What: Islands and Inlands
Where: Madrona Gallery, 606 View St.
When: Oct. 17-31
The art of painter, illustrator and graphic designer Shawn O鈥橩eefe has many iterations, from his graffiti-accented designs with Victoria鈥檚 adventurous Woodpile Collective to the bright and colourful creations that adorn the bottles and cans of Phillips Brewing and Malting Co.
His latest exhibit dips into the world of landscape painting. 鈥淚t all looks so different,鈥� O鈥橩eefe, 48, admitted. 鈥淚鈥檝e had a complex about that over time. 鈥楳an, you can never just do one thing!鈥� But I鈥檝e never been content doing one thing.鈥�
With nods to The Group of Seven 鈥� a huge influence, O鈥橩eefe said 鈥� the Duncan native has prepped 30 new paintings for display in Madrona Gallery. The exhibit, Islands & Inlands, opens today and runs through the end of the month, offering a variety of landscapes from both B.C., where he lives, and Ontario, where he travels often to paint.
Most of his work starts out as a sketch. O鈥橩eefe likes to play with composition, however, blending street art and natural scenery. What emerges is an amalgam of aerosols and acrylics.
鈥淚鈥檝e been having some fun using some of the skills from screenprinting and graffiti, the layering effect you get when you鈥檙e combining those. If you look at them individually, they are very different. But when you experiment, you鈥檒l end up creating some new process.鈥�
He comes from an artistically inclined family, stretching back generations. After spending his teen years sketching and doodling, O鈥橩eefe enrolled in the former Malaspina College 鈥� now 91原创 Island University 鈥� where he studied graphic design.
鈥淢y dad convinced me not to be a fine artist so I could support a family,鈥� he said with a laugh. 鈥淪o I went the applied arts route, which enables me to barely support a family. I guess I was always afraid to go down that fine-art path, because I didn鈥檛 think it was very cool. I was really into cultural stuff like skateboarding and hip-hop, that was close at heart, so I started filling up my basement with those canvases.鈥�
Post-graduation, he took a job at Mega Screen Productions, a commercial screen-printing business in Victoria. It was during his decade with the company that O鈥橩eefe began integrating pop art, comic books and graffiti with the skills he acquired at Malaspina. 鈥淎s you draw more and more, you kind of develop your style. When I got to Victoria, all of the graffiti heads that I crossed paths with were asking if I would come out and paint.鈥�
The early 2000s were a fruitful time for O鈥橩eefe. He participated in underground art shows at the Sunset Room (using the tag trust36) and went on to form Woodpile Collective with Sean McLaughlin, his co-worker at Mega Screen Productions, and Blythe Hailey, his former classmate at Malaspina. They share a studio on Fort Street, above Ditch Records, where they collaborative at least once a week on large-scale, cross-genre pieces.
One of Mega Screen鈥檚 customers during O鈥橩eefe鈥檚 tenure was Matt Phillips, the founder of Phillips Brewing and Malting Co. O鈥橩eefe became the burgeoning brewmaster鈥檚 designer of choice in 2001, and the two friends have remained constant collaborators ever since.
鈥淚 helped him do his logo and his first four beers,鈥� O鈥橩eefe, who is the brewery鈥檚 lead designer, said of Phillips. 鈥淭hen he started doing some seasonals, and I started designing those. At first, it was more traditional beer-label stuff, but after we worked together for a bit, and got to know each other, we got a little bit more out there. I knew, with Matt鈥檚 passion for craft beer, it was going to be lots of fun.鈥�
From soda and water to beer and gin 鈥� and yes, the iconic Blue Buck brand 鈥� O鈥橩eefe has designed every Phillips label during the last 20 years, numbering 鈥渋n the hundreds,鈥� O鈥橩eefe said.
Each piece of art is a collaboration between Phillips, O鈥橩eefe and the rest of the brewery鈥檚 design team, who toss puns and goofy names around before they agree on an idea. In most cases, a full range of colours is employed. The psychedelic artwork for Amnesiac Double IPA and comic-book characteristics of Pandamonium Super IPA, with its rampaging panda bear, were especially fun to create, O鈥橩eefe said.
鈥淚 let the name create the concept of the art a little bit. I take a bit from the style of beer, and I鈥檒l run with it.鈥�
Phillips said he gives O鈥橩eefe free rein when it comes to the brewery鈥檚 design. 鈥淚f you look at our graphics for the brewery, there are certainly some themes in our established brands. But if you look at our fun, one-off brands, you would never know we鈥檝e only ever had one graphic artist. He can turn on a dime. He鈥檚 got an amazing eye for it, and really finds ways to make things interesting and compelling.鈥�
O鈥橩eefe sees 2020 as the middle ground between his experimental past and uncertain future. His early work has made its way into his landscapes 鈥� aerosol paint has been applied directly onto acrylic in some pieces on display at Islands & Inlands 鈥� and his creations for Phillips Brewing and Malting Co. are pushing commercial art to new extremes.
What he creates will likely remain a jumble of influences for some time, but nothing from O鈥橩eefe is done without purpose.
鈥淚 can see where I鈥檓 going to take it next. It鈥檚 cool that way. If you鈥檙e never completely happy with what you鈥檝e done, and you鈥檙e always trying to move your style forward, you find some comfort in the process.鈥�
