The Goods from Ian Tan Gallery

Vancouver, BC | In this monthly series, the Ian Tan Gallery highlights one exhibiting artist or artist they represent, by asking them to answer a short four-question interview designed to introduce them to Scout readers.

Introducing David Tycho, Ian Tan Gallery’s feature artist for the month of March 2024. Tycho’s latest series of paintings, Urban Allegories, will be showing in the gallery from March 2 – 28, 2024, with an opening reception on Saturday, March 2nd from 2-4pm.

Please introduce yourself. Who are you, where do you live, and what is your medium? My name is David Tycho, and I was born and raised in Vancouver, where I studied art at the University of British Columbia. I work mostly with acrylic paint on canvas, but also with photography and digital art.

We know it’s hard to pick a favourite, but if you had to choose one piece from the works you have at Ian Tan Gallery to best represent your style and practice overall, which would it be and why? Night Falls on Kabukicho probably best summarizes my style and art practice, since it shows the beauty and allure of large urban centres, but also the gritty and seedy underbelly. This duality inherent in most cities has been my artistic focus for years.

If you could display your art in any building, establishment, or other place in Vancouver (not a gallery), where would you choose? I’d display my large East of Shangri-La painting in City Hall, as a reminder to politicians that they have done very little to solve the drug and homelessness problems of the Downtown Eastside.

Art is a visual experience, but I’d like to challenge you to describe yours using the less obvious senses: sound, taste, smell and feeling. My work is very sensual, and to view one of my paintings is to hear traffic and honking horns, or the silence of a deserted alleyway; to inhale exhaust fumes, or smell tantalizing and exotic aromas billowing out from food trucks; to feel the movement of cars, e-bikes and pedestrians rushing past you, or to experience the stillness of a densely wooded park; and to sample the countless culinary delights to be found in cosmopolitan cities such as Vancouver.

View more of David Tycho’s artwork online here.

Ian Tan Gallery

Neighbourhood: South Granville

2655 Granville St.

604-738-1077

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