Ellen Ramsey

*Repo*, an exhibition of mixed-media works by Georgiana Chappell, Wendy Dobreiner, Michelle Normoyie, Margot Butler, and Ellen Ramsey will be on view at the Contemporary Art Gallery until July 30th. While these five Vancouver artists explore diverse media and production techniques, each of them works with a critical awareness of her role as a woman artist. This exhibition features new works which employ photography, text, painting, drawing, and found objects.

Since first brought together for an exhibition which could not proceed, these women have been meeting regularly as a discussion and study group. The decision to form a cohesive work group after their initial meeting is reflective of the interests they share in collectivities and the reorganization of hierarchical social and artistic structures — the group itself consists of women of varying ages and stages of professional development. In their efforts to find new systems of art-making and new structures within which to work, they have adopted a strategy of “repossession” which forms the basis of the show. Their new works endeavor to repossess mass culture and media imagery through appropriation and manipulation with the intention of disrupting and reorganizing meaning.

*Repo* is reflective of the vital feminist art community in Vancouver, continuing an important tradition of group shows by local women artists such as *Voice Over* at the Contemporary Art Gallery in 1985 and *Unromantic as Monday Morning* at the Surrey Art Gallery in 1987. 


Essay: “Repo,” Merike Talve

A black and white photograph mounted on a black shelf against a light blue wall. The photograph is of a person holding a book and they are only visible from the neck to the waist. 

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A closeup of a narrow white bookshelf against a wall. The top compartment shows a book with an orange cover, with a collage of faces and buildings. In the bottom there is a small poem in a wood frame.

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The corner of a gallery with black marks of paint at the top. Where the walls meet is a small painting of hands and a blue sky. On the floor, there is a patch of grass with a camo-print stroller on it.

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02-REPO-1988.jpeg

Three large paintings and a photo on the wall of a gallery. The paintings show Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, and James Dean, each with anatomical drawings and mechanical images collaged on them.

Ellen Ramsey

Exhibitions