TONIGHT IS JIGGERY POKERY!

     



winsor gallery presents angela grossmann and drew shaffer : jiggery pokery

Winsor Gallery is pleased to announce the first duo solo exhibition of mixed media artists Angela Grossmann and Drew Shaffer.  Grossmann and Shaffer’s exhibition entitled Jiggery Pokery runs from October 15th – November 14th. An opening will be held on the evening of Thursday October 15th, from 6-8pm; both artists will be in attendance. 

While Drew Shaffer is an emerging artist and Angela Grossman has been established for more than 30 years, the two have much in common.   Both Grossmann and Shaffer share a special connection to working with found objects and ephemera. Together, their duo solo pushes and pulls between references to old and new, hot and cold, love lost and love found.  Drew, similar to Grossmann, utilizes found, mundane and forgotten objects and transforms them into powerful pieces of art.  These neglected objects have little or no meaning until Shaffer molds them into unique sculptures with haunting narratives.  Drew focuses on emotional and psychological needs and desires of contemporary culture.    Grossman’s new works address the role performance plays in the assumption and persistence of gender identity in a postmodern world.  The emotional and vulnerable nature of Grossmann’s portraits ‘play’ with erotica, using the assumption of the voyeuristic gaze and socially acceptable expectation of female behavior as a starting point.  Grossmann’s dramatic and deliberate display of the highly sexualized parts of a woman’s body through the raising of skirts, removal of blouses, or in some cases, the addition of bits of real doll’s clothing implies a studied reflection on normative gender identity in relation to the sexed body.  But they move beyond a simplistic reiteration of submission and exploitation where beauty id definitive of value.  Grossmann’s emphasis on traditional concepts of femininity through costume and apparel actually produces a critique of such judgements.    

About Angela Grossmann
Angela Grossman is a Vancouver-based visual artist.  Over the last two decades her paintings and collages have been the subject of more than 20 solo shows in Canada, the U.S, Europe and Japan beginning with the Young Romantics Exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery (1985).  The Art Newspaper (June 2006) included Grossmann on a list of 100 artists who have most influenced students at art schools in Britain (culled from 11 leading British art schools).  Recently her work has been featured in three Vancouver Art Gallery exhibitions including Unreal that showcased her miniature surrealist paintings. 

About Drew Shaffer
Drew Shaffer is a multi-media artist based in Vancouver. He has previously shown across Canada in galleries including Monte Clark, Surrey Art Gallery, Belkin Satellite Gallery and Winsor Gallery. 

Drew Shaffer’s statement: It's about desire: what we want, why we want it, what happens to us when we get it, and what happens to it once we've had it. – Drew Shaffer 

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