Over the Counter Culture

For their 10th biannual themed exhibition, Vancouver-based figurative collective Phantoms in the Front Yard explores drug culture and its impact. Whether legal, illegal, pharmaceutical, naturopathic, synthetic, or cultivated, drugs have an ever more varied presence on our media, conversations, and society in general. From their use and misuse to their purpose, promise and prominence, they are tied to still wider spectrum of societal issues.

Over the Counter Culture makes reference to propaganda posters, contemporary advertising, fictional and technical literature, and historical print and painting styles, to explore the evolving complexities circling the perceptions and uses of drugs in cultures past and present.

Featuring Artists: Michael Abraham, Jeremiah Birnbaum, Jay Senetchko, Paul Morstad, Bruce Pashak, Jonathan Sutton, and Caroline Weaver, in collaboration with curator Pennylane Shen, and guest artist James Knight.

Opening Night: Saturday, 3 October 2015 from 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM (PDT)

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Phantoms in the Front Yard is proud to have this exhibition be a portion of
Scene and Unseen – an Arts Encounter at the Gordon Smith Gallery.
2121 Lonsdale Ave,North Vancouver, British Columbia V7M 2K6
Gallery Hours: Tue-Sat: 12:00 pm-5:00 pm

Show runs until December 16th, 2015
For further Gallery information
contact 604-998-8563 or Click.

Link to the ‘North Shore News’ article here.

Presented alongside rEvolver Festival, May 22 – June 22, 2015 at #‎TheCultch

A group exhibiton with artists Michael Abraham, Jeremiah Birnbaum, Paul Morstad, Bruce Pashak, Jay Senetchko, Jonathan Sutton
and Pennylane Shen (curator).

MAY 22 – JUNE 22, 2015
THE CULTCH GALLERY
1895 Venebles Street

Opening reception:
Friday, May 22nd 6 – 8pm

After party location:
THE WISE HALL LOUNGE,
1882 Adanac Street

Images and words inform and deceive. The interplay of text and visuals may be both penetrating and perplexing; actions may move fluidly within stationary pages, and round figures are revealed from the depths of flat surfaces. Unreliable Narrator invites you to a combined theatre and gallery space to see plays combined with paintings. Each artist has chosen a play whose words – and pages themselves – are incorporated into our figurative tradition.

Both theatrical and figurative art engage bodies. We feel a natural affinity with plays as they reflect a character and a moment; as they prompt gatherings of people around a singular experience. In Unreliable Narrator the notions of theatre, painting, plays, the artist and the audience collapse into the affinity of experience.

Playwrights referenced include Dylan Thomas, Harold Pinter, William Butler Yeats, and William Shakespeare.
There will be no small parts, only small artworks.

CULTCH GALLERY HOURS:
Monday – Friday 12pm – 6pm, Saturday 12pm – 4pm, Sunday – Closed

An exhibition of miniature works at ‘The Burrard Hotel Vancouver‘

Friday, April 25th, 2014. 12pm – 6pm, 1100 Burrard Street, Vancouver.
Opening reception: 6pm – 8:30pm with after party to follow.

Someone you miss without having been with them. Someone you know who doesn’t know you. Someone you long for who is already there … Where do we know others? Or not know them? In our fantasies? Our memories? How are we impacted by people we have never met?

The Vancouver-based figurative collective Phantoms in the Front Yard are exploring the spaces between strangers and familiars for their next show at the Burrard Hotel for a one-night-only exhibition of miniature pieces – 10×10 inches and much smaller!

This show’s guests are the internationally recognized multi-media and installation artist Christian Nicolay; and the award-winning, classically trained master of both figure and portrait Mandy Boursicot.

Little pieces, little prices, little duration. Come and spend hardly any of anything with us.

Phantoms included:
Jay Senetchko
Bruce Pashak
Paul Morstad Painting
Jonathan Sutton
Caroline Weaver
Jeremiah Birnbaum

Guest Phantoms: Christian Nicolay and Mandy Boursicot

Leigh Square Community Arts Village.

Jan 16 – Feb 17 , 2014
Opening Reception: Thur Jan 16, 7-9

Pendulum Gallery

885 West Georgia Street, Vancouver

Opening reception: 7-9 pm on Thursday, Nov 14, 2013

Phantoms in the Front Yard figurative collective is proud to present its latest exhibition at the Pendulum Gallery. In addition to its regular members: Michael Abraham, Jeremiah Birnbaum, Paul Morstad, Jonathan Sutton and Jay Senetchko, we also welcome two guest members for the SHED exhibition: Caroline Weaver and Bruce Pashak.

The theme for this exhibition, Shed, takes on several possibilities to its interpretation, including its noun or verb form, along with its historic incarnations as the name of an Egyptian deity and a weaving term. The work will be presented at a time of year when nature itself is falling, surrendering, and retracting, and will find its dwelling in this sense of a darkening. One interpretation of this theme might be letting go to the point of self deprivation, while a lighter aspect may suggest minimalism, and a continual shedding of whatever it is we no longer require.

On a vocationally appropriate level, Shed could be thought of as a monastic simplicity inherent in being still whilst making visual art, and the necessary dismissal of other things in order to maintain that practice. Even in the creation of an individual piece and artist constantly faces re-evaluation and the shedding of preconceptions. The word shed could also denote the actual structure of a simple workplace. Jay Senetchko, for example, will design and incorporate a small building around his visual meditations.

Our theme invites reflection on growth, aging, and proceeding through life in general, as our future becomes our present becoming our past. Jonathan Sutton’s images sense Shed here as an ongoing journey, taking current form as muted lullabies to ghosts in his personal history. All the while, accumulating interpretations and surprises around this single word are at play in the engaging mind of each Phantom Artist for this suite.

Opening Reception:
Saturday May 25, 2013, 8pm

Gallery Hours:
May 23rd – 29th
12pm to 5 pm

The Waterfall Building
1540 West 2nd Avenue
Vancouver, BC

For each exhibition, one group member has proposed a theme that the entire group then develops work around.

The collaborative nature of this process continues to result in exciting work from exhibition to exhibition. In Bloodlines, the artists present a collection of deeply personal, carefully considered reflections on their lineages, and how this affects their understanding of themselves and their place in Canadian culture. Investigating this theme unearthed distant connections to European and Slavic ancestry; requiring each member to reconcile previously held beliefs and memories of their origins.

Apart from First Nations, everyone in the diverse country of Canada ultimately hails from somewhere else. Because of this, the artists feel their personal reflections will be widely shared by others and are excited to welcome all to view the tangible results.

For further information:
Please contact Pennylane Shen at 778.999.7436 or email info@phantomsinthefrontyard.com
Advance preview of exhibition and interview opportunities are available upon request.

at Hot Art Wet City

November 9-15, 2012
752 E Broadway, Vancouver

Opening Reception: Friday November 9th at 7:00 pm

The latest group show from Phantoms in the Front Yard puts writing and painting on a collision course. Each artist in the collective has pursued at least one writer, to establish together a specific selection of words – a short story, poetry, lyrics … as a point of response for original art work. The result is an exciting new collection reflecting the group’s continuing dedication to realistic and detailed rendering, as pressed through various off-kilter processes of responding deeply to other artists’ written creations.