Acrpost: A Project of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres

Event Description

THE SHOW & SALE | The Sooke Fine Arts Show is an impressive gathering of artwork by emerging and established artists from Vancouver Island and BC coastal islands. The 11-day event attracts more than 8000 annual attendees from all over, as well as patrons of the arts from Western Canada and the United States. It's the longest running juried fine art show on the island, featuring roughly 375 pieces in a variety of mediums, each year chosen for exhibition by a fresh panel of expert jurors, shown in a 16,000-square-foot professional gallery setting. You won't believe what we can do with a hockey arena!

This year's panel of jurors—Chief Rande Cook, Meghan Hildebrand and Craig Sibley—selected investment-quality works of art from more than 1400 submissions, including oil and watercolour, sculpture, woodworking, photography, fine jewellery, glass and ceramic art.

A day at the Sooke Fine Arts also includes musical entertainment, locally made food, on-site artist demonstrations and lectures, as well as special activities for children such as the Artz4Kidz Day, seniors events and Taste of Sooke. An annual Purchasers' Preview event offers patrons first crack at purchasing unique, award-winning work.

2015 JURORS | Chief Rande Cook • Multi-disciplinary artist and hereditary chief Rande Cook hails from Alert Bay, a small village in the far northern reaches of Vancouver Island. He has studied under master craftsmen from New York to Italy — including Valentin Yotkov, Robert Davidson, John Livingston and Calvin Hunt — and his work, both traditional and contemporary, can be found in galleries and private collections around the world. Rande brings to this year’s panel a wide breadth of knowledge in many mediums, including sculpture, painting, wood, metal work, jewellery, fibre, repoussé and chasing.

Meghan Hildebrand • Contemporary artist Meghan Hildebrand describes her paintings as “story-maps of the imagination”. Her work features landscapes that range from abstract expressionism and symbolic storytelling to the boldly representational. A Yukon native now residing in Powell River, Meghan studied art at the Kootenay School of the Arts (Selkirk College) and the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. She was recently featured on the cover of October’s Focus Magazine, and her paintings can be found in galleries across Canada, private collections internationally, and in the Yukon government’s permanent collection.

Craig Sibley • Craig Sibley is an entrepreneur and multidisciplinary artist living and working with his wife and family below the rain soaked mountains of North Vancouver. His sculptures are formal investigations of art history, minimalism and organic constructivism. He was the founder and director of Trench Contemporary Art in Vancouver, a small but influential gallery where he exhibited the work of emerging and midcareer artists with the same passion as he has for the historical works he rediscovered. Sibley closed Trench in July of 2014 to pursue his studio practice again and work on other creative projects. His most recent show opened in January of this year at Initial Gallery entitled “Aftermath”. Sibley has exhibited throughout BC, in New Zealand and has a permanent sculpture installation in Kelowna.

For a listing of daily events, visit www.sookefinearts.com