by Grady Mitchell | The Burrard Arts Foundation (BAF) wants to get artwork in front of as many people as possible as often as they can. To do that they run a gallery space at 108 East Broadway and also organize art programs and public projects, most recently a massive, maze-like outdoor mural at 259 Powell Street by Vancouver artist Gabriel Dubois. “As Vancouver continues to grow as a city of international prominence,” says director Christian Chan, “it’s vital that the arts and culture keeps pace.”

More of Gabriel’s precise, geometric and vividly coloured work is on display at the BAF Studio in a show entitled Deft Senf. The artist just recently returned from a year-long trek through Germany, Japan, India and the UK, so the show is a great opportunity to see how his experiences abroad have influenced his style.

The BAF Studio is also holding a show by New York artist Aaron Koehn (pictured above). It’s called Good, Better, and Aaron gave me a quick walkthrough of his pieces. Early in our tour he told me that “choice is a hard thing to define; that’s part of the title of the show.” In other words, there can be no ‘best’ because that’s a purely subjective assessment. It seems particularly apt in reference to the appreciation of art, which is a wholly subjective experience.

Rather than only two-dimensional pieces hung on a wall, much of Aaron’s show occupies real space in the room – not in a sculptural sense, but more as the collision of standard objects with art. A centrepiece of Good, Better is a series of Ikea LACK tables – one of their most ubiquitous models; some laid on their sides on the floor, others disassembled and mounted on the wall. For each one Aaron printed a macro photo of the extreme reflective surface of a buffed car, then wrapped it around the table. Viewers can piece together details of the car’s surroundings through the warped shapes reflected in its polished surface.

Reflective surfaces are a large theme of the show; Aaron took his first Mac laptop and polished it into chrome. Even his childhood baseball bat shines, despite dings and nicks from years of use. As you lean in to study them you’ll see your own hazy silhouette staring back. Aaron is interested in the question of when a copy is no longer a copy. Where exactly is the point when it becomes its own separate entity?

“Good art is that which poses questions rather than answers them,” says curator Elliat Albrecht. “Aaron’s work gestures towards ideas rather than making declarative statements. That’s so valuable for an art viewer; not telling them exactly what an object is gives them space to breathe and think.”

Aaron’s show features many forms – there’s a number of substrate prints using UV ink that explores logo manipulation, among other concepts, as well as an interactive light component and even a pair of shoes – but all are exploring the same idea. “Things can look very different but be very connected,” he says.

Good, Better is up now and runs until December 20th.

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