First Canadian exhibition of Kai Althoff's work at the Vancouver Art Gallery

The Vancouver Art Gallery will present the first Canadian exhibition of German artist Kai Althoff from November 8, 2008 until February 15, 2009.

Althoff is a multimedia artist, however he has received most of his recognition from his work as a painter. Approximately 30 paintings and drawings from the early 1990s to the present and works drawn from noted exhibitions/installations will complete the Gallery’s presentation. This selection of work underscores Althoff’s fluid stylistic approach and masterful way of presenting life’s complex yet fundamental extremes with exquisite intimacy and insight. In its entirety, the exhibition abandons the straightforward survey in favor of a more complex juxtaposition of components, whose subtle connections will be revealed throughout the visitor’s personal experience of the space.

Kai Althoff was born in 1966 in Cologne, Germany and continues to reside there. Althoff travels extensively for his individual and collaborative endeavors, exhibiting his work both nationally and internationally. His artistic output encompasses a vast spectrum of media, including works on paper, painting, photography, music, videos, text, performances and installations. He co-founded the German band Workshop, whose joint efforts figured largely in Althoff’s early artistic practice, and whose namesake—a place that advocates for the creative production of both the individual and the group—continues to play a recurring theme in his work.

Vancouver Art Gallery: Kai Althoff exhibition page

Public Input: Welcome to the Oasis

Commercial Drive is well-known for its vibe, its art, and its funk. The colour and controversy stroll side-by-side with all the social clashing assaulting the senses while they might be laughing and enjoying a conversation. Diversity and multiculturalism are the key cornerstone that sets The Drive apart.

With a strong Arts Community concentrated in and around The Drive, there are many opportunities missed to connect in meaningful, and potentially in meaningful creative ways. Arts is often seen as a solitary venture, and yet the artist that collaborates, or those who work in groups discover a deeper growth and development in their character and their work. Community, friends, and family are the very things that hold us up through the tough slog.

So a young woman arrives with a question about an idea worth considering: How can I create a residence / studio-mixed (non-threatening to safety) / gallery where live-in, neighbourhood, and travelling artists can congregate, share, collaborate, create, and grow? This sent the mind reeling over the City of Vancouver's Creative City Culture Plan 2008-2018 and wondering that there might well be approaches that could be followed to create such a space, and to gear it up to be fully-sustainable, self-supporting.

A draft brief overview titled Welcome to the Oasis outlines the basic premise to create such a work / live residence for artists. It needs further editing and honing. This is the perfect time to ask for your input.

Happy New Year Commercial Drive

The mad Christmas rush is over, the New Year's resolution I've already broken, and now that we're half way through January, the dust is settling and we're finding a groove again. Well, most of us are finding a groove anyway. Some lucky folks have their mind set on some far off exotic vacation spot with beating rays of sun, fruity drinks, delicious food, and lots of dancing and general carrying on.

At LiveIn, we're slowly seeing the efforts of gathering community resources and profiles to build beautiful, useful, and beneficial sites for Vancouver communities. Overall sponsorship is being supported by the LiveIn group, and also welcomes modest sponsorship opportunities for local businesses. In the coming months, more in-depth features will be sought for inclusion to the LiveInMountPleasant.com site, as well as your favourite, the LiveInCommercialDrive.com site.

We welcome suggestions for ideas to write about people, places, and things. Take a look at the Eastside Culture Crawl Executive Director, Valerie Arntzen, and her Assemblage Artist Profile finalized this past week. This is one example of a focused theme as this page becomes one of many for the Arts pages for the community. Who do you know along Commercial Drive of note? People, places, and things - tell us about your hood, and we'll send the News Snoop out to build the story. Register and post your suggestions in our Discussion Forum, or post your comment on our blog.