The artwork of a Coquitlam woman, her father and her late grandfather will be shown in Port Coquitlam this and next month to coincide with B.C.'s new stat holiday, Family Day.
Karin Vengshoel and her dad, Peter, also a Coquitlam resident, will display their pieces alongside Arne Vengshoel's tapestries and wood carvings for a display celebrating their Norwegian-Canadian roots, titled Generasjoner/Generations: A Multigenerational Retrospective of Works.
Karin, a third-year student at Vancouver's Emily Carr University of Art + Design, told The Tri-City News by email it is the second time the trio has exhibited together. The first was at the Port Moody Arts Centre; however, the city of PoCo has offered more space in the Gathering Place and The Outlet, in the Leigh Square Community Arts Village, "so we are able to show even more pieces this time," she wrote.
Karin said she admired her grandfather's skill in tapestry, painting wood carving.
He went to school in Drøbak, Norway, and at the age of 21, became a cabinet master. While he built furniture in the day, Arne spent his nights painting and hand-dying wool for tapestries.
During the Second World War, he and his wife - pregnant with Peter - fled the invaded country at night by skiing into neighbouring Sweden.
Twelve years later, the family immigrated to Canada. Karin said Arne was inspired by Canadian impressionists and tied Norwegian heritage, folklore and landscapes into his artwork. "His works ranged from intricately inlayed wood panel scenes of Norwegian mountain ranges to paintings of a mundane life that he quietly missed," she wrote.
Karin, 31, inherited some of her granddad's tools, wood and drawings when he died in 2007 from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
"I was also given his very last work that was left uncompleted," she wrote. "I have spent a considerable amount of time learning his technique to complete his last tapestry, which will be shown for the first time at Leigh Square."
An opening reception for Generasjoner/Generations will be held Thursday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Leigh Square. The show runs until Feb. 18.
