Show N Tell at the Comox Valley Art Gallery at 3:30pm on Wed. December 9th will be Guest Curator Ed Varney speaking about Artistamps (artist’s stamps), Zines and Art Money. Admission to the gallery is by donation and all are welcome. This talk is to supplement the current exhibit; Mail Art Olympix, in which 350 artists from around the world have sent artwork through the post in the form of self portraits, artistamps and manifestoes.

Artistamps, Zines and Art Money
As a technology becomes obsolete, artists take it up. Good examples of this are etching, engraving, and oil painting. Stamps and paper money are two other technologies that are still in current use but which are quickly fading as new technologies such as credit and debit cards replace money and postage meters and email replace the use of stamps. Interestingly, both stamps and money have been traditionally issued only by nations and an offshoot of artists’ use of these technologies has resulted in the creation of new or pseudo countries. Royston artist Ed Varney has used both “Artistamps” and “Art Money” as important mediums and he will show and tell examples of both of these mediums on December 9th, 3:30pm at CVAG.

About Ed Varney
Ed Varney’s art work can be found in the collections of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles; the Smithsonian in Washington, DC; Art Bank in Ottawa; the Vancouver Art Gallery in Vancouver; the National Library of Canada in Ottawa; Artpool in Budapest; Museo de Bellas Arts in Argentina; the Museum of Art in Tokyo; Espaco Cultural de Paraiba in Brazil; University of California in San Francisco; Illinois University Art Gallery in Macomb; the Alberta College of Art in Calgary; the City of Vancouver Collection in Vancouver; the Belkin Gallery in Vancouver; the Comox Valley Art Gallery in Courtenay; the Museo Internacionale de Neu Art in Royston; and many other institutional and private collections.

Varney has been making and showing his art since he was a teenager forty years ago. He has also worked as a public art consultant, a writer and poet, a curator, an arts animator and administrator, and was the owner of a printing business in Vancouver for almost twenty years. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Specific Research Institute and associate curator at the Museo Internacionale de Neu Art.

He has an MA from Syracuse University and a PhD from the University of Experience. He has been around the block several times and has seen lots of art along the way. He likes East Indian food, toys, and the color yellow.

CVAG is located in down town Courtenay at 580 Duncan Ave. FMI 250-338-6211