The Goods from PiDGiN

Vancouver, BC | Our walls have colourful art for the first time in over four years, as Crissy Arseneau becomes our ninth artist-in-restaurant. Crissy Arseneau is a Canadian artist creating hard-edge pieced paintings in watercolour and hand-cut paper. Her work explores attention and contemplation, time and place, and our relationship to the natural and built environments.

Material choice and the artist’s bent toward problem-solving, applying order, and the impossibility of achieving yet still striving for perfection lead the process of making each piece. Loosely painted with watercolour washes, exactness is introduced in the cutting of the paper into colour bands and geometric pieces. Upon closer inspection, the hand of the artist is revealed through subtle irregularities in the pigments and paper edges.

When the elements are puzzled together, variations in the application of the paint and the interaction of angular shapes create the illusion of movement and volume, recalling refracted light, meandering streams, and shifting terrain, while simultaneously referencing pathways and isometric architectural renderings. This appearance of dimension is amplified when the work is presented floating within its frame. With this, actual volume is introduced, producing shadow, allowing the object to operate on multiple planes.

Born in Quesnel, British Columbia, Crissy Arseneau is a Canadian artist who lives and works in Vancouver. She has been featured by The Jealous Curator, the Georgia Straight and Kolaj Magazine. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and art spaces in British Columbia, including the Vancouver Airport, with pieces held in private collections in Canada, the US, and the UK. She works from both her home studio and her space in Vancouver’s iconic 1000 Parker Street Studios.

Chef Wesley Young has created a delicious beet dish, inspired by Crissy Arseneau’s colours and use of shapes. The dish centres beets cooked in different ways — roasted and dressed beets, sitting on top of a beet purée, topped with a beet meringue in addition to the grilled broccolini, whipped ricotta and pistachio butter. Chef Wesley Young invited Crissy to collaborate on the plating of the dish, allowing for some wonderful co-inspiration and creation between chef and artist.

Our art program is core to our philosophy and passions at PiDGiN. Some of our past artist-in-restaurant programs have included Ola Volo, Sean Karemaker, Priscilla Yu, Jay Senetchko, Katie So, Johnny Taylor, Kari Kristensen and most recently Tara Lee Bennett. As with PiDGiN tradition, our previous artist nominates the following one: we’re so grateful to Tara for nominating such a wonderful artist and human being.

PiDGiN

Neighbourhood: Gastown

350 Carrall St.

604-620-9400

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