Howard Ursuliak

Guest curated by artist Roy Arden, *Bonus* presents contemporary photographic approaches to the genre of still life by three Vancouver artists. Within the history of visual art, and primarily within the practice of painting, still life finds itself placed on the bottom rung of the hierarchical ladder. However, as a genre, still life has been important in the development of early twentieth-century modern strategies of representation as well as in contemporary art, particularly photography.

While still life is often associated with the displays of food and flora in seventeenth-century Dutch painting or as a vehicle for early modernist exercises in form, Arden considers still life as now residing within the domain of advertising. He notes that "Billboards of hamburger repasts and television close-ups of gleaming appliances are abundant whilst the art galleries tend to shun pictures of fruit bowls."

The artists in *Bonus* acknowledge this shift by presenting images of what are, in essence, consumer items. In today's society, the term bonus is linked to a promise of added fulfillment to that already offered by consumer products, but the works in this exhibition withhold that promise and instead produce a distancing from what are common objects. Damian Moppett creates an uneasy surreal encounter with his constructed tableaux of everyday objects, Howard Ursuliak's images of somewhat weather-worn commercial enterprises evoke a quiet pathos of the abandoned and Kelly Wood's candies and sweets are hardened objects that resist delectation. These artists use the enticement of the consumer product to question our relationship with objects and with the idea of still life.

Guest curated by Roy Arden 


Essay: "Photography, Genre and Continuity," Roy Arden

A detail of a black and white photograph. It shows an image of a balloon stuck in the toy block-made gate. 

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Seven two-dimensional art pieces are installed in the gallery. Four in white frames are placed horizontally on the right-hand wall, and the rest, framed in various colours, are mounted on the other wall.  

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Eleven art pieces mounted on three gallery walls are visible in this image. Three black and white photographs on the front wall depict silver organic shapes being attached to the white blocks. 

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Six artworks are installed on the gallery walls. Three of them show white organic shapes assembled in the red background. The large piece on the front wall shows a girl behind a pink floral sculpture. 

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Five photo pieces are installed on the gallery walls. Three black and white photographs on the right depict silver organic shapes and white blocks. Two on the left are photos taken inside buildings. 

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Eight photo pieces are mounted on gallery walls. Three on the front wall depict white organic shapes assembled in the red background. Four in the back are photographs of house interiors.  

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Four two-dimensional artworks are installed on the gallery walls. Coloured photographs of objects are mounted on the right-hand wall, and the white framed piece ​on the left is a photo of a ham.

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Four coloured photo pieces are mounted on the gallery walls. All of them depict items placed in white rooms. A microwave, suitcases, shelves, and benches are captured in these photographs. 

Howard Ursuliak

Exhibitions