On Thursday April 29th there was a very grand event at Port Moody Arts Centre. South Korean-born artist Kwi Am Choi was an active member of the local art community for several years. He opened a little gallery/framing shop in Old Port Moody and showed his 3D paintings at the Arts Centre. He had a small kiln in his gallery where he melted glass to incorporate in his paintings and he showed a real interest in all things ceramic.

Sadly he was killed in a hiking accident on our North Shore mountains ten years ago, leaving a wife and two daughters. In his memory they established an annual bursary for a local emerging artist, which is intended to enable the recipient to have a solo show at Port Moody Arts Centre. This year there are two recipients.

On this tenth anniversary of his passing the family asked to have a retrospective show of Kwi Am Choi’s work, “Finding Harmony: A reflection on a lifetime of observation through Kwi Am Choi”, with the proceeds to go to the scholarship fund. The main gallery was filled with his abstract, somewhat 3-dimensional paintings as well as some smaller glass meltings for purchase. A huge gathering of the local Korean community attended in support of this show, to hear two fine musicians perform before the speeches and enjoy some fine food and a glass of wine. I was happy to reconnect with Korean master potter Clay Kim and his wife and some of his keen students.

Kwantlen University Ceramics Instructor Ying-Yueh Chuang was happy to