Don't Stop Believing

Presented by Justina M. Barnicke Gallery

Details: Don't Stop Believing is the first major solo exhibition of Vancouver-based artist Kevin Schmidt. Curated by Barbara Fischer, the exhibition offers a concise introduction to Schmidt’s ongoing interests. In particular, the exhibition brings together works that share the tropes of the solitary epic quest as narrated in popular science fiction, spiritual discovery, scientific expedition and music.

Date: June 8-August 20, 2011

Important Dates:
Artist Talk Tuesday, June 7, 5:30 to 6:30 pm, Hart House Music Room
Opening Reception Tuesday, June 7, 6:30 to 9:00 pm
Free Art Bus Tour Sunday, June 26, 1:00 to 5:30 pm, pick-up and drop-off at Justina M. Barnicke Gallery
To RSVP for the bus tour, email artbus@oakvillegalleries.com or call 905.844.4402, ext.27 by Wednesday, June 22.
Epic Journey Screening: Wednesday, August 3, 2011 9:30 am to 9:00 pm
Snacks, couches and air conditioning will be provided. See the event page for more information.

About Kevin Schmidt
Born in 1972, Kevin Schmidt graduated from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1997 and currently lives and works in Vancouver. His works have been included in major exhibitions across Canada, including at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Contemporary Art Gallery, Presentation House Gallery, Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Musée d’art contemporain, Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Mercer Union and the Edmonton Art Gallery, among many others; and internationally, at the Fruitmarket Gallery (Edinburgh, Scotland), the Frankfurter Kunstverein (Frankfurt, Germany), Norwich Gallery (Norwich, UK ), Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo, Norway), Kunstverein Wolfsburg (Wolfsburg, Germany), Witte de With (Rotterdam, Netherlands), de Kist (Groningen, Netherlands), Württembergischer Kunstverein (Stuttgart, Germany), Galerie van der Mieden (Antwerp, Belgium) and Galerie Barbara Thumm (Berlin, Germany). Schmidt is represented by Catriona Jeffries Gallery (Vancouver) and he is the recipient of the 2008 VIVA Award, provided by the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation to exemplary British Columbiaartists in mid-career.

Kevin Schmidt first came to international attention with his single-channel 2002 video work “Long Beach Led Zep” featuring the artist’s studied solo guitar performance of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” staged against the setting sun of Vancouver Island’s mythic Long Beach. Since then, the combination of sublime settings and heroic, DIY or amateur quests have been a recurrent element in his installations, such as in the works in this exhibition. Taking their point of departure in a wide array of generation-defining cultural referents and re-enactments – Tolkien’s famed trilogy “Lord of the Rings”,  the song “Angel of Light” by the Rock group Petra, as well as expeditions such as Franklin’s failed search for the Northwest Passage, among others – Schmidt’s interests in the epic quest expresses the desire to go beyond the limits of knowledge and to chart the more ethereal territories of other non-rational worlds.

Kevin Schmidt’s exhibition at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery is part of an ongoing series of first, in-depth solo exhibitions of artists whose work has received local, national and international attention, such as Ron Terada (2011), Will Kwan (2009), Mark Lewis (2009), James Carl (2009) and Kelly Mark (2007).