IOU - the works submergedI.O.U. is a curatorial project developed by Kalli Niedoba, bringing together works by Steven Brekelmans, Colleen Heslin, Devon Knowles, Ben Raymer, Ian Robert Sandilands and Frieda-raye Green.

The exhibition happens in conjunction with 2013’s Art Waste, part of Vancouver’s annual Music Waste festival.

The works selected for this exhibition have been floating together, basely tied to a dock not far from here, somewhere in the Strait of Georgia. During the months leading to installation, research develops and findings become treatment to each and all the works. Meanwhile, the original material integrity and palpable referents of these works are, in turn, reduced to unknowable gradations. The murky beams of sunlight yield a soft stain; the efforts of those careful-minded hands slightly erode away and are torn apart.

The physical works will be accompanied by a video by Frieda-raye Green, screening nightly in the front window of 15 East Pender.

Steven Brekelmans was born in Vancouver, attended the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design and recently graduated from the University of Victoria’s MFA program. Working across a variety of mediums, he has exhibited his work both locally and internationally at the Western Front, Or Gallery Berlin, The Western Bridge (Seattle) and Soi Fischer Projects (Toronto).

Frieda-raye Green is a Canadian artist currently based in Vancouver. Her art is an ongoing project drawing attention to the meditative, enigmatic, and humorous moments in everyday life. Her works are dreamlike explorations of the technological consciousness, and take a particular interest in injecting contemplative spaces into personal interactions with technology.

Colleen Heslin is an artist, independent curator, and a current MFA candidate in Painting and Drawing at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Activated by an interest in formalist abstraction and questions of excess in everyday consumer culture, her process deconstructs and reconstitutes second-hand material through collage, painting, sculpture and installation reconsidering modern art histories and craft traditions. In 1999 Heslin founded The Crying Room Projects in Vancouver BC, an independent project space for emerging artists that presently hosts a public art mural project. Her work and writing have been published and exhibited in Canada, USA, and Europe.

Devon Knowles maintains a materially-centred practice that assesses historical and contemporary models of production – interrogated productions cultural positions and how they form material language. She utilizes this language to establish an intimacy directly between the physical material, its use, and its history. It is from within this blended configuration that her practice engages, and where the conscious act of making becomes conceptually productive.  Knowles received her MFA from the University of Victoria in 2008 and holds a BA from the University of Guelph.  Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions including Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC), Or Gallery (Vancouver, BC), Mercer Union (Toronto, ON), HQ (Brooklyn, NY), Space 1026 (Philadelphia, PA), S.A.I.R (Jyderup Denmark) and Night Gallery (Los Angeles, CA).

Benjamin Raymer is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Vancouver, Canada. He received his BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2012 and has exhibited in Canada and the USA.

Ian Robert Sandilands lives in Vancouver and received his BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. His work deals with the everyday aesthetics of objects and references histories of painting and design.  Challenging the accessibility of these precedents, Sandilands carries nuances of nostalgia and personal matters into his production. He has exhibited his work in Vancouver and in 2012 he curated exhibition projects at Dynamo Arts Association in Vancouver.

IOU - submergingIOU towelBenjamin Raymer - Endings and GetawaysColeen Heslin - Kitchen DonutsFrieda-raye Green - Nature made an impressionSteven Brekelmans - Six Rudimentary Figures - detail 1Steven Brekelmans - Six Rudimentary Figures - detail 2IOU - installation view - Ian Sandlinands and Steven Brekelmans IOU - installation view - Colleen Heslin and Frieda-raye Green IOU - installation view - Ian Robert Sandilands IOU - Colleen Heslin IOU - Devon Knowles IOU - Ben Raymer IOU - Steven Brekelmans IOU - Steven Brekelmans IOU - Steven Brekelmans IOU - Steven Brekelmans IOU - the crate, with towel edition IOU - Ian Robert Sandilands IOU - Colleen Heslin IOU - Devon Knowles IOU - Devon Knowles   IOU - Devon KnowlesIOU - Devon KnowlesIOU - Devon Knowles