Venue: Maury Young Arts Centre | Date: January 11 – March 6, 2022
Price: Free |Age restrictions: All Ages
Take a walk through night forests illuminated by the moon, and through a synthetically illuminated city, only to venture into the woods once more.
These works all have a phosphorescent pigment which, when “charged” with light, will glow in the dark; slowly fading and creating an eerie nighttime version of the painting.
This solo exhibit from artist Dave “PEPE” Petko showcases nighttime forest and cityscapes, contradictory in colour, shape, and feeling, with one thing in common – the stars and moon.
Petko’s primary passion is painting, and over the past two years, he has been diligently painting a collection of twenty-six works for this exhibit. These uniquely painted forest and cityscapes are all backlit with the glow of city lights, the stars, and the moon.
Artist Bio:
Dave “PEPE” Petko
In 2019, Dave turned half a century old but is still very much a kid making art and finding “play” in everything that he does.
Over the decades, Dave’s artistic style has evolved dramatically from abstract expressionism; to ‘pop art’ inspired imaginative caricatures and critters which are both bold, bright and playful, as well as dark, edgy and apocalyptic-themed; to his latest works which reflect his appreciation for the rolling natural landscapes of his home in Whistler, B.C.. A quiet man in person, he exudes his expressions primarily through the bright colours and bold lines of his sketch pencils and paintbrushes. Dave is a ‘tree-hugger’ and ‘animal lover’ at heart, with a passion for mushroom foraging and exploring all corners of the forest, especially on his bike or hiking with his dog Frang.
Always down for exploration, Dave has never been the type of artist to create the same thing repeatedly for years to come. He continues to expand his creative vision with the curiosity and excitement of a kid in a candy store. Throughout the years, he’s worked with a multitude of different mediums and forms, from various types of paint to sculpturing clay, laser lights to paraffin wax, human skin to sketching paper, silicon to grout, scrap wood to styrofoam, analogue to digital, tiny to gigantic, and of course, 2D to 3D.
Dave also owns and operates Black Ohm Tattoos in Function Junction, Whistler, where he’s been custom designing one-of-a-kind bold and colourful tattoos for Whistler locals and tourists for the past 23 years. When Dave is not tattooing, he is often found hanging with his lady friend and their adorable dog or travelling and making large-scale art installations as a resident artist for the Guild Art Collective.
Website: www.davepetko.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DavePepePetko
Instagram: @113critters @davepetko @blackohm