>>PREVIEW
SAID AND DONE
Runs until June 23
John Antoski and Dustin Koop
Stride Gallery
Just three hours prior to the opening of the exhibition Said and Done at Stride Gallery, Dustin Koop and John Antoski, the two masterminds behind the show, graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design. Hundreds of supporters, ACAD faculty members and fellow graduates, several with their own works in the show, crowded the small gallery space at the opening celebrations. Their works were displayed alongside many others created by renowned artists and illustrators from Canada, the U.S. and around the globe.
Said and Done is the second and more successful Koop/Antoski collaboration. Its main goal was to unite artists from various communities and fuel their imagination through artistic co-operation and dialogue. To achieve this objective, they compiled a wish list of approximately 200 talented illustrators, graphic designers and artists they’ve admired from near and afar, hoping to get them involved in this project. To their surprise, an overwhelming percentage of the international artists were excited to participate in their collaborative project.
It is comprised of unique and unrelated artworks that all originated from the same foundation. First, Koop and Antoski created hundreds of seven by 11 inch serigraph prints on Stonehenge paper, each with a slightly different composition that resulted from playing around with several patterns, colours and geometric shapes. Then, the organizers sent out these prints, accompanied by only a few set rules, to the participating local and international artists for them to add their own creative layer to the existing work. The rules were as follows: the artist must sign and date the back of the work, the format must remain the same size (although a few felt it necessary to break this rule) and the finished product must be returned to the sender for it to be considered complete. Aside from these basic instructions, the artists had free rein over the content, style and medium of their contribution to the work.
Without a doubt, for many of the involved artists, this freedom of expression acted as a strong motivator to collaborate on this project. However, according to Antoski, the best way to grab the attention of an internationally established artist was with a little positive peer pressure. "For them to become interested, you just had to let them know that one of their friends had already decided to contribute."
Sometimes the desire for one-upmanship took over. There was also an impressive amount of free publicity that each participating artist received, such as links to their homepage via the Said and Done website where all the prints from the project are also viewable. Also, before coming to Calgary the show was held at the Antisocial Gallery in Vancouver. The project’s pieces were also published within the pages of Color magazine, a skateboard culture quarterly that is distributed worldwide.
Approximately 150 of the show’s prints are on display at Stride Gallery, tightly hung in neat rows at eye level. As the visitor steps back to view the works collectively, the wall morphs into a sampler of current trends in illustrative art. The works include the thick-edged, witty cartoon style of Nobumasa Takahashi (Tokyo, Japan), the clip-art style of Ben Frost (Sydney, Australia) and the undecipherable organic floating forms that reappear in works by Femke Hiemstra (Amsterdam, Netherlands) and Howie Tsui (Ottawa, Canada). There is also a definitive revival of the crude, subversive cartoon style made famous by Robert Crumb as seen in the works by Calgary-based artist Josh Holinaty and Cameron Forsley from Arizona.
What makes this exhibition so refreshing is its genuine desire to unite hundreds of artists from disparate communities located in every corner of the globe through creative collaboration as well as to introduce their work to a new audience. If you would like to know more about the Said and Done collaborative project and the artists involved or to find out how you can contribute to this ongoing artistic partnership, visit www.saidanddone.ca. You can also purchase a copy of the Said and Done special edition issue of Color magazine at select booksellers and skateboarding retailers across Calgary. |
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