Art Rapture was a curated art experience in the heart of Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant, the city’s burgeoning arts and media district. The show was a riot of colour, talent, and stimulation. With a central theme of ‘rapture’, the critically acclaimed artist line-up brought an urban flavour to Vancouver’s art scene ubiquitous to art movements in NYC, LA, London, Berlin, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Paris.
Art Rapture Chief Curator and Founder (as well as art lecturer, curator, auctioneer and collector) Paul Becker was on hand to give an insight about the works.
Art Rapture Founder Paul Becker gives the low down on the curated pieces at the exhibition | Sarah Hitchings
The exhibition was crammed with the hottest art by the most talented artists in Vancouver’s contemporary art scene. Jason Dussault was showing, one of my favourite mixed media artists. I had seen another of his works in a new Yaletown boutique– the beautiful and impressive ‘Pablo’. Famous for his intricate mosaic artistry using broken tiles (which he fires himself), he creates pieces that are more than three dimensional – they are absolutely exquisite, finely detailed and impressive in their craftsmanship. By combining tile, paint, grout, resin and vintage porcelain, Jason has re-envisioned a 4,000-year-old craft and made it his own.
Jason Dussault mosiac | Sarah Hitchings
Hailing from Toronto, Fucci’s works dominated a massive wall at Art Rapture. The Finnish-Canadian artist is best known for his vibrant post-pop visuals. His style is a unique class of contemporary art bringing a refreshing taste to the all too common flavours of sexual expression. His direction clearly takes root from one of Pop Art’s greats; Tom Wesselmann yet catapults this version of Pop into the 21st century. Fucci’s images were loaded with symbolism, riddled with concepts of feminism, and a real talking point at the exhibition. A vibrant colour palette and minimalist approach result in thought provoking works that touch upon perversion with and unexpected sophistication.
Two pieces by Fucci | Sarah Hitchings
With over 95,000 followers on Instagram, iHeart has become a global name in stencil/street art. It is a true honour to have an artist of this calibre and reputation, calling Vancouver his home. iHeart has become the rising star of underground street art in Vancouver, BC. iHeart’s paintings target issues like social-media usage, homelessness, and consumer culture with striking and humorous imagery. Particularly poignant was iHeart’s piece, ‘The Comment Section’. Written on their signs are actual comments left on his social media accounts criticizing his works. iHeart flipped the narrative and channeled this negativity into his work.
Six pieces by iHeart | Sarah Hitchings
While his pieces are dotted around Vancouver in inconspicuous spots, you can check out ‘The Missing Piece’ on the back of the Hootsuite headquarters, completed for the Vancouver Mural Festival.
Speaking of the Hootsuite building, artist Scott Sueme was showing three pieces at Art Rapture. Scott is a visual artist from Vancouver, and is a painter, designer and graffiti writer specializing in installation painting and murals. Sueme has been working as a graphic artist and painter since attending Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2006. He has been commissioned to work with collaborators such as Nike, the NBA and Lululemon.
Scott Sueme portrait | Sarah Hitchings
All three of Scott’s pieces displayed at Art Rapture were made at the same time, but are not a series. Scott says painting is a “process of subtraction and addition,” and often in his work he makes “the background and the foreground indistinguishable.”
The Hootsuite Building | Sarah Hitchings
Scott painted the Hootsuite building for the Vancouver Mural Festival in his unique style. His work is ever evolving and many fans believe his mural to be the pinnacle piece out of the 30+ murals in the festival.
DENIAL aka Daniel Bombardier is one of Canada’s most successful street artists whose work critiques consumerism and the human condition. Daniel pulls much of his inspiration from the pop art greats such as Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg and Mel Ramos. In 2000, he adopted the moniker ‘DENIAL’ as a means of poking fun at advertising, politics and media messages that contemporary society is often ‘in denial’ about.
If you missed the show, check out Art Rapture and #feeltherapture on Instagram to see all the works.
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