[BCMA] Exhibition: Face to Face by Wanda Koop Opening at RAG November 19, 2009

Tue Nov 3 14:21:00 PST 2009

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Exhibition: Face to Face by Wanda Koop Opening at RAG November 
19, 2009
Date: 	Mon, 2 Nov 2009 13:03:23 -0800
From: 	Hickey, Paula <PHickey at richmond.ca>

*Exhibition Title: Face to Face
**Artist: Wanda Koop
*Curator: Deborah Koenker
Dates: 20 November, 2009 -- 10 January, 2010

Wanda Koop, Victim, 1985 acrylic on plywood

Opening: Thursday 19 November, 7 -- 9 pm
/Mayor Malcolm Brodie will be in attendance.
Opening remarks will take place at 7:30 pm/

*

Related Programming:

*

*Wanda Koop and Gu Xiong, Face to Face. A moderated discussion.
*Thursday, November 12, 5:30--7:00 pm
Emily Carr University of Art & Design University, Intersections Digital 
Studios, Room 285

*Vancouver Opera and Richmond Art Gallery present an evening of Asian 
inspired Opera
*Saturday, November 21, 7:30 - 8:30pm. Reception follows.

It is with great pleasure that the Richmond Art Gallery presents Wanda 
Koop's exhibition Face to Face. Wanda Koop is an artist of national 
significance, having represented Canada at the 2001 Venice Biennale and 
received the Order of Canada in 2006, and who will be the subject of a 
major retrospective in 2011, co-presented by the Winnipeg Art Gallery 
and the National Gallery of Canada.

Recognized for her landscapes, Koop's solo exhibition at the RAG will 
present a little-known aspect of Koop's production: portraits and 
figures spanning nearly 25 years. Beginning with large-scale paintings 
of Chinese opera characters, the exhibition will include works developed 
from extensive notes and sketches recorded on Koop's first trip to China 
in 1986, and recent works on robotics.

Face to Face, a selection of paintings and ink brush drawings on paper, 
presents work in a range of scales spanning the period from 1985 to the 
present. Starting with several large-scale diptych paintings on panel of 
Chinese Opera characters produced prior to her travels in China, this 
series is the beginning of a large body of work titled Flying to the 
Moon. The images are based on a set of paper cuts of opera figures, 
found in a store in Toronto. Koop's interest in China and all things 
Asian began in her student days at the University of Manitoba when she 
was stunned by the unusual colour sense evident in the work of visiting 
students from China. Later, working from notes and sketches recorded on 
her first trip to China in 1986, Koop returned to her Winnipeg studio to 
continue with Flying to the Moon, adding a large body of ink and brush 
drawings and 60 major paintings: 500 pieces in all, including the 
notational sketches. She had a sense then that China would become a 
major influence on global culture and politics, and she was right. 
Recognized as a brilliant colourist, the impact of this cultural 
exchange is evident in Koop's palette. Her fluid, concise brushwork also 
relates to the calligraphic ink paintings of China.

Following the Chinese Opera panels Koop painted Hockey Heads, a series 
of portraits based on Jacques Plante, one of the most influential 
goalies in NHL history and the first to wear a goalie's mask. Given the 
power of masks to protect and transform, the connections are apparent. 
The prominence of ghosts in Chinese culture aligns with the ghostly 
quality of the hockey mask portraits. Baby Face, an enormous pink head 
from the 1989 series No Words, completes the selection of large panel 
paintings. Both sinister and humorous, this piece simultaneously 
suggests a baby, a bald headed man, and the man on the moon.

It is fascinating to trace the artist's work through a series of 
investigations, both formal and conceptual. At times the directions may 
seem unrelated, but Koop works in a poetic, non-linear mode. This work 
always brings us back to aspects of transformation and of our humanity. 
Koop is an explorer, well traveled and well informed. She brings back 
information and visions from the world into her studio, condensing 
experience and observation into a prodigious production. Her process is 
fluid. Constantly identifying poetic and intuitive links, Koop also has 
her antenna finely tuned to media reportage, particularly television. 
Green Zone [Face], a series that coincides with television reportage of 
the Iraq War, presents large, silhouetted heads with abstract bands of 
colour that replace eyes and mouth, rendering the subjects blind and 
mute, completely disempowered. Hers is a commentary on a sanitized war. 
Koop also explores her interest in robotics in the 2007 series Deep Bay 
Robots wherein she uses neon, artificial colours to beautiful and 
alarming effect. Her interest in robotics emerged from her observations 
of the docks in Rotterdam, where she watched cranes and dockside 
machines suggestive of unmanned aviation vehicles. Koop sees our global 
willingness to embrace the robotic---the way we are plugged in and 
hooked up through the multiple and ubiquitous technical possibilities 
for virtual rather than actual encounters. In the 2008 series Hybrid 
Humans the artist notes that the hybridization of humans has already 
happened; we are already part machine---wired with I-pods, cell phones 
and myriad on-line connections. Here the mask becomes a robotic 
extension, transforming and hybridizing the individual into a robotic 
device. The theme of hybridization is continued with Bar Code Faces 
(2009) which bridges landscape, portrait, commodity and abstraction.

Selections from View From Here - Face Koop's most recent production, 
will complete the exhibition. This body of work consists of exquisite 
black ink drawings of landscapes contained within human heads. This work 
consolidates Koop's broad range of interests and provides connections 
between landscape, the human figure, portraiture, and robotics, 
outlining for the viewer just how Koop makes sense of these seemingly 
disparate subjects through invention, visual thinking and strong, 
concise poetic sensibilities.

Due to the profound influence of China on Koop's development and 
production, this exhibition will be of special interest to the primarily 
Asian demographic of Richmond, as well as the extensive community of 
artists throughout the Lower Mainland. While not a retrospective, this 
exhibition presents a honed view of a particular aspect of Koop's highly 
inventive process. Starting with China and landscapes and moving into 
transformative portraits, masks and robotics we are able to view and 
make sense of a range of work and themes developed over a period of 
nearly 25 years. Crucial to an understanding of Koop's process is the 
interweaving of bodies of work and influences. Perhaps ultimately the 
key to understanding the flow of Koop's work comes from the artist 
herself: "it's all the things I'm thinking about".

For more information or to request images, contact the Gallery.

*Richmond Art Gallery *
*180-7700 Minoru Gate
**Richmond, BC V6Y 1R9
*Tel: 604.247.8300
Email: _gallery at richmond.ca_ <mailto:gallery at richmond.ca>

*Gallery Hours:* Monday to Friday 10 am to 6 pm; weekends 10 am to 5 pm; 
closed for statutory holidays

Contact: Paula Hickey
t. 604.247.8312._e.phickey at richmond.ca_ <mailto:e.phickey at richmond.ca>

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