Hamilton vibe resonates with B.C. artist
Danielle Roberts lands Hamilton Arts Council residency and wins funding from Alicia Keys to mount a show of her work
With a little help from New York pop singer Alicia Keys and her rapper/producer husband Swizz Beatz, artist Danielle Roberts has found a new home in Hamilton.
Roberts was raised on idyllic Gabriola Island off the coast of British Columbia, going on to study painting at the prestigious Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver.
But after graduation, she found the cost of living in Vancouver far too expensive for a young up-and-coming artist.
It didn’t take Roberts long to find a welcoming art community in Hamilton.
“I kept hearing that there were tons of art opportunities here,” Roberts, 27, says from her studio space at the Cotton Factory in downtown Hamilton. “I could see there was plenty of spaces in Hamilton, which is not the case in Vancouver.
“Everyone seems to be leaving Vancouver,” she adds. “It’s very competitive. There’s not a lot of space, not a lot of galleries, especially entry-level galleries.”
With the help of friends, Roberts arrived in Hamilton in April. By June she had landed a Hamilton Arts Council residency that gave her free studio space at the Cotton Factory on Sherman Avenue North for three months.
Roberts, who also works at a downtown restaurant, still needed money to fund her next project, so she applied for a grant through a competition held by Keys and Swizz Beatz (a.k.a. Kasseem Dean) that provides $5,000 startup grants for 20 young artists.
“I told them that I had a residency at the Cotton Factory and I intended to make six four-by-five-foot paintings,” she said. “I sent in my previous work and a breakdown budget.
Shortly after starting the Cotton Factory residency, she learned through a social media post that she was one of the 20 winners out of some 5,000 applicants worldwide.
“I was at work and they announced the winners on Instagram, Swizz Beatz tagged me in a post,” she said.
Now her six paintings are complete and will go on exhibition at the Hamilton Audio/Visual Node (HAVN), opening Friday, Nov. 9 (Art Crawl), 7 to 10 p.m., with viewing hours throughout the month.
The title of the exhibition is “Latent Echo” and features her depictions of public spaces including two arcades, a movie theatre lobby, a waterfront park in Nanaimo, B.C., a church and a bowling alley.
At first glance, the two arcade scenes appear as odd western landscapes. After a while, the viewer’s eyes fall to the foreground where mounted guns are pointing at lit targets to reveal an old-time shooting gallery.
“I am curious about painting public spaces that rely on nostalgia and self-referential ideas to engage the public,” Roberts says, admitting she likes to inject some humour into her work.
“I see the intention of the created spaces that I paint as acting with a kind of phantasmagoria. I find phantom influences hidden in commonality to be captivating and I seek to unpack such influences by reinterpreting real facades into painting.”
Originally, Roberts intended to exhibit “Latent Echo” in a Toronto gallery, thinking the city would provide more fertile ground for buyers.
“But I went to Toronto and didn’t like the vibe there,” says Roberts who has not yet put prices on the paintings. “I found it very cold.
“I thought that if I do the show here at least people will come and experience the work.
“At this point, I really just want people to see it and enjoy it. That’s the vibe I get here in Hamilton. People will actually come to the show and enjoy the work.”