story by Ben Benedict
Gerald Vaandering’s Invisible Hand opens the exhibition season at Michael Gibson Gallery. This is Vaandering’s fourth solo exhibit at Gibson’s in what marks a ten year history featuring drawings, paintings, and an installation, designed to fill the entire gallery space, a first for both the artist and the gallery.
The works exhibited illustrate maturity in both their ideology and craft. The ideology is informed by people, the human condition and the culture created within that context. Vaandering draws influence from the literary works of economists Adam Smith and John Ralston Saul.
“Our culture is becoming economically determined; stock quotes are the heart and soul of who we are,” says Vaandering, who uses large copies of current stock quotations as the foundation of his imagery.
He then overlays images generated from photos taken usually at the corner of Front and Bay streets in Toronto at the end of the trading day when people are their most haggard, consumed by the pushing and shoving match required to return to their other life.
The images are then reduced to light and shadow, blended with other images and layered creating a manipulated point in time. “These are all about people and you’re not even seeing them, you’re seeing the positive and negative of the image,” he says.
The process is similar to the corporate world’s attempt to chart and graph success based on abstraction. Many of the images include references to charts using line and shape as part of the formal elements of the images. A new series of graphite drawings on Mylar clearly illustrate this point powerfully. I had the pleasure to view Scatter Graph I (2004) unframed in Vaandering’s studio and was impressed by the seductive quality of the rough illustration forming the background to a chart plotted with red squares.
The paintings are formed in encaustic or bees wax, blended with oil paint or pure pigment, and then layered onto the surface of the work. Although not essential to the work’s meaning, there are parallels between the bees working in their hive and the workers on Bay Street. Yet unlike the bees, these are individuals separate from their consumer buying habits and far greater in their individual potential than mere points on a chart. This is the underlying message in Vaandering’s work, which is wittily illustrated in Signature (2004).
The installation is entitled Heart and Soul and should fill the entire central exhibition space at the gallery with one large bar code.
These images will seem familiar to those acquainted with Vaandering’s work but on closer inspection, the changes from earlier works become evident. I can recall back in 1994 speaking with Vaandering about his work and his struggle with the corporate imagery and its perceived discourse on capitalism. While the images are still corporate in nature, there is a greater understanding and compassion for the anonymous individual.
This time the conversation was about people and our collective struggle for existence within the capitalist culture created around us, with or without our participation. Although aspects of our lives can be delineated into neat departments for commercial analysis, we are more than mere numbers.
The work also has a clear progression and development with the layering of text onto, and a carving into, the surface, which is what a critic looks for in the development of an artist as a professional. Vaandering has these qualities and is at a good point in his career, as illustrated by saying “When I work in [my studio] I work for myself, and then you have to bring it out to the public.” His work is intelligent, well crafted, and visually complete. In the words of the stock trader, Vaandering’s art is a recommended buy.
From: Scene Magazine 09/02/2004 Issue # 474
Gerald Vaandering’s Invisible Hand opens the exhibition season at Michael Gibson Gallery. This is Vaandering’s fourth solo exhibit at Gibson’s in what marks a ten year history featuring drawings, paintings, and an installation, designed to fill the entire gallery space, a first for both the artist and the gallery.
The works exhibited illustrate maturity in both their ideology and craft. The ideology is informed by people, the human condition and the culture created within that context. Vaandering draws influence from the literary works of economists Adam Smith and John Ralston Saul.
“Our culture is becoming economically determined; stock quotes are the heart and soul of who we are,” says Vaandering, who uses large copies of current stock quotations as the foundation of his imagery.
He then overlays images generated from photos taken usually at the corner of Front and Bay streets in Toronto at the end of the trading day when people are their most haggard, consumed by the pushing and shoving match required to return to their other life.
The images are then reduced to light and shadow, blended with other images and layered creating a manipulated point in time. “These are all about people and you’re not even seeing them, you’re seeing the positive and negative of the image,” he says.
The process is similar to the corporate world’s attempt to chart and graph success based on abstraction. Many of the images include references to charts using line and shape as part of the formal elements of the images. A new series of graphite drawings on Mylar clearly illustrate this point powerfully. I had the pleasure to view Scatter Graph I (2004) unframed in Vaandering’s studio and was impressed by the seductive quality of the rough illustration forming the background to a chart plotted with red squares.
The paintings are formed in encaustic or bees wax, blended with oil paint or pure pigment, and then layered onto the surface of the work. Although not essential to the work’s meaning, there are parallels between the bees working in their hive and the workers on Bay Street. Yet unlike the bees, these are individuals separate from their consumer buying habits and far greater in their individual potential than mere points on a chart. This is the underlying message in Vaandering’s work, which is wittily illustrated in Signature (2004).
The installation is entitled Heart and Soul and should fill the entire central exhibition space at the gallery with one large bar code.
These images will seem familiar to those acquainted with Vaandering’s work but on closer inspection, the changes from earlier works become evident. I can recall back in 1994 speaking with Vaandering about his work and his struggle with the corporate imagery and its perceived discourse on capitalism. While the images are still corporate in nature, there is a greater understanding and compassion for the anonymous individual.
This time the conversation was about people and our collective struggle for existence within the capitalist culture created around us, with or without our participation. Although aspects of our lives can be delineated into neat departments for commercial analysis, we are more than mere numbers.
The work also has a clear progression and development with the layering of text onto, and a carving into, the surface, which is what a critic looks for in the development of an artist as a professional. Vaandering has these qualities and is at a good point in his career, as illustrated by saying “When I work in [my studio] I work for myself, and then you have to bring it out to the public.” His work is intelligent, well crafted, and visually complete. In the words of the stock trader, Vaandering’s art is a recommended buy.
From: Scene Magazine 09/02/2004 Issue # 474