Meet the Jurors of the 2015 Annual International Representational Show
Bobbie Burgers – Professional Artist
Bobbie Burgers was born in 1973 in Vancouver, B.C. She received a B.A. in Art History in 1996 from the University of Victoria. She has studied in Aix-en-Provence, France and returns often to recapture the life, light and spirit of Provence that she embrues into her painting.
As the art critic Michael Upchurch writes in his 2013 review of Bobbie’s work, “Burgers’ works are a tingling combination of visual delight and meditational memento mori. That tension between life-pulsing bloom and inevitable wilting and decay makes Burgers’ paintings as appealing to the mind as they are pleasurable to the eye.
Burgers’ discusses the element of time in her works stating, “Over the past couple of years, my florals have moved from being portraits of flowers, to being portraits of time. In them, past, present and future play out for me simultaneously. Painting flowers can’t only be what meets the eye at one finite moment, I feel my works have to combine the light, the movement, the perfume, the emotions, the path this sends us on, the focus, lack of focus, the opening and closing in fresh cold air… the list can go on indefinitely. I love painting flowers for their ability to encapsulate life, death and renewal. These blossoms have a history, they are combining past, present, future, dreams and realities into one final vision, which I hope expresses my wonder of the natural world.”
Linda Lando -Director of the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery at the Jewish Community Centre
Linda Lando has been part of the art world in Vancouver for over 30 years. She has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of British Columbia as well as a diploma in Fine Arts from Sotheby’s. She began her career in the auction business and then purchased Alex Fraser Galleries, which became Linda Lando Fine Art and finally Granville Fine Art. During that time period of almost thirty years, she curated many solo and group show, representing artists both local and from all across Canada. Over the years she also dealt in the Historical Canadian Art market and built many collections for her clients.
Recently she brought prints by Leonard Cohen to Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg. She also took Granville Fine Art to the Toronto Art Fair.
Currently she is the Director of the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery at the Jewish Community Centre in Vancouver. There she is continues to curate shows with both local and international artists.
Renato Muccillo, SFCA – Professional Artist and Senior Signature Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists
Renato Muccillo’s landscapes are often compared to those of Dutch masters and 19th century English artists. This traditional approach acts to highlight and compliment the artist’s subject matter as Muccillo’s subject matter reminds us how frequently today’s landscape is affected and appropriated by man and industry. Mesmerized at first by the luxurious colours and near miraculous use of light, on closer inspection the viewer notices the culvert, the pilings, the log booms, or the distant plume of smoke stacks. Even the farms that serve as subject matter for his paintings leave the viewer wondering if they are viable or abandoned as there is no sign of human life—only the marks left behind by man and machine.
It is a curious relationship between the sheer beauty and effect of light as it hits, or emanates from, intrusive steam plumes. The radiance is gorgeous, the content disquieting. Yet we have grown so accustomed to these elements in our surroundings that we frequently overlook them, taking for granted what is actually there. Muccillo plays on that subtle distraction and steers our eye toward man’s impact on nature by compelling us to recognize, if not falsely sense, nature’s overwhelming beauty. To look upon one of his paintings is at times, akin to being lured by the siren song of modernity in the context of wished-for romanticism. In the end we are often inexplicably compelled to look upward to the sky and fix our eyes there, forgetting what we have left, or been left with below. Perhaps it is for that reason Muccillo’s skies are what we remember most of his landscapes, long after we have walked away from them.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are Muccillo’s expressionist florals and abstracts. They are a shout of release, a slap in the eye needed to wake us from our soporific diversions while celebrating colour for the sake of colour alone. Their joyousness offers a sense of relief and even rejoicing in the storm of his landscapes and incredible versatility.
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