Vancouver Mural Festival: The artists changing the city's colours

Aug 18 2016, 12:15 am

It’s the most colourful weekend of the year in Vancouver.

The highly anticipated Vancouver Music Festival takes over the city’s east side on Saturday, and with over 40 artists from all over the world, here are three of the magic makers you’ll get to meet this weekend.

Ben Tour

ACT TWO. #bentour #vancouvermuralfestival #direwolves

A photo posted by Ben Tour (@ben_tour) on

Bio: Canadian-born artist Ben Tour channels a dark, often haunting sense of humanism in his work. His observations deftly inform his paintings, enabling him to capture the essence of a character, then distort that view any way he desires. Frenetic lines, swaths of colour, and intimate angles all convey a sense that Tour may not only be drawing inspiration from the lives of strangers he observes, but manifesting his own personal experiences as well.

The emotional content in each portrait is palpable as this perceived notion of creation and catharsis is paired well with the immediate voyeuristic allure of his characters. Tour has exhibited in galleries from Los Angeles to Miami, Hamburg to New York. His work has been featured in publications including BLK/MRKT One and Two, Juxtapoz, and Playboy. He has worked with clients such as BMW, Absolut, Nike, and Burton Snowboards, and currently resides on The Sunshine Coast.

Where you’ll see his art: Behind 49th Parallel Coffee at 13th and Main Street

Andrea Wan

Bio: The unpredictable work of Andrea Wan brings together a variety of contradictory imagery: feral jungles, luminous laptops, and girls with teepees on their heads living side by side in perfect harmony, as if there was nothing weird about them coexisting on the same page.

Born in Hong Kong, raised in Vancouver and now based in Berlin, Wan must have been exposed to a variety of images and influences growing up, because it’s apparent in her enchantingly incongruous work. We love the surrealism of the illustrations as well as the hints of the modern: sloths with iPhones clamber around on stairways straight out of MC Escher, while cartoon ghosts balloon from brains. Containing hints of folklore and a dash of Mr Blobby, Wan’s curious illustrations take you out of this world and straight into the realm of dream.

Where you’ll see her art: Behind JJ Bean at 14th and Main Street

Corey Bulpitt

#culturalgraffiti

A photo posted by Corey Bulpitt (@coreybulpitt) on

Bio: Corey Bulpitt was born in 1978 in Prince Rupert and raised in Langley, where he graduated from the Langley Fine Arts School in 1996. Upon graduation, Bulpitt moved to his traditional homeland of the Haida Gwaii where he apprenticed for three years under his uncle renowned Haida artist Christian White. After his apprenticeship, he moved back to Vancouver and has since been working with his other uncle and master carver Jim Hart at the Museum of Anthropology.

Bulpitt has been specializing in masks, argillite sculptures, printmaking, jewelry, painting, and various other mediums. He has studied many older pieces by great Haida and other West Coast artists. Bulpitt looks into the past for his inspiration but he also experiments with contemporary mediums and design elements. He’s currently working on some projects with some of his up and coming peers including Kwaguilth artist Ryan Cranmer and his Haida cousin Vernon White.

Where you’ll see his art: West Wall of Burrard Arts Foundation at 108 East Broadway

Vancouver Mural Festival

Where: Various locations – murals will be around Mount Pleasant and Main Street area; evening music shows will be at various locations.

When: Saturday, August 20

See also

Daily Hive is a proud sponsor of Vancouver Mural Festival

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