The ACT Art Gallery is presenting its first commissioned installation on Jan. 9.
Beginning at 2 p.m., the public will have an opportunity to view “Exhibition under Development”, featuring new artwork by Amelia Epp and Aaron Moran.
“The title actually refers to the somewhat temporal nature of this project, as when I approached the artists last year, we really had no idea what the final pieces would look like,” said curator Barbara Duncan.
“I did recognize common elements in their approach to working with materials, and their shared tendency to build assemblages from both new and discarded items.”
She said that in addition to some of their conceptual similarities, these two artists share some aesthetic qualities in their use of colour, and the idea of creating site-specific art was appealing to both artists.
“So, for these and other reasons, I thought a collaboration would be an interesting experiment, even though the artists had never worked together before,” said Duncan
Moran recently returned to Vancouver after completing a Master in Fine Arts in Windsor, Ont. Much of his work is concerned with urban and suburban development, as he draws on new, discarded and natural elements to create sculptures and relief pieces.
Epp, who studied at Simon Fraser and later Columbia University in New York, is concerned more with environment-specific textures that emerge in both built and natural spaces.
Her labour-intensive exploration of the tensile qualities of pressed paper often resolve in brilliant combinations of geometric forms assembled in dynamic three dimensional formations.
Moran will give a free public tour of the exhibition on Jan. 16 from 1-2 p.m.
He will explain the impetus for the artwork, and how the two artists worked collaboratively.
With the exhibition, The ACT Art Gallery’s demonstrates a commitment to offer exposure to young professional artists.
The additional stimulus of a commission for this particular exhibition recognizes the costs attributable to both the materials and time in creating artwork – an occupation that few young artists are able to pursue on a full-time basis, said Duncan.