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.

Gallery Fukai
602 Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6A 1R1

Opening reception: Friday, February 3rd, 2012, 8pm – late

Off the beaten path is where you’ll find Phantoms in the Front Yard’s next exhibition. We are proud to present our 3rd show together as a collective at Gallery Fukai this February 3rd. In keeping with the successful past of Fukai’s exhibition history the Phantoms will be showing a brand new set of small and affordable works on the subject of Woman as M(use).

A group of guys painting about what it means to be a woman…what could possibly be the matter with that…? Come and give your opinion without making them cry.

At the Beatty Gate Building

Friday June 3rd – Sunday June 5th
Opening reception: Friday June 3rd 7:00pm-11:00pm
566 Beatty Street, Vancouver, BC

The figurative artists’ collective Phantoms in the Front Yard are proud to present On Great Men, a new body of work addresses the constructions, stigmas and archetypes surrounding what it means to be defined as a “great man.”

Chad Krowchuk uses irony to highlight and subvert the absurdity of such a loaded term, while others like Marcus Macleod and Jordan Bent look within themselves as artists to uproot the answers.

Both Jeremiah Birnbaum, known for incorporating and critiquing icons of constructed masculinity, and Jay Senechtko, whose work champions western art history’s hegemony within post modernism, address the conflicting nature of the “great man” stereotype in society.

Michael Abraham’s images ask us to ponder what exactly defines greatness; whether it is recognizing one’s own power or one’s own insignificance? Perhaps it is creating an impact in society or in the life of another.

The first of its kind at the forefront of figurative art, Phantoms in the Front Yard is a touring art collective that boldly challenges the contemporary Canadian art scene, to revive the human subject as muse.

The figurative artist collective PHANTOMS IN THE FRONT YARD is pleased to present UNIFORM, opening October 22-November 30th at Pera Art Gallery. Opening reception: Saturday, Oct 23rd 6-9pm

The first of its kind at the forefront of figurative art, Phantoms in… the Front Yard is a touring art collective that boldly challenges the contemporary Canadian art scene, to revive the human subject as muse. Figurative art has become the phantom of the fine art world, haunting Modernism with this dated and classical reputation. Thus Phantoms in the Front Yard enters with a louder voice – refusing to be dismissed, ignored or forgotten.
UNIFORM addresses the everyday socially constructed masks or uniforms donned to maintain societal norms and a collective order/unity. Within their vastly different styles and media (impressionism, hyper realism, illustration, drawing, and abstraction) each artist has chosen a “uniform” with which they most identify. The narrative running through each piece conveys the rope or umbilicus barely binding us as a civilization to reality, to one another, in the midst of constant power structures at work to maintain and destroy them.