Wednesday. September 16, 1992 - North Shore News ~ 37

int’l success predicted
for Monique Mees’ work

From page 27

And she taces challenges of her
own.

Trying to make a bving as an ar-
tist in Vancouver hasn't been easy
on the Emily Carre grad, why scoits
at any suggestion that she moved
to 2 tough part of town in arder to
create her work.

“Atisn’t that gloritied a story,”
she insists. She also rejects the
idea of the starving artist as cliche.

The downtown cast side isa
marked contrast to her experience
yt the Kunst Akademie in
Karlsruhe, where she spent 16
months painting in the luaury of 2
stately German castle.

Mees was accepted into the
Akademie straight aut of art schoo!
and was the youngest and only
Canadian in her ciass. -

“Lthink the work 1 did was
crap, but i learned so much — |
can speak German fluently, and |
learned how to mix paint trom
pure pigment. People would never
do that here. They don’t even
teach that in art school.”

“When t work I don’t answer
my phore or my door. Sometimes
friends will ask, ‘Where were
you?’ she laughs. ‘‘But the peo-
ple who know me know it’s very
serious.”

Jeffries couldn’t agree more.

This is the third time she has in-
vited Mees into her gallery in the
last two years.

The current show is imponant
because it marks Mees’ first major
solo exhibit in a private gallery.
But -he is clearly nervous about
compromising her independence.

“It worries me,’ she said
frankly when asked about the
show just one week before the
opening.

“fm used to handling every
angle. Basically when you go into
a private gallery you hand over
everything to someone else.

Jeffries, who has built a reputa-
tion by supporting young artists,
says Mees has resisted exhibiting
in private commerical spaces
because she hasn't been able to
find a gallery willing to take a
chance on “‘sophisticated”’ (intel-
lectual) art.

The former West Vancouver
gallery owner is already predicting

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international success for Mees,
noting thal some European cu-
ralors have shown interest in her
work.

The question in the meantime is
whether Vancouver can keep
Mees.

There is no money in alternative
uatleries, she says, and only a
Randiul of private ones are show-
ing work by young local contem-
porary artists.

Mees was so frustrated by this
Jack of support that, afew years
back, she and boyfriend jim
Campbell turned the tront of her
studio into a gallery “just to get
some fresh art out there.”

She says there are times when
she feels culturally starved living in
Vancouver.

“I'm going to hold tor a bit
because [love the space I'm in.
But ifidon’t get any support here
V'll have to leave,” she says, ad-
ding philosophically: “I don’t
want to leave this warld
unknown.”

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