Artist Run Galleries, Vancouver, 1968-'93: The Mandan Ghetto, Move Gallery, and Gallery Alpha

      THE MANDAN GHETTO

        

          Western Gate 's front page displayed works from the Collage Show
          above: Miami Moon by bill bissett
          below: Young Man Arguing About the State of the Universe by Gregg Simpson
         (Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery) 

The Mandan Ghetto was a gallery set up in the spring of 1968 in a space on west 4th Ave. in Vancouver.  It was located in a store front which had recently been used by painter Reg Holmes, who was moving to New York. The artists who set up the Mandan Ghetto were bill bissett (who intented the name), Joy Long and Gregg Simpson.  They contacted Andrew Dumyn of the Company of Young Canadians, a federally funded group who helped projects of a social or cultural nature during the late 1960's in Canada. Many interesting exhibitions during the several months the gallery remained active, including the first show of surrealist collages ever held in Vancouver.  This exhibition combined works by bill bissett, Ardis Breeze, Joy Long, Gary Lee Nova, Gregg Simpson and Ian Wallace.    Poster for the Collage Show  by Gregg Simpson  One of the most important exhibitions at the Mandan Ghetto was Brazilia 73, the first international exhibition of concrete poetry ever held in Canada.  The name was from a poem by Gerry Gilbert in which his fellow poets were invited to meet again Brazilia in 1973 and continue the exploration of sound and visual poetry which this exhibition featured.  Works by Canadian poets bill bissett, Pierre Coupey, Gerry Gilbert,  David W. Harris, bp Nichol, and Stephen Scobie with  International contributions from Henri Chopin, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Dom Sylvester Houdard,  Ernst Jandl, and the American, D.A. Levy. The exhibition was opened by Eli Mandel, then head of the Canada Council writing division.   Logo for Brazilia 73 from a feature article in the Western Gate, a publication from UBC edited by Pierre Coupey.                                                   Poster for an exhibition of works by                                    Ken Christopher, Pierre Coupey and Gregg Simpson Gallery Move The Gallery was started in 1977 by artist Robert Davidson. It was located in a converted heritage building, the former tram station at the top of Lonsdale Avenue in North Vancouver.                                                    Solo exhibition by Gregg Simpson, 1978                   The gallery became the home of the West Coast Surrealist Group and several annual group shows were held along with many solo and group shows including African Makonde sculptures and an exhibition of women artists.  In 1980 after three years in North Vancouver the gallery moved to Gastown in Vancouver and hosted a major group exhibition of west copast surrealists which was inaugurated by Paris art historian and writer, José  Pierre.                                    Works by Dave Roberts (above) and James Felter (below) in                             Four Photo Process Artists, along with D'Arcy Henderson and Don Druick Gallery Alpha Starting in 1991 as an initiative of artist and framer, Ron Falcioni, the gallery was located on Marine Drive, Ambelside, in West Vancouver It closed in 1993 after seriously enriching the cultural life of the Northshore. Although operating on a limited budget, Gallery Alpha filled the role of a small regional gallery.  It offered a number of thematic, group and solo exhibitions which drew from painters and sculptors, mixed media artists and photographers from the lower mainland of British Columbia. Gregg Simpson:  Tribal Dynamics   January, 1991   GEOMETRIC EXPRESSIONISM April 18-May 25, 1991  Chris Blades / Max Banbury / Ron Falcioni / Jas. W. Felter Leo Labelle / Frank Lambert / Gordon Payne / Gregg Simpson Works by Jas W. Felter and Gregg Simpson Geometric Expressionism celebrates the intuitive and personal aspects of works in the tradition of non-objective, hard-edge geometric painting. Since the public furore over the National Gallery's purchase of Barnett Newman's Voice of Fire in 1990, formalist art  has come under attack, perhaps because its appreciation requires an awareness of the roots of abstraction, which often draw on mystical philisophy. The exhibition at the Gallery Alpha confronts these questions with a selection of work by artists who draw upon a variety of sources from indigenous art and pre-historic designs to futuristic patternings and illusionism. Mixed media canvases by Frank Lambert The roots of geometric expressionism (a term coined by contributing artist Jas. Felter) reach back to early abstractionists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Frank Kupka who pioneered improvisation with pure colours and shapes. Both artists also drew on their metaphysical knowledge and became transitional figures from Symbolism to abstraction, painters who could provide a theoretical and philosophic structure to their abstractions. Works by Gordon Payne-lt.; Max Banbury-rt.  