Winter Commissions

Lattimer Gallery regularly works with customers to facilitate commissions. While we always carry a great selection of fine art in our gallery, people often order special pieces to meet particular needs and spaces. A good client of ours commissioned young Kwakwaka’wakw artist Clinton Work to design and engrave a matching set of solid 22k gold cuff bracelets this spring. Titled Eternal Love, this bracelet design depicts two interlocking wolves, a ghost figure to represent ancestors and love lost, and a human figure to represent future generations and familial bonds. Similar to most of his work, Clint has cropped all of these elements to provide each cuff with a contemporary design. This cropping also draws the eye in, as these are not typical Northwest Coast crest figures. After these pieces were shaped and carved in the round, Clint then hand-stippled all of the flat surfaces, a time-consuming finishing technique that provided the cuffs with a truly sculptural look. 

Lattimer Gallery featured the work of talented Coast Salish artist Cody Lecoy in our Fall 2013 newsletter, and since that time Cody has developed his style and received a YVR Art Foundation Scholarship. This March, we commissioned a painting from Cody, which enabled him to work through the process of completing a custom order. From the initial study in graphite to the finished painting, Cody updated us on his creative process through the entire project. The result - a colourful and surreal 24” x 48” painting titled Resurgence - was fantastic, and this piece is currently available for $1,200.00 CAD. The image below is just a small detail from this large composition. Lattimer Gallery frequently facilitates commissions, and we encourage our clients to contact us for any custom projects they have in mind.

Sharifah Marsden - Miigwetch

Lattimer Gallery has been carrying the jewellery and paintings of Sharifah Marsden for six years. Sharifah is an Anishinaabe artist from the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation in Ontario who has been living in Vancouver for the past fifteen years, and she strives to fuse her cultural roots with Northwest Coast forms. As her first solo show, Sharifah Marsden - Miigwetch features jewellery pieces created over the past two years during the artist’s studies at the Vancouver Metal Arts School. The word 'miigwetch' means 'thank you' in the Ojibwe language. Under the instruction of European goldsmith Gerold Mueller, Sharifah has learned hollow form jewellery design and stone-setting, processes she has added to her existing arsenal of hand-engraving techniques.

Throughout the 15 years I have lived in Vancouver, I have been active in the Native arts community, working in Native art galleries, attending Native arts programs, and connecting with other First Nations artists. The strong influence of Northwest Coast formline has influenced how I have chosen to develop my personal style, and my artistic practice. As I studied and was witness to the creations of the Northwest Coast, I was forced to analyze my own art, in the Anishinaabe style. Through the development of my own style, while living and growing here, I came to create my own sense of formline, within the Anishinaabe tradition. - Sharifah Marsden

This small exhibition will run between April 25th - May 16th, 2015 and an online preview will be available as of April 18th. Please join us for the opening and artist reception on April 25th between 4pm-6pm. Sharifah will be in attendance for this event, and refreshments will be provided.