Friday Art Splatter

This is my first attempt at what may become a regular feature here at Beyond Robson (though I'm away next week), the Friday art splatter - or arts platter, if you will. Aren't I clever? Ahem. Just a little rundown of the artsy stuff I think may be worth checking out for the weekend; there's always so many exciting things going on in this city come Friday that it can be tough to keep track...

It's been a while now since I've profiled any local visual arts or music happenings. It's not that there's been a dearth of great ways to spend an aesthetically enriching Vancouver weekend; it's just that by the time I've finally narrowed down what's worth doing, I hardly have the energy to write a blog post about it. With that in mind, I thought I'd highlight a couple of random events happening this weekend that may be worth your time. I already wrote about some cool Saturday stuff in today's Brew, but here's a few things on the radar and worth highlighting for Friday night.

• First up is the art opening clusterf+ck at the Plank Gallery on East Hastings. With Emily Carr alone unleashing a load of new faces onto the scene each year, Vancouver has developed a reputation as being an exciting hub of contemporary art, photography, and design. Clusterf+ck will present the work of established artists like Jeff Otto O'Brien and Johnny Taylor alongside recent ECIAD grads and current students of note working in a variety of mediums. Plank was created by four Carr grads, and is sure to feature the work of some of our city's freshest artistic minds. It's the perfect opportunity to wear your critic's hat for an evening, at least. The exhibit will be on display for the next two weeks, though the gallery doesn't hold regular business hours. There's a list of participating artists and more details available online.

• If you're not done getting lost in contemporary art/acting judgmental for the evening, there's another mixed medium opening which sounds quite promising. THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THE FEW OF US STILL WILLING TO GET OUR HANDS DIRTY begins tonight at Chapel Arts, a show focused on exactly what the title suggests: the future of contemporary art in Vancouver. With an impetus on giving exciting but 'un(der)represented' local artists a 'commercial stepping stone,' it'll certainly feature some exciting work... expect it to be 'progressive' and 'experimental.' The show runs for the next month, check their site for all the details.

• If you're not down for spending all night schmoozing with the artsy types, a gallery visit is always a nice way to kick off an evening of music. Theres a load of local acts playing at the usual "hipster venues". I don't have time to do all the linking, but check out From Blown Speakers for more.

• Or if you really hate contemporary art, you could always grab one of these and hold your own impromptu 'art jam' all over some gallery walls. Save some ammo for a sunset beach bbq and you're set for a great, if moderately illegal, Vancouver evening.

• Interesting show going down at Science World After Dark tonight at 8:00 (doors earlier): SWARM present their unique "hyper kinetic percussion theater." The Canadian collective build their own 'drum sculptures' and seem to dance their way through the evening's performance. They also look like they could beat you in a blood-chugging contest. Bring mushrooms?

• And don't forget about the Vancouver Queer Film Festival this weekend, as it's gone unmentioned on our pages. My filmic priority is the Tati retrospective at the Cinematheque... but I'm a straight film geek. We love queers. Honest.
  

Of course, there's a ton of other great stuff going on in the next three days... If you've got any personal highlights you'd like to add, just throw it on the comment roll.

photo by Jordan Todd, courtesy of The Aesthetic Poetic. Todd is showing work in "The Future..."