In Geometric Expressionism, the link with the metaphysical is reflected in each artist's personal interpretation of the traditions o geometric abstraction. As a result, their work provides a more animated, less cerebral alternative to the minimalism often associated with geometric art.  RAINFORESTS OF THE MIND  June 26 to July 27, 1991          Pnina Granirer · Don Jarvis · Patricia Johnston · Gregg Simpson         Max Banbury · Audrey Marsden · Richard Turner · Monica Shelton Gordon Payne Jim Felter · Miles Hunter · Ted Kingan · Pat Armstrong · Ross Munro Fourteen artists working in acrylic, oil, watercolour, and mixed media presented an exhibition dedicated as a tribute to the west coast rainforest. At a time in our history when the future of the world's rainforests hang in the balance, we need to constantly remind ourselves of the inspiration these environments give to us. Works by: Gregg Simpson, lt. and Pnina Granirer, rt. Rainforests of the Mind presents artists who express an inner process that parallels the growth and turmoil of the forest. They evoke a variety of moods or textures from this abundance of nature, rather than simply depicting it. As such, these artists follow in the tradition of Emily Carr and her First Nations predecessors by transforming elements of. this landscape into a simulacra of nature.  Fine technique and a sense of clarity characterize the rainforest evocations of artists Pnina Granirer and Patricia Johnston, while Don Jarvis manipulates colour and brushwork to present his vaporous, calligraphic vistas and personal rainforest abstractions. Two mixed media works by Miles Hunter The abstract, organic motifs of Max Banbury, Monica Shelton and Gregg Simpson are in themselves a reminder of how Nature's microcosm resembles the shapes and patterns of the external world. This approach is also reflected in the works by Richard Turner and Ted Kingan which develop images conjured from an  inner world of complex overlays or snaking tendrils that function as cryptic symbols of the rainforest. The landscape itself becomes a direct focus in the abstracted paysages of Audrey Marsden, Ross Munro, and Pat Armstrong, the scratched and burned wood surfaces of Miles Hunter, and the geometric "trees" of Jas. W. Felter. Works by Audrey Marsden, lt., and Pat Johnston, rt. The artists in Rainforests of the Mind celebrate the lush, convulsive landscape of the west coast rainforest while voicing a collective response to the threat to our forest environment. FERTILITY RITES  September, 1991            Thomas Anfield, Sonja Bunes, Carole Driver, Carol Dukowski, Ron Falcioni,Pnina Granirer,  Miles Hunter,  Leo Labelle,  Frank Lambert  Joy Zemel Long,  Marta Pan, Gregg Simpson Gallery Alpha's fall group exhibition brought together twelve Vancouver artists to explore the shapes and emotions surrounding theery foundation of our being, the creation and growth of life itself. Curator/artist, Gregg Simpson, who also exhibited his work, stated: The theme of Fertility Rites evolved from my preoccupation with the sensuous lines and patterns generated from a nucleus, or  embryonic shape, in some of my abstract work. I was interested the work of other artists also reflected an interest in depicting the life force. Works by Gregg Simpson, Joy Zemel Long and Carole Driver Simpson found parallels for his theme in the work of eleven other west coast artists. For example,  Miles Hunter's seed/pod assemblage paintings, the cellular enclaves of Ron Falcioni's work, and the invocation of pre-embryonic life in the paintings of Frank Lambert and Leo Labelle, all explore the theme of Fertility Rites from an almost cellular perspective. Acrylic paintings by Ron Falcioni   Mixed media work and sculpture by Sonja Bunes The sculptural clefts, orifices, and wombs of Sonja Bunes, Marta Pan and Carol Dukowski reflect a woman's perspective whith allegories of pregnancy and birth presented in the figurative works of Joy Zemel Long and Thomas Anfield. The spiritual overtones associated with the theme are reflected by the fertility goddesses of Pnina Granirer's Venus and Kundalini friezes and the ancient dietics invoked by Carole Driver's enigmatic sculptures. Works by Joy Zemel Long, Gregg Simpson, Miles Hunter and Carole Driver