28 - Wednesday, April 15, 1992 - North Shore News

relics
look
ancient,
modern

Archie Graham
ART REVIEW

Rich Nielson at Catriona jef-
fries Gallery, 3rd Floor, 550
Burcard St. Tues.-Sat.: 10
a.m.-6 p.m.

HE SEARCH for icons

that fit the tempera-

ment of our age is a
common theme in much
contemporary art.

The trouble is, nobody seems to
know what that temperament is.
The professional pedlars of the
cults of capitalism, communism,
fundamentalism, new ageism, ni-
hilism, and who knows what else,
ail compete for our hearts, but on-
ly to sell our souls to their respec-
tive archangels.

As the song from Alfie, the old
Michael Caine movie, puts it,
“What's it all about, Alfie?”

Rich Nielson’s anistic search
runs the gamut of religious icons.

He mixes images from Buddhist,

WV choir

WEST VANCOUVER Secondary
Schoc!t Chamber Choir won the
gold standard at this year’s Kiwanis
Choral Music Festival.

“| was so happy for the kids.
They worked so hard, with so
rauch discipline, yet with so much
joy...,"’ said choir music director
Peter Vanderhorst, who conducts
while playing piano.

Vanderherst was accompanied
by flutist Joanne Geehan and
Elizabeth Crawford on oboe at the

a
MELEE

poy

Hindu, Celtic, medieval Christian,
and pop-culture sources, in an ef-
fort to find a fitting expression for
his ardent desire to believe in
something, or perhaps anything at
all worth believing in.

Nielson’s art, in this his first im-
portant solo exhibition since
graduating from Emily Carr Col-
lege, consists mainly of
emblematic sunbursts, each con-
taining a singie, headless figure
which radiates snake-like ten-
tacles.

The artist paints in oil over thick
plaster on a heavily worked
wooden surface, until the result
looks like an ancient, glazed stone
relic. .

The imagery, however, is so

wins gold

festival, which was held in Van-
couver.

Choir members Jenny Anderson,
Rosemary Ranger and Whitney
Stuart were featured soloists.

Formed last year as part of the
regular school curriculum, the
choir made its first mark by earn-
ing a silver standard from fast
year’s Kiwanis Festival.

Next year it is planning to par-
ticipate in the International Festi-
val of Music in Florida.

NV band takes medal

HANDSWORTH SECGNDARY’S
senior concert band returned
home with a gold medal from the
Pacific Basin Band Festival in
Honolulu (March 23-31).

The North Vancouver school
band was one of four bands trom
the Pacific region and the only
Canadian ensemble to finish with
a first-place win.

HARRISON GALLERIES

New Paintings from
England, Scotiand and
Bermuda as well as
tocal mountain scenes.

CELIA
COLLIN

Exhibit runs for the
month of Aprii
Park Royal South Mail
West Vancouver
926-2615

GALLERY ALSO LOCATED at
2932Granville St. Vancouver

MOTION, 1991, mixed media on board, by Rich Nielsen at
Catriona Jettries Gailery.

cryptically post-modern that these
could be relics from our own
future,

Looking at Nielson’s art is like
looking back on the present.

The insidious ambiguity of these
richly sensuous and wonderfully
freaky mandalas is reflective of the
artist's, and of our Own, existential
bewilderment.

But it is an ambiguity Nielson
has not yet seriously explored,
maybe because he wants to please
more than he wants to disturb.

a

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