February 27th, 2012
Heights’ New Contest: Win Your Own Heights of Shopping Experience
by Sheliza Mitha
What would you do with a $250 shopping spree in Burnaby Heights? That’s the big question. To celebrate the launch of their new website, the Heights Merchants Association is giving away daily prizes of more than $250.
Enter their weeklong contest, from Monday, Feb. 27th to Friday, March 2nd, and try to find out for yourself. You could win one of five packages, and indulge in your very own Heights shopping experience. As for me, I have my own ideas on how to maximize the “Heights” of shopping. Continue reading →
Posted in Contest, Restaurants | [ 8 Comments ]
February 23rd, 2012
Confessions of the Other Woman
by Lima Al-Azzeh
For the next few nights only, Confessions of the Other Woman will be running at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, and for experimental theatre and dance lovers the world premiere of this independent show is not to be missed.
The presentation of this show marks a banner moment in the Shadbolt Centre’s history, as Cory Philley, Facility and Event Services Coordinator, comments in the playbill and also noted at the opening last night:
“We are pleased as punch to be presenting the World Premiere of Valerie Sing Turner’s Confessions of the Other Woman at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. Valerie and her company Visceral Visions in partnership with urban ink productions were the first Artists-in-Residence to be chosen under the new vision for the residencies that launched at the Shadbolt in 2010 and we could not have chosen more committed partners…”
Posted in Central Burnaby & Deer Lake Park, Performance | [ No Comments ]
February 14th, 2012
Renee Van Halm Cross Cutting/Inside Out at Burnaby Art Gallery
by Lima Al-Azzeh
Source: BurnabyArtGallery.ca
Thursday’s opening reception for Renee Van Halm’s exhibit at the Burnaby Art Gallery, Cross Cutting/Inside Out was an exciting survey of Van Halm’s works on paper. As the title promises, viewers were given an insight into Van Halm’s artistic inspiration and aesthetic, which involved a lot of in-depth, focused views on architecture and illuminating the pulse and life behind seemingly static scenarios.
Posted in Uncategorized | [ No Comments ]
February 7th, 2012
Renee Van Halm – Interview
by Lima Al-Azzeh
Renée Van Halm’s work has permeated the art world for nearly 40 years, her style ever evolving, her gaze ever shifting. From February 10 – April 8, 2012 Burnaby residents and visitors alike can see a retrospective of Van Halm’s works on paper, in the exhibit “Cross-Cutting/Inside Out”, which will be exhibited at the Burnaby Art Gallery.
Despite a career filled with a great diversity of subjects and mediums – from installation, to collage, to painting – this particular exhibit will focus in on Van Halm’s decades-long interest in the role of architecture in society.
“What we’ve done with this exhibit is we’ve compiled a historical survey of moments in my career”, said Van Halm in a recent phone interview. “As an artist, I reflected on different scenes presented over the course of my career and ultimately myself and the curator, Sophie Brodovitch, decided to focus on my ongoing interest in architecture, which started very early and was part of my practice at different stages in my career”.
Indeed, since her early body of work, Van Halm’s art has been perpetually inspired by the works of other artists, particularly those in the renaissance era. However, while others admired these works on the whole, Van Halm’s gaze and curiosity would continually focus on the background space, the space beyond the central figure. Inevitably, it was this fascination with the negative space that formulated Van Halm’s artistic strategy: to resurrect these backgrounds and bring them to the forefront of her work.
“By adopting that process, I was able to kind of create snapshots of a period in time, but not in a literal way”, Van Halm explained, “They look familiar, but they’re not. They’re parts of photographs or paintings that not one ever really looks at: the background. But, background has a huge impact on how one reads these images. If you put a model in front of a white wall, instead of something more evocative, your reading of it is very different. I’m interested in that context.”
Since the Burnaby Art Gallery has been committed to exclusively showing works that are only presented on paper, the retrospective of Van Halm’s art will focus solely on items presented in this medium, yet this focus hardly limits the viewer from experiencing Van Halm’s talents at their fullest.
Among more polished and finished works of art, the exhibit will include preparatory drawings and sketches that conceptualize ideas for Van Halm’s paintings and installations, an aspect of the artists’ work that is rarely exhibited or shown to the general public. The exhibit will also feature Van Halm’s more recent forays into collage, which often serve as her source material for paintings.
With such a large body of work, Van Halm and curator Sophie Brodovitch had to find a meaningful way to focus the viewer’s gaze and ultimately shape their experience of Van Halm’s art and of the artist herself, which is why “the exhibit has been hung not chronologically but thematically, forming a juxtaposition of past and present to see how an idea or compositional strategy was developed.”
The “Cross-Cutting/Inside Out” exhibit is sure to be a transformative experience for art lovers, as both the pieces presented and the manner in which they will be presented will allow the viewer a more intimate experience of the artist at work.
Watch for a preview of the art exhibit on Friday! For more events and art exhibits around Burnaby, visit the Tourism Burnaby events calendar.
Posted in Art, Central Burnaby & Deer Lake Park | [ No Comments ]
February 2nd, 2012
Valentine’s Day Treats
by Tourism Burnaby Staff
Image: harthouserestaurant.com
Start planning your Valentine’s Day in Burnaby! Treat yourself to one of these special nights out. Sample set menus from Reflect Social Dining + Lounge, Hart House Restaurant, Tivoli’s and more!
