Arte funktional-Ashpa Naira Studio in Vernon has reopened its doors for its 12th season with the Summer exhibition Ficticitious Portraits by artist Vikki Drummond.
Fictitious Portraits is a contemporary exhibition on acrylic on paper, featuring Drummond, a 琉璃神社 based artist.
In this exhibition Drummond plays with combining flattened and dimensional figures in the same composition to challenge the viewers sense of reality. The hope is that the viewer recognizes something in the distorted images that reflects our common struggles, fragilities and humanity.
After a career in business administration, few years ago Drummond decided to pursue a career in the arts.
鈥淚 am predominantly self-taught,鈥� said Drummond. 鈥淚鈥檓 interested in how we humans see ourselves and why we might portray an image that belies our true nature.鈥�
Her current work requires that she takes a sideways look at figurative depiction, seeing past the accepted image. She allows herself to push the limits of realistic dimension and form. Coming from a non-representational practice, she likes to counterbalance more careful detail with abstracted areas.
Her inspirations for the world Drummond draws and paints are mainly her imagination but on occasion sources the carvings of old churches and ancient cave drawings, her own sketches, her grandmothers sewing patterns and old books that she find in second hand stores. She believes her lines are a residual leftover of high school drafting and the influence of her Mother鈥檚 unrealized love of Architecture. Drummond鈥檚 professional influences are the artists Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cy Twombly and Egon Schiele.
鈥淰ikki鈥檚 work is coming from a place of singularity where it is highly personal and visually engaging. The various shapes and combination of forms that represent body parts, for example, are convincing and feel comfortable. They express what they are intended to and they offer a different view of perceiving the ordinary,鈥� said Vancouver artist Robert Bigelow. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not so esoteric that people don鈥檛 get it, but is different enough to give the viewer a fresh take on reality. This work takes calculated risks and in my estimation it has delivered.鈥�
The open house takes place Sunday, July 14 from 11 a.m.- 5 p.m.
The exhibition is currently on and runs until Aug. 25 at 9492 Houghton Rd., Vernon. It will be open Sunday from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. or by appointment. Admission is free.
Visitors can discover a diverse group of emerging and established Okanagan and Canadian artists in painting, textiles, sculptures, ceramics, architectural and functional art.
Find out more on the Gallery and Studio websites at , , or via phone at 250-540-4249.
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