In the age of Instagram feeds flooded with tiny online versions of epic landscapes, Sea to Sky Art House鈥檚 new Exposed exhibition offers a look at art and adventure in full-size glory.
Curator Caitlin Aboud said the exhibition, which opened June 23, was meant to draw in art lovers as well as the outdoor-loving crowd that isn鈥檛 always drawn to the gallery setting.
鈥滻t鈥檚 outdoor artwork,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he reason I called it exposed is because when you鈥檙e outdoor climbing, it usually means you鈥檙e right over a cliff, you see quite a bit and you鈥檙e quite high up. I wanted a lot of the work to embody that feeling.鈥�
The resulting exhibition features work from several international big-name outdoor adventure photographers, including Chris Burkard and Pablo Durana.
Epic photographs of climbers, surfers and alpinists hang alongside painting and digital illustrations of green ferns, forests and mountains 鈥� including local depictions of Squamish.
Exposed features a variety of subjects and art forms, heavy in photography but also including reproductions of outdoor-inspired digital illustrations and oil paintings. The gallery also offers more approachable art forms 鈥� including stickers and smaller-scale art cards.
While Exposed features big names from around the world, a number of the feature artists are locals.
Familiar mountain and forest subject matter is featured by Squamish-based painters Jessa Gilbert and Jenna Robinson. Squamish-based expedition photographer Paul Bride and Vancouver-based travel photographer Taylor Burk are also included.
鈥淚 hope people take away the fact that there is a space for current art in Squamish and there is so much talent in town, this is a place for them to show their work,鈥� said Aboud.
Some of the works in the gallery, like Chris Burkard鈥檚 epic surf photo 鈥淎leutian Perfection鈥� or Jeremy Koreski鈥檚 aerial forest 鈥淧eak Old Growth鈥� might give some visitors deja vu, having been well-publicized online and in print.
But while plenty of people enjoy outdoor photography as an art form on the computer or smartphone screen, Aboud points out that seeing large-format works printed and framed in a gallery is a different experience.
Photos on a smartphone screen are small and backlit, and the image is fleeting when it鈥檚 part of a casual scroll.
While most of the established photographers contacted for the exhibition had professional experience selling prints, for others who have worked exclusively online, the experience was brand new.
鈥淭he photographers who have never set up in a gallery, it was definitely a learning curve for them,鈥� said Aboud.
Opening night drew close to 450 people to the small gallery on Cleveland Avenue.
Aboud put together the exhibition in a month-and-a-half, which included rebranding the space, formerly known as the Inspired Squamish gallery.
The Sea to Sky Art House has a different appeal, she said.
鈥淚 wanted to make it approachable and unique. I鈥檝e been to 小蓝视频 small-town galleries, and a lot are very scattered landscape paintings or the same thing repeatedly,鈥� she said.
Exposed听 will run until mid-July.
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