Art Works has pulled out all the stops for their summer exhibition titled Mirage, including the best works from a wide array of artists and mediums. Mirage includes new work by Ursula Salemink-Roos, Paul Nickless, Pietro Adamo, Simona Foggitt, Debra Van Tuinen, Kristeen Verge and many more. Let the vibrant artwork displayed in Mirage be your oasis in the city heat this summer.

Some of the talented artists participating in Mirage:

Ursula Salemink-Roos

Urusla is a German-born artist who is passionate about the creative process. Her challenges to achieve new levels of perception as well as techniques are constantly up-graded.

Her works are bold abstract landscapes with intuitive colour combinations that display rich texture indicative of her experience as a weaver. Her art reflects her curiosity. She aims to achieve a sense of simplicity and strength. Interpretation is left to the viewer. Ursula works in series, some of which are ongoing.

Ursula is an art educator and teaches through the Vancouver Schoolboard and at local Art Groups.

Paul Nickless

Paul Christopher Nickless paints in the abstract expressionist style using oil paint as his weapon of choice. Born and raised in Yorkton, Saskatchewan amidst the tundra of desolate winters and hot, dry summers, Paul was inspired to be an artist from a young age. Attending Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton Alberta, he studied Visual Communication and graduated with a Major in Graphic Design.

Now residing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Paul has a great passion for the natural surroundings of the Pacific Northwest Coast which heavily influence and reflect in his work.

His raw method of expression draws the energy out of the environment and applies it to the canvas. Using traditional paint brushes, as well as pallet knives, Paul paints in a vigourous style which can be a physical workout as well as a mental one. Paul lets the painting paint itself sometimes and he finds that the hardest part about working on a piece is knowing when to stop. Sometimes the work can just happen by sheer movement alone. When he isn’t painting, Paul can often be found fishing the river and ocean for Salmon or trolling the glacier lakes for trout.

Paul has also travelled extensively throughout Western and Eastern Europe and these travels often provide additional inspiration in his work. The paintings of Paul C. Nickless can be found in numerous private collections across Canada and The United States.

Pietro Adamo

The paintings of Pietro Adamo are abstract celebrations of the artist's admiration for the "unpredictable and inexhaustible record of life". Adamo abandons the monotony of conventional rendering of geometric forms through his textured surfaces and rough contours. In his passion to convey emotion, Adamo intimately works his canvases both applying and removing pigment to create a tactile quality. Layers upon layer of vibrant colours dynamically emerge and recede within the canvas. This juxtaposition of presence is what gives Adamo's work its mood and sensational quality.

Simona Foggitt

Simona Foggitt was born in Milan, Italy 1963. She is currently living in Seattle WA where her work is frequently exhibited. She has shown extensively in South Africa where she studied Fine Art at the Durban School of Art , as well as in the U S.
"Architectural inspiration is constantly at work within me when I paint. The result is an overwhelming urge to construct, plan and juxtapose various elements and forms together to create a "space" that instead of clashing, is at peace with all the foreign elements that I have forced together."