves to feel it without hesitation. Science has given us the ability to understand our own minds and bodies. Art has given us the ability to communicate these findings with others. The goal is to create a different kind of healing process, one that stems from the artist and to the viewer.

Raised in a household of Spanish heritage, Jose Rivas only started speaking English at the age of five, after distinct impressions were made on him by his family’s culture of origin. Over the years his eccentric personality and affluence of artistry was primed through Capilano University’s Illustration and Design program (IDEA). Jose’s work is described as representing ‘the chaos of life, juxtaposed with its underlying beauty, expressed and complimented by saturated, alluring colours, and repetitive gestural strokes.’ His paintings often speak of his attraction to the complexities of life and that which we impose on ourselves to make life colourful.

A solo show by Drew Young featuring small experimental works on paper. Destruction and transposition are the crux for this series. Drew fractures his oil studies in order to force his figures into new and obscure contexts. He also draws from a bank of abstract marks to create balance between the erratically positioned subjects and the intangible.

Young has exhibited locally and internationally and been featured by Juxtapoz, Hi-Fructose, Booooooom.com and BlueCanvas. He is also the curator and organizer for Snag, the worlds only weekly live-painting raffle.

Watch an interview with Drew Young: