Photography | Edward Peck

If you have not had a chance to see the Shelter Island Series at the “truth and beauty gallery”, there is still time. The gallery is open from 12-5 weekdays or by appointment. The show will be up until the 16th of May. Prints from the series are being offered in limited editions of four archival pigment prints on Moab Lasal archival paper. The prints come framed in an exhibition frame with an acid free mat. Exhibition catalogues are available.

The “truth and beauty gallery” is located on the South East corner of 16th and Heather, 698 West 16th Avenue. For appointments contact Peppa Martin at 604.707.0327.

(See curatorial statement below)

Winter Bloom

CURATORIAL STATEMENT

Edward Peck is a Vancouver based veteran visual artist. The Shelter Island Series is Peck’s third abstract photography series. In this new series, he organizes line, colour, form and space independent of their specific sources. Much of the source material for this series is drawn from weathered and sea battered boats, some of which are in the process of returning to their elemental state, bringing the aging process of these boats to life by amplifying colour and texture. His bold compositions are colour fields confidently sectored by elemental materials that are caught in the act of transformation.

While each print in the Shelter Island Series stands on its own as a landscape or narrative, its power is in the collection of images drawn from material sources that are in various states of organic decomposition. Peck finds forms and surfaces that are alive in their process of transformation, and brings to the viewer’s attention a new appreciation for the material aging process. The intentional ambiguity of his images allows the viewer to form their own personal narrative.

Through my photographic exploration I have begun to see again, to get my bearings. I now see the aging process of the material world; especially those things that have been bent to the will of the elements, or worn through the process of being used to construct or deconstruct. I can now see more clearly the fluctuations in my surroundings. I have broken the spell! I see beauty in things previously unseen, through the lens of a camera and the digital darkroom. It is a more intimate connection with myself and what surrounds me. I cannot be away from this process- it is not possible anymore to withdraw or retreat without losing myself. Everywhere I see the elements of surfaces and objects as they are in their natural state through use or disuse; they are landscapes, compositions in their own right, their colour and form have their own beauty. -Edward Peck

Many mentors have influenced and informed Peck’s artwork. At an early age his mother, an abstract painter who trained with members of the Group of Seven, exposed him to the world of non-objective art, the process of deconstruction of objects and the creation of an inner dimensional landscape of colour, form and movement. In his early career, Peck studied under Roy Kiyooka, Richard Prince and Tony Onley, and immersed himself in interdisciplinary artistic practices including batik, silkscreen, etchings, line drawings, oil and acrylic painting, temperas, cloisonné, fresco, photography, short film, books, watercolour, and ceramics.

— Phyllis Schwartz, 2014