Sunday, October 17, 2021 Join Jennifer Franks for her "Collectors at Home: Artists as Collectors" series presentation 

Fashioning Old into New: A History of Artist-Collectors 

Artists have collected a myriad of ancient to modern objects, reflected in their fine art practices. For the first museums known as Kunstkammern, or cabinets of curiosities, artists provided “curious” artworks displayed with dead specimens from nature; these once living organisms were often collected by the artists themselves, who repurposed or immortalised them in a variety of mediums; this practice continues today - from ethically sourcing butterfly remains for a canvas to capturing plant specimens in digital paint. The desire to transform the old or transitory into the new and contemporary, most notably in nature, remains a prevalent part of our collective, artistic consciousness.

For the second session of Collectors at Home, Jennifer Franks will discuss this topic in her lecture “Fashioning Old into New: A History of Artist-Collectors”, followed by interviews with two contemporary artists, who will speak on collections of nature informing their artworks.

Event Time: 3pm (EDT)

Register on Eventbrite HERE 

To learn more about artists participating in this session, follow us on Instagram via the hashtag #collectorsathome

Image Top: Art Chamber Closet (Kunstkammer), oil on canvas, Domenico Remps, 1689, Museo delle Pietre dure dell'Opificio, Florence.

Image Middle: Christine Davis, Detail, Morphochromes (2019)

Image Bottom: T.M. Glass, Blue Poppy in a Blue and White Chinese Vase (2018)

BIOGRAPHIES:

Jennifer Franks, decorative arts specialist, scholar and founder of Vertu Art + Design, holds a MA in the history of European decorative arts and design and curatorial studies from Parsons, The New School (New York). She has worked as Researcher, Curator and Executive Director for renown public and private art collections / institutions. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Toronto.

ARTISTS 

Christine Davis was born in 1962 (Vancouver) into a family of peripatetic scientists. Christine has been at home in six cities on three continents. She also roams with ease through the worlds of philosophy, literature, and history, as well as the broad fields of scientific investigation and material culture. Animated by “a cosmological impulse,” she proposes new forms of knowledge that are not created according to a system, but rather “emerge from a process of metamorphosis and transformation.” Davis characterizes her works as “machines for thinking;” they are conceived to eventually escape the apparatus of artistic control.

T.M. Glass is a digital painter whose practice involves cutting edge digital tools used to create lens based digital paintings that combine two photo shoots that the artist merges with digital paint, thus transforming the digital photos to become a digital painting that becomes an edition of digital pigment prints.

CSDA Sundays: Makers Series - Sunday, November 7th join artists Robert Van Norman, Jessie Lafleur and Marion Couvreur of Crafted Vancouver. 

Heart, Hand and Eye: A Cabinetmakers’ Conversation

The CSDA/CCAD, in partnership with Crafted Vancouver, will host a live, illustrated conversation with Robert Van Norman, the founder, resident craftsman and teacher at the renowned Inside Passage School of Fine Cabinetmaking, based on Keats Island in British Columbia, Canada. Robert will be joined by Jessie LaFleur, an emerging woodwork artist and recent alumnus of the school, whose Discovery Islands Collection embodies the principles of the Amateur Way. The conversation will be moderated by Marion Couvreur of Crafted Vancouver and herself a graduate of the school. Join them as they discuss their approach to woodcraft, the creation of the Inside Passage School, its founding principles inspired by the late James Krenov, and the common thread woven between them. An accompanying slideshow will present Robert and Jessie's work.

Event time: 3PM (EDT)

Register on Eventbrite HERE 

Image Top: Photo Credit :Yehudit Kahana, Robert Van Norman with students. 

Image bottom: ‘Heart.’ Cabinet on stand. Robert Van Norman, Resident Craftsman & Teacher. Balsamo, Goncalo alves, Doussie, Mendocino cypress.

BIOGRAPHIES 

Robert Van Norman is the founder and resident craftsman/teacher at Inside Passage School of Fine Cabinetmaking. Robert completed a traditional apprenticeship under master cabinetmaker Erich Janisch, then refined his skills at the College of the Redwoods (now the Krenov School), where he was mentored by the late James Krenov. In 1991, Robert founded a small woodworkers' cooperative where he began to make commissioned and speculative pieces of his own design. His work has been exhibited throughout North America, Europe and Japan. He has taught and lectured internationally insidepassage.ca

Jessie LaFleur is a Vancouver Island-based furniture maker. His Discovery Islands Collection builds on his experiences at the Inside Passage School in the whimsically titled Impractical Cabinetmaker Program. By exploring methods that highlight the living qualities of wood —naturally occurring shapes, grain, colour and texture— he builds carefully composed cabinetry that captures the imagination of its maker and the audience.  lafleuratelier.com

Marion Couvreur left her engineering career to begin cabinetmaking studies at the Inside Passage School, graduating in 2019. She continues to practise her craft as an amateur, and has joined Crafted Vancouver to promote the work of artists, artisans and crafts people in Canada and overseas. craftedvancouver.com