Behind the Studio Door

David Alexander   Malcolm McCormick 
Katherine Pickering   Jeroen Witvliet

May 11th to June 23rd

Behind the Studio Door, an exhibition to examine the behind-the-scenes work that goes into an artist’s professional practice.

The gallery will be divided into four separate spaces, giving each artist room recreate aspects of their studios, giving a glimpse of the day to day routines of a full-time practice.

Opening Reception: Friday May 10th, 6-8pm

Existential Cafe: (Artist Talk ) Saturday May 11th, 2pm 

Behind the Studio Door is about the work and time not usually seen by the public. The amount of work that goes into an artistic practice leaves me with an image of ‘guts all over the studio floor’ after a typical studio session, not literally, of course, could be metaphorically, allegorically or imaginary…you pick. Of course, there is no ‘typical’ art studio, the space is diverse as the artwork produced in them. And that is exactly what this exhibition is about, four artists, David Alexander, Katherine Pickering, Jeroen Witliet and Malcolm McCormick let us peek into their process and private spaces.
 
I have spent the past week trying to write in more detail an explanation of this exhibition but in the end, I think Chuck Close and John Cage say it best…
 
Inspiration is for amateurs - the rest of us just show up and get to work. And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will - through work - bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great ‘art [idea].' And the belief that process, in a sense, is liberating and that you don't have to reinvent the wheel every day. Today, you know what you'll do, you could be doing what you were doing yesterday, and tomorrow you are gonna do what you [did] today, and at least for a certain period of time you can just work. If you hang in there, you will get somewhere.                                                                   
Chuck Close, Inside the Painter’s Studio
 
When you start working, everybody is in your studio- the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas- all are there. But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you are lucky, even you leave.”                                                                                                                                                              
John Cage
 
Wanda Lock, Curator
  
David Alexander 
David T. Alexander is an established, award-winning Canadian painter best known for his landscapes and water reflection imagery.
Alexander studied at the Vancouver Art School and at Langara College before graduating with a BFA from Notre Dame University. In 1980, he moved to Saskatoon, SK to obtain his Master's degree while researching in New York, London and Paris. In 2006, Alexander was a special guest artist-in-residence at the Morris Graves Foundation in California. Alexander was inducted to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2018. He continues to live and work out of his studio in Lake Country, BC.
Alexander's signature landscapes (dry series) and waterscapes (wet series) represent his significant forty five year history in painting and drawing with a bold palette and gestural application. Alexander's work can be found in many prominent public, private and corporate collections throughout the world, including the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Museum of London, the University of Toronto, Concordia University in Montreal, the Museum of Art in Iceland, HBC Global Art Collection in New York, and in Embassies in Berlin, Beijing and Krakow. Corporate and private collections include those in major Canadian cities as well as in Dubai, Seoul, New York, Mumbai and Nice, among others.
 
Jeroen Witvleit 
Jeroen Witvliet is an artist who was born in The Netherlands. He has received his BFA from the Willem de Kooning Academie, Rotterdam, has studied at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design , Vancouver BC Canada and received his MFA from the University on Victoria, BC Canada in 2014. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe and North America.
 
In his work Jeroen looks for the poetic that seems to be hiding everywhere.
 
Katherine Pickering 
Katherine Pickering is a Lecturer in Visual Arts at the University of British Columbia in Kelowna, BC. Pickering’s current research focuses on night-time perception and its effect on the development of abstract painting.. She has participated in several artists’ residencies including The Room’s Terra Nova National Park residency in Newfoundland; the Vermont Studio Centre’s residency in Johnson, Vermont and the Figure in a Mountain Landscape thematic residency at the Banff Centre, Alberta.
 
Malcolm McCormick 
Malcolm McCormick received his BFA from University of British Columbia Okanagan and his MFA from Concordia University in Montreal. Malcolm is currently living and working on his art practice in Montreal.