CRAVING A NEW STYLE? TRY THE GALLERY LOOK
Don’t be intimidated — a bold piece makes a room approachable
The easiest way to transform a room is with good art, says Erin Lang of the Berlin-based art photography company Lumas.
“People will spend $10,000 on a couch and then put cheap art on the wall,” she says. “But you could have a cheap couch and a nice piece of art and it elevates your space so much.”
Lumas strives to make art “more accessible, approachable and portable” says Lang, who holds the master franchise for Canada, opening a gallery in Gastown a year and a half ago and one in Toronto shortly after. People can purchase framed or unframed limited edition prints through Lumas galleries or their website.
“We represent about 200 international artists,” says Lang. “We’ll work exclusively with them on a series and instead of doing a traditional edition of two, five or 10, we’ll do an edition of 75 to 150, so it’s the exact same quality, but because it’s a larger edition size, the price point is much lower.”
Much of their work is with interior designers, she says.
“Once we work with an interior design firm,” she says, “they keep coming back because we provide an arts consultation service, so they’ll come to us and say: ‘This is the space. This is our colour tones. We’re looking for something this size. We don’t want any people in it, more cityscapes or whatever,’ and then we’ll pull together five or 10 images. We can do mock-ups, which can really help in that process and it helps visually for their clients as well.”
B.C. artists are the focus at Yaletown’s Suquet Interiors, says Jennifer Angers Daerendinger, owner of Roam Gallery, who curates the art in the store to complement the eclectic and original designer furniture sold by owners Ramon Masana Tapia and Rick Bohonis (co-founder of Urban Barn).
“There has to be a connection to Vancouver for me,” Daerendinger says. “We could go all over the world and find art, but why would we when we have so many great artists in Vancouver or based out of Vancouver?”
A large triptych by local artist Tanya Slingsby, titled Ajasram and part of her Arcana collection, is noticeable and blends seamlessly into the shop’s decor, which is part of her success as an artist, Daerendinger says.
“Tanya creates artwork that everybody’s going to love and it’s easy to sell her work,” she says.
Working with interior designers to create commissioned pieces for clients is something Slingsby has done since she began selling her work commercially, almost a decade and a half ago, with clients in Vancouver, Seattle, New York and the West Indies.
“Oftentimes with clients, I go into their homes, spend time with them and then have the opportunity to create work for them specifically, so the world of interiors and working with interior designers is something I really enjoy,” Slingsby says.
At centre stage for those entering Suquet — and catching the attention of those passing by — is a surfboard featuring Spider-Man water-skiing, created by mosaic artist Jason Dussault, who was born in Kamloops and now splits his time between Vancouver and Spain. Part of his Off Duty collection, Dussault created a series of six surfboard mosaics during a residency at Ruschmeyers motel in Montauk, N.Y.
“I made six separate superheroes doing off-duty exercises,” Dussault says. “So Spider-Man is water-skiing and jumping up in the air and Wolverine is barbecuing and his claws were shish kebabs.”
Dussault has work in the Hoerle-Guggenheim gallery in New York and his Beautiful Machine mosaic, on display at Suquet, was created for Art Basel Miami.
“Beautiful Machine is my most detailed piece I’ve (ever) done,” Dussault says. “I wanted to get this feeling of almost photographic quality. I was inspired by a picture I found of the Chinese army, and it looked almost like an abstract — you had all of these people all coming together to make one image.”
Daerendinger says there is art “for everyone” and to fit every space at Suquet, and this includes the incredibly original Beasts of Bling — intricately restored and richly decorated longhorn steer skulls from a ranch in Alberta, and Sugar Skulls by Vancouver artist Cindy Fair of Blush N Bones.
The Sugar Skulls, which are hand-sculpted from clay, are inspired by Mexico’s Day of the Dead, which, Fair says, is really a celebration of life.
“It’s a beautiful approach to the cycle of life,” she says, “and how that culture is able to embrace all of it, including the passing of the ones before them.”