Vertical Gallery

Two emerging artists, Samantha Radons and Kazimear A. Johnston, will unveil projects at Open Space on April 29 as part of Open Space s longstanding annual Vertical Gallery installations. The two works of art are very different: one inverts clothing design and asks us to think about the emotional matter that permeates fabric. The other is a media installation packed with raw clay drawn from construction sites in Victoria. Both artists uncover aspects of urban life that are seldom examined.

Radons work, Embarrassment Suit, is a textile work.She redesigned a jumpsuit to reflect the awkwardness of embarrassment. Her intent in this work is to "capture the visceral feeling of awkward embarrassment in a fabric stand-in for the figure." 

In Reconstructions, Johnston explores the life cycle of urban buildings and infrastructure: "A building goes up, it gets old, it gets demolished, the ground is deconstructed, then reconstructed and a new building goes up." His work combines local raw clay packed into a figurative form over a projection of a construction site. 

Haema Sivanesan, curator of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, was invited to review over twenty proposals, from which she selected Radon s and Johnston s works.  She worked with the faculty and students of the Visual Art Department, Camosun College. 

Meet Haema, Samantha and Kazimear at the opening of the Vertical Gallery on Friday, April 29 at 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Everyone is welcome.

Open Space (founded 1972) enacts a mandate to support experimental artistic practices in all contemporary arts disciplines, acting as a laboratory for engaging art, artists, and communities. As a non-profit artist-run centre Open Space presents work by artists of all disciplines, cultures and generations.