by Grady Mitchell | Graeme Berglund, aka Two Block Shakur, is omnipresent in the Vancouver creative community. If you’ve been to something even tangentially art-related, even just once – doesn’t matter if it happened in an upscale gallery or a condemned back alley pop-up – I can guarantee you’ve seen his trademark tilted toque and fingerless gloves. His knowledge of Vancouver’s creative world is encyclopaedic, and he’s done more than just about anyone to make it bigger, better, and more beautiful.

He’s probably best known as one of the masterminds behind The Cheaper Show. The event brought together emerging artists with art lovers who weren’t necessarily flush. “We thought it was more powerful to have work in people’s homes than collecting dust in the studio,” Graeme says of its origins. The first show priced each piece at $70 and brought out around 200 people. By the time of the final edition, which happened in 2011 in what is now the MakerLabs building on Kingsway, they’d ratcheted the price to $200 (which, considering the calibre of the talent, was still absurdly low) and attracted about 12,500 patrons. The only problem the show faced was its enormous success: Graeme says the main reason they stopped is because they couldn’t find a large enough venue.

These days he’s still connecting local artists with buyers, although it’s on a more intimate scale. Drawing on his expertise as both creator and curator, he’s launched an art brokering venture alongside two partners. True to his Cheaper Show pedigree he’s not so concerned about price point as he is with linking people with pieces they’ll keep for a lifetime. Above all, his team hopes to dispel the apprehension that’s generally involved in buying artwork.

The slower pace has allowed Graeme to focus more on his own work, too. I met up with him in the cavernous, skylight-dotted Mount Pleasant studio where he works. He shares the space with Lawrence Yuxweluptun, one of Vancouver’s most renowned artists, and someone Graeme calls a constant source of inspiration and guidance. Lawrence’s most insightful suggestion so far, Graeme says, is “making sure it’s always fun.”

Graeme’s practice takes many forms. Much of his early work took the shape of photorealistic paintings of familiar Vancouver scenes like back alley fire escapes. He moved into pieces he called “analog digital paintings,” hand-pixellated and reflective renderings of notable Vancouver structures like the stadium and conference centre. He’s begun tinkering with more three-dimensional works as well, sculpting abstract heads from old newspaper. If you’ve seen the dog statue made of salvaged wood at Brassneck, that’s Graeme’s, too.

To learn more about what he’s got going on, check out his website.