The Art of Charles Vincent - winged figures of Nonondol

Drawing and painting

Sometimes it bothers me that I can't fly, under my own power, without a machine. It's a problem that I will never really solve, it will always be with me.

I try to be objective about my subjectivism.
This is a walk for those who feel compelled to explore the new mythologies: the spiritual potential of the back of a shopping mall, the ominous generosity of the electrical and information grids. Here you will hear the sound of the horizon touching the sky. We are moving past structures on the boundaries; gender towers, types of power. We discover a diagram where the anatomy of a city border basement is compared to the anatomy of a woman’s wing. Zoom in, the language of a line on a face. Pan back, the politics of perspective. Now, The Self and The Other attract and give each other the once over, just beyond the surveillance and security of the utility storage. I keep trying to colonize your body, but all my best maps just give away my own territory. A gaze is returned.
Welcome to the city of Nonondol.

There are ideas about image; I am aware that one of my greatest talents is to create a beautiful line. While the figures are beautiful, they are flawed. So I take great pleasure when I really use that line to its fullest, when describing any part of a figure that would be removed from a popular magazine cover image of a woman, like a "muffin-top" or "crows-feet". What the purpose is of this particular message of imbedding beauty in imperfection I will leave to others to decide.

Live video / sculpture

Using the reassuring unease of security TV, "A Gaze Returned"is art that looks back at the artist and the viewer. Unlike Galatea in the familiar Pygmalion myth, she does not explode her status as art object by coming to life, but instead rebels by closing her eyes and handing me an image of myself, repeating this action for each subsequent viewer.

We live in a world that has become more eager to be shaped by a mirror than by a hammer.

An ongoing project

Watch on these pages while this project continues. I will use any medium, media or method to develop the feeling that I am working so hard to convey.

Pixels to dirt, anything is fair game if it suits the purpose and fits into the agenda of the atmosphere I am aiming for. As a canvas, this site is more catalogue at the top, but becomes its own artwork with Imagine The City! ...a project that would not work as well as a gallery or museum piece, but is best suited for you to experience on the computer of your choice, browsing the site over the internet. You have the best experience here at the screen, just as in a digging piece it is best with real mud.

Welcome to CharlesVincent.ca, the nude and figurative re-examined in a spatial metaphoric context. I hope that you enjoy these explorations. Thank you for visiting.

What's new?

Saturday, April 27, 2013:

I am excited to have been invited by Unity Project to participate in the UPwithART arty-party for relief of homelessness in London, Canada. My work Aquaria will be available for bidding as part of the event. The invitation image above is linked for more details to attend!

Saturday, March 16:

How to tell a man a story. Yet another of my non-narrative pieces about narrative, above, will be at Artfusion 28. The event is at the Artfusion Gallery location in Citi Plaza in downtown London ON, with the exhibition continuing through the month.
Along with the painting Victory, described by Paul Kinsella in Scene Magazine thus: "... a sample of work involving a character with a mastectomy. Victory ... (modeled on the Greek sculpture Winged Victory of Samothrace) embodies beauty surviving the ravages of time."
Also present is one of the Fates, Lachesis, in a sketch of her in her role as a member of The String Trio.

March 9, 2013:

Charles Vincent will be participating in the panel at The 8th Annual Indie Media Fair in London ON, at The London Public Library, Central Branch.

INTERACTIVE EXPERT PANEL DISCUSSION
Hyper-Local Indie Media
Opportunities and Barriers to a Local Collaborative Model
1:00pm - 3:00pm

MODERATOR: Ryan Craven (Our Street/Londonfuse)
Savanah Sewell (379 Collective/Out of Sound Records)
Ashley Desjardine (CHRW)
Karen Schindler (Baseline Press)
Deanne Kondrat (379 Collective)
Kuba Czerniak (Zephyr Magazine)
Charles Vincent (Artist/Zine Creator)

February 12, 2013:

Brandy Cinammon Wages live is part of the 8th Annual Juried Minature Show at The Art Exchange in London, Ontario. February 12 to March 2, 2013.

December 1, 2012:

The Heart, The Pen, and The Page
The Heart, The Pen, and Page -- and other works by Charles Vincent will be at The Artfusion 3 Year Anniversary on December 1, 2012, at Burlesque Night Club in London ON, with the work moving to the gallery later. There is still lots of Charles Vincent work at the Artfusion Gallery in Citi Plaza in London ON.
Read on Facebook about the creation of this work here. It has been a featured work on the amazing blog Phantasmaphile.
Find out more about the Artfusion anniversary party here and in the lfpress.com article.

Still time to see Graphic Underground:

Back cover of Mind Theatre no. 6 fall 1985 (detail) Chaz (Charles) Vincent -- click for full image.

At Graphic Underground with zine editions and some framed originals. Photo by Andrea Thompson

October 26 - December 15, 2012:
Graphic Underground London 1977 - 1990 -- a group exhibition and publication of London Canada's zine, comix, and punk rock poster art from 1977 to 1990. Curated by Brian Lambert and presented by The McIntosh Gallery at Western University, exhibited at Forest City Gallery in London, Canada. This is a group retrospective, held in conjunction with exhibitions of work by Jason McLean, Raymond Pettibon, and Adrian Norvid, and also a live concert. For more information and images, visit the site here.
Thanks to Western McIntosh Gallery, Compudata Inc., apk live, CHRW 94.9 FM, WhatWave Magazine, Forest City Gallery, London Heritage Council, Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

October 19, 2012:
Power Border -- work for auction at Palettes of Progress gala benefit for Artfusion.

September 29, 2012:
Opening of Artfusion 26 group show
Continues through October at Artfusion Gallery in Citi Plaza London, Canada

Artfusion visitors view Charles Vincent works at the galley in Citi Plaza.

Among the works: The Dawn Shall Be Good (above), Deep Green Interior (it is better to know the harsh poems), and The Gemini Senses

August 25, 2012 - September, 2012:
Artfusion 25 group show
Three works: A Canadian Infinity, White Mare, Winged Rider, and The Evolution of Angelic Species
Opening show at APK Live in London, Canada and continues through September at Artfusion Gallery in Citi Plaza London, Canada

June 23, 2012:
Artfusion 24 group show
Three works: Sixty Nine Dollar Security, Noon Titania, and CFNM
Opening show at APK Live and continues through July at Artfusion Gallery in Citi Plaza London, Canada

May 5, 2012:
Artfusion 23 group show
One work: The Light Standard
Opens at APK Live and continues through June at Artfusion Gallery in Citi Plaza, London, Canada

February 2012:
Imagine Nonondol lifestyles magazine.
Download your copy in Free Art

Later in 2012:
- Also producing a new zine: Nonondol Landscape.

Sirona's Sister from the forthcoming Nonondol Landscape.
She says: "My sister Sirona can become not just translucent, but completely invisible. There's one catch. When she is invisible, she is also blind. It seems there is a law of the cosmos; there has to be at least some level of reciprocity in any kind of seeing. Our Aunt Nausicaa is good at math and physics. She is working on an equation to describe it."

June 18, 2011:
My piece "A Gaze Returned" was a part of London Ontario's Nuit Blanche for 2011, the night of Saturday, June 18th.

See some images here

Nuit Blanche was an exciting night of interactive art. Much of Nuit Blanche put the viewer in the picture. By looking at A Gaze Returned you actually become a part of it on the video screen.

In her book The Real Real Thing: The Model in the Mirror of Art, from University of Chicago Press, Wendy Steiner ponders the eyes-closed watcher/model in A Gaze Returned: "Part electronics fair presenter, part Las Vegas showgirl, part bird-airplane-butterfly-pterodactyl... Vincent's model allows us to see us to see ourselves without being looked at by her, but at the same time suggests just the opposite state of affairs: the closed-circuit surveillance of a police state... Under the circumstances, his muse's serene composure is uncanny, disquieting."

London Free Press article by Kathy Rumleski:
Artist's Gaze Bound to Engage

Nuit Blanche:
http://www.nuitblanchelondon.ca/

The Real Real Thing:
(link)

Thanks to The Met:
http://www.metropolitanmarket.ca/

Thanks also to London Fringe, Echidna Solutions Corp., London Canada, Downtown London, Ontario Arts Council, Eyelook Media Inc., Motif Print Group Inc.

February 8 to May 22, 2011:
Two Charles Vincent drawings from 1988 and '89 in
Paterson Ewen: inspiration and/et influence
The Art Gallery of Ontario
(external link here)

2010 Nov: added to CV:

Painting reproduced in Art Stance: A Muse's Tale - Shari Quimbo - SPACE Beyond Luxury magazine.

... and a talk at Museum London SMArts unconference:
How I Accidentally Painted the Changing Media Landscape:
"I did not set out to document the changes happening in the media, but that story has become a part of my body of work."

2010 Oct: Video sculpture piece A Gaze Returned reproduced and discussed in the book The Real Real Thing by Wendy Steiner, published by The University of Chicago Press (external link)

2010 June 19: N:ever - Attributions to a Strange Cast
in Action and Area Projects

Charles Vincent: selected online galleries of work