Author Archives: kitsmediatech

2023

Art Avenue, Spring, 2023, painting in Limitless exhibition pg. 9
Art Avenue, Spring, 2023, workshop information pg. 21
Penticton Art Gallery Newsletter, May/June 2023, pg. 20

NEXUS

Kelowna Art Gallery
(Catalogue cover and exhibition piece)

NEXUS Histories and Communities: An exhibition of works from the permanent collection of the Kelowna Art Gallery in celebration of the Gallery’s 30th anniversary. The history of Kelowna is inextricably linked to the orchard industry that formed the backbone of the Okanagan valley’s agriculturally-based economy for many decades. The works of art in this section all portray the fruit orchards, using varying approaches and media.

In the section OUT IN THE ORCHARDS, local artists Mary Smith McCulloch, Mary Bull, Jan Crawford and Jamie Evrard all interpret their long-term relationship with the Okanagan culture and the orchard landscape. Jan Crawford is the first artist in this section to depart from a purely pictoral approach in her series of Monoprints (the Packing House Series) from 2001 that have both visual quotations of beautiful vintage fruit crate labels, and her own drawn and painted images interpreted from old photographs of the fruit workers on the job: picking loading wrapping, and packing fruit.

Gallery of South Okanagan

Jan Crawford: Re-labelling an Okanagan Identity
Curator’s Statement
June 7 – July 20, 2002

My first experience with the work of Jan Crawford occurred upon my arrival in Penticton in October, 1996 to assume the role of Director/Curator at the Art Gallery of the South Okanagan. At that time Crawford’s Red Ladder exhibition was on display. The exhibition included a series of brightly coloured monotypes (the first I had ever encountered) depicting orchard still-life objects and landscape images, as well as a group of ceramic fruit including pears and apples and of course the authentic red ladder, the signature icon of the exhibition.

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Preview Magazine

Jan Crawford: Re-labelling an Okanagan Identity
(Magazine cover and art review)
Mia Johnson, June 2002

For generations, life in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia has revolved around miles of orchards and the fruit production industry. The recurring themes in B.C. printmaker Jan Crawford’s work are from this source: vivid depictions of fruit, views of the Okanagan landscape, and scenes of orchard-related objects. Since 1986, Crawford has used monotype techniques to produce her gorgeous prints at the Malaspina Printmakers Society on Granville Island.

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