CONCURRENT - ANGELA GROSSMANN & DREW SHAFFER

Angela and Drew do such an excellent job at qualifying their relationship to art, each other, and the world. 

Both artists share a special connection to working with found objects and ephemera. The two works featured in Concurrent abound with references to old and new, hot and cold, love lost and love found.  

Angela Grossmann

I first met Drew when I returned to Vancouver. He worked in an antique store close to my studio and I began to drop by more and more just to chat. Since then we've travelled together, cooked meals, read books,  watched films, exchanged ideas and laughed together long into many nights, but best of all, we've sat in great galleries and cried in front of great paintings.

"The best part of us is not what we see, it's what we feel. We are not what we look at. We are not our eyeballs, we're our mind.” – Duane Michals

Angela Grossmann, Blue Girl Pink Ghost, 2011

Drew Shaffer

In his essay, "Commodity and Fetishism", Marx posits the notion that mass-produced items may become haunted by the spirits of the people who make them. It is with this idea in mind that I look for narrative possibilities in objects that are easily recognizable (in this case, a galvanized steel pail). Here, the pail becomes at once a neglectful parent (or lover), as well as a stage on which its miniature occupant can wallow in its loneliness,

and-- of course-- the ever-present threat of being dumped out.

Angela and I both utilize found objects and images as a  starting point, and this is certainly the strongest correlation between our work. Familiar, mundane and forgotten things can become powerful messengers when given the chance.

Drew Shaffer, If You Love Me This Much, Why Do I Feel So Lonely?, 2014