My good friend David Hoover reached out last week to tell me about a small art show he and his collaborator Darryl Wiebe were putting together. Together they form the collective Compressed Company. That show is running tonight until 11pm down on Borden Ave. Brohemus and I stopped in this afternoon to have a look. Above is a fragment of a collaborative piece. And it was my immediate favourite.
The TL;DR: if you dig any of the work in this post, reach out to Dave and Darryl at compressedcompany@gmail.com and stay tuned for some very cool upcoming projects from these guys.
A completely reasonable number of pics follow…
Not this door.
Artist Darryl Wiebe works by day as a tattoo artist at Way Cool Tattoo and by night…
in this studio space painting on board and canvas. Darryl knew Dave from high school days at Waterloo Oxford. They kept in touch and Darryl eventually did a co-op work term at…
the ever-awesome Sign Depot down on Borden where owner Peter Moir fosters all sorts of creativity. So it’s not surprising to find this studio within The Sign Depot itself. Long-time readers may remember my profile of Peter from back in 2011 when he generously toured us through his workshop, which is where during the day you will find…
Mr. David Hoover rocking all sorts of sign magic for customers on the high end unique signs The Sign Depot is known for. By night, Dave is pushing the edges of his art and it’s especially cool to see the development of the work since I shot Dave’s first show in this space back in 2011.
The work is a great mashup of stencil, free brushwork, patterns, text, screening, textures, glazes and the two artists fuel each other’s momentum.
One thing about having your studio inside The Sign Depot is access to a professional…
paint booth. Not only are the guys pushing the creative, but also the technical execution in their medium. They have excellent craftsmanship on the presentation of the work. Where this face board is adhered to the support frame you’ll only find a perfect fit. Nice job.
This amazing piece, which I’d estimate at 3×4 feet includes a tonne of stippling, which Dave told me Darryl put in all by hand to achieve the subtle shading in the face. Darryl: “No more dots!” This piece has a really cool visual depth between the highly-stylized foreground and the soft-focus background. Excellent.
I love these details where the work wraps around the edge of the piece.
One of the pieces in this series ended up finding its way to a small café north of Toronto in Schomberg. Christian Snyder of Pandora Press (the shop of which morphed into kwartzlab’s current home) was working with a bakery delivering baked goods far and wide, and put Dave on to this café that he thought would be a good fit for the work. As I recall the story, when Dave showed up with the work, a customer bought one of the pieces right there. To me, it’s very interesting how art travels and connects between different communities.
The bar top is almost finished, but…
the important part is already there.
Tools of the trade.
Great space.
Texture!
Snaaa…
aaacks.
And then Brohemus and I were feet on the street again.
Again, if you dig the work, buy the work.
On Borden Avenue South, this is Kitchener.
DW
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