Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
‘Blood, Sweat & Ten Years’ was the slogan that marked the tenth edition of The Cheaper Show, the annual art exhibition that has become a staple in Vancouver’s cultural scene. In line with their motto, the 2011 show proved to be one of their biggest efforts yet, turning an old 1,900 square foot factory into a functional gallery space that hosted up to 10,000+ visitors. The Block was there to witness the packed show as well as browse the pieces of a talented roster of emerging and established artists from Vancouver and around the world.
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The Time to Self Subsist from the series Twelve Stories of Transiency
In anticipation of this year’s Cheaper Show – a buzzy, decade-old art show highlighting emerging artists and selling their work for $200 a pop – we’re profiling a trifecta of young artists whose work we love. Our third profile in this series is Kate Bieschke.
Wisconsin native Kate Bieschke believes in the pursuit of laughter and of happiness. In reviving the landscapes and the memories of her experience through photography, she composes images that set out to tell a story, however absurd or comical. Her photographs contain a special ambiguity that affords each viewer a liberating freedom to interpret. She took some time to tell us a little bit about her Midwestern upbringing, growing up as a wild child, and getting involved in the Cheaper Show by following one of our favourite Vancouver-based blogs.
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In Your Soul Are Infinitely Precious Things That Cannot Be Taken From You
In anticipation of this year’s Cheaper Show – a buzzy, decade-old art show highlighting emerging artists and selling their work for $200 a pop – we’re profiling a trifecta of young artists whose work we love. Our second profile in this series is Fumi Mini Nakamura.
Chances are you may have seen Fumi Mini Nakamura’s art without knowing it. The 26-year-old Japan-born, Brooklyn-based illustrator’s work is scattered in a surprising array of places, including NYLON magazine, on t-shirts for Urban Outfitters and GAP, and in the pages of Taschen’s Illustration Now! 3. Nakamura, whose experience includes everything from working as a studio assistant to Takashi Murakami to textile design, took a few minutes to talk to us about her art, her chinchilla, and her decision to show her work in the Cheaper Show.
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MARGINAL SPACE, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas. 49" x 63", 2010
In anticipation of this year’s Cheaper Show – a buzzy, decade-old art show highlighting emerging artists and selling their work for $200 a pop – we’re profiling a trifecta of young artists whose work we love. Our first profile in this series is Fiona Ackerman.
Vancouver-based Ackerman’s kaleidoscopic abstracts have us hooked; her landscapes, rich fantasy worlds with unusual colour combos and forays into graffiti, promise to rival even the pristine mountain view from our window. She spills about meeting her art-star dad for the first time, how she makes the choice between army green and, say, neon pink, and drawing inspiration from within.
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Tags: Cheaper Show, Fiona Ackerman
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British-born actress Hannah Yelland made her Broadway debut less than a year ago in Brief Encounter as Laura Jesson, a 1930s housewife who unexpectedly falls for a stranger she meets on a train. Today, Yelland is attending the Tony Awards, where she is nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Play, an honour she shares with Nina Arianda, Frances McDormand, Liby Rabe, and the iconic Vanessa Redgrave. At a turning moment in her career, we caught up with Yelland for a web-exclusive chat, accompanied by photographs by Tetsuharu Kubota, as she prepares for the big night.
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Wednesday, May 25th, 2011
Directory by Ari Marcopolous (Rizzoli, April 2011)
It looks like a phonebook, it feels like a phonebook – with one big difference: we won’t be using this one as a doorstop. Directory, a 1,200 page retrospective on the 30-year career of Ari Marcopolous, is one hefty tribute to contemporary counterculture. The veteran Dutch photog got his state-side start in the 80s copying prints for the king of pop art, Andy Warhol, and since then has applied his documentarian’s instincts to snapping candid moments in youth subculture.
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Tags: Ari Marcopolous, Directory
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Counter Cosmo / 30 in x 30 in x 5 in / acid-free paper, wood / 2011
Miami-based artist Jen Stark is primarily known for her intricate paper sculptures, which are at once playful and transfixing, drawing the viewer into a multicoloured vortex. In advance of her upcoming show at Toronto’s Show & Tell Gallery on May 12th, we talked to Stark about her relationship with paper, colour… and math.
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Thursday, April 14th, 2011
With a father in fashion and an interior designer and art collector for a mother, Raif Adelberg’s career trajectory through art and fashion bears all the hallmarks of a birthright, especially when his mother tells stories of him cutting and embroidering on clothing at the age of 13. Adelberg, who in early 2004 garnered international buzz for his Vancouver boutique Richard Kidd, these days continues showing his own clothing line, most recently during New York Fashion Week. At the same time, he turns his flair for spaces to experiential art installations like The Dead Boys Clubhouse, inspired by the closure of landmark New York punk club CBGB and the band known for energetic performances of songs like “Sonic Reducer” off the 1977 album Young, Loud and Snotty.
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Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
Janie Taylor, one of the world’s finest pointe performers (whose haunting beauty has been likened to a Hitchcockian Grace Kelly) enlisted choreographer and fellow New York City Ballet principal dancer Justin Peck to breathe life into Hannah MacGibbon’s ballerina-inspired Chloé collection.
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Sweatpants Y-3
On July 4th, 2010, world famous competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi, who had recently moved to Manhattan, spent the night in jail after answering the cheers of his fans. The young star was arrested for jumping on stage at the Coney Island hot dog eating competition – the same stage where he once broke world record s and turned an American icon, the hot dog, into the focus of an ESPN-covered sport. In his first exclusive in-depth interview about the arrest, the surprisingly ripped champion eater explores themes of Americana and shares with Justin Simon what he was thinking that day – and his uncertainty about what will happen this upcoming Fourth of July.
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THE BLOCK MIXTAPE
by Young Empires
Mixtape: Young Empires
Toronto's Young Empires send us straight to the dancefloor with this mixtape for The Block.
www.myspace.com/youngempires
01. Sabali (Vitalic Remix) - Amadou & Miriam
02. Lies (Herve Remix) - Fenech-Soler
03. Hour of the Wolf (Lifelike Remix) - Adam Kesher
04. Dance the Way I Feel (Armand Van Helden Remix) - Ou Est Le Swimming Pool
05. Snake Charmer - Bag Raiders
06. Wait & See - Holy Ghost!
07. All Night (Azari & III Remix) - Voltage
08. You Know I Know It - Tensnake
09. La Mezcla - Michel Cleis
10. Rain of Gold (French Horn Rebellion Remix) - Young Empires
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