Charlies Mayrs’ compositions provoke thought

@ Power Girls, paintings and drawings by Charles Mayrs, April 14 to May 16 at Seymour Art Gallery

Layne Christensen

News Reporter layne@usnews.cout

CHARLES Mayrs’ young grand-daughter has a word for the West Van artist’s work: “uspusting.”

His Power Girls series of large acrylic canvases are in- vour- face portrayals of work- ing Women and feral-looking females. They're on view April 14 to May 16 ar Deep Cove’s Seymour Art Gallery.

These raw and vibrant works are anything but “pret- ty pictures.” The brural strength of his images may shock first-time viewers.

Deep Cove artist Lindsay Ross was at first taken aback by Mayrs’ hard and aggres- sive forms. “I had the feeling he dislikes women,” says Rass, Who found Mayrs’ work frightening yet exciting. “It has the power to disturb,” she adds.

Carole Badgley, curator of the Seymour Art Gallery, met Mayrs in 1958 at the Vancouver School of Art (now the Emily Carr College of Art and Design).

Mayrs depicts his painted women as inasked aggressors, says Badgley. In some instances, the artist’s “highly charged testosterone portray- als depict the modern work- ing woman as an evolving gaunt, bisexual, masked crea- ture.”

These drawings may cause a response of revulsion, she says, “but they will cause the viewer to reflect upon the working woman’s lifestyle.”

And that’s precisely the response Mayrs, a father of five, is hoping to provoke from the public when they

. view his first-ever solo show.

“} like my work to be in- your-face, so that when someone comes in, they can’t help but look at it,” says the artist, who rurns 60 next week. “I want to make them aware that there is something vibrant in that room, colour- ful and making a statement.”

The statement Mayrs wants to make concerns the emerging aggression of the female human being, some-

NEWS photo Mike Wakofictd

ON view next week at the Seymour Art Gallery, Charles Mayrs’ portrayals of “power girls” are tough, sexual and slightly on the edge.

thing this self-confessed “male chauvinist brat” first noticed when he entered the advertising industry in ’61.

“When I got into busi- ness, there was the steno pool — the ladies typed for men,” says Mayrs, who retired from advertising a year and a half ago to devote himself full time to painting. “When | left the business (as creative director of his own ad agency), the two highest-paid employees were females, and I had a staff of 30.”

The women were paid the highest because they were good, says Mayrs, and they were “aggressive as heil.”

Some people will say his paintings aren’t very nice, he admits, but they reflect changes in the corporate world. “There’s a huge aggressiveness and a take-over if you want. And I’m not say- ing that’s bad.”

Many of Mayrs’ painted women sport neckties as a reference to their corporate ties.

Other images, like the col- ored pen and ink drawings Maui Beach Babes — harsh portraits of haggard sun-wor-

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shippers — are a reflection of the artist’s experiences win- tering in Ka'anapali where Mayrs and Mary Lou, his wife of 38 years, have owned a condo for more than a decade.

Mayrs, who says he’s sometimes referred to in art circles as “that advertising guy,” has in fact been paint- ing and drawing since he was a child.

He followed his three older brothers in studies at the Vancouver School of Art. Like them, he graduated with honours.

In 1990 the brothers Mayrs — Bill, Frank, David and Charles — were featured in a group show at the Diane Farris Gallery in Vancouver,

The show was well publi- cized. In an interview with Boulevard magazine that same vear, Charles Mayrs offered insight into his future plans, saying: “I want to

devote the last 25 years of my

lite to arr.”

Mayrs’ exhibition at the Seymour Art Gallery, which opens Wednesday with a reception, is the artist’s first solo show.

985-4181

In the meantime, he’s priced his canvases to sell, at from $300 to $1,500.

“I would rather have someone else enjoying them

In the coming months he’s hoping to attract the attention of a major commer- cial gallery to represent his

in their home then take them back and store them,” he says, while admitting at the same time the subject matter is somewhat of a tough sell.

They kick up more dust for runners ic eat.