There Are Those: Drawings by Six Artists

There Are Those is an attempt to look more deeply at the process of drawing and those reasons to draw. Why are we seeing so much drawing, why are we interested in it and how are artists using it? The medium of drawing holds a particular place in the hierarchy of the arts. It is a method for sketching, a way to solve problems, a mode of research, a part of a larger practice, and a place to begin. Historically, drawing is seen as supplementary more than definitive. It is traditionally distinguished as being made with a pencil, pen, charcoal, marker, or crayon, usually consisting of lines, patterns or shading. Drawings are typically presented in intimate spaces often hung close together to bring in the viewer. There Are Those includes a small selection of Vancouver-based artists who use drawing as part of a larger process of working, but who also set it apart for its specificities, using it in a particular way, as a means to slow down their thinking process. All the works in this exhibition are labored, generally overdrawn. They have a slightly obsessive character, either through exhaustive detail, repetitive gestures or the obvious working and reworking of a motif. All the works make reference to historical material, either stylistically or thematically, but all the artists have very different approaches to the process. What brings them together is their reliance on drawing a way to come to terms with their subject matter, as a process for acquiring knowledge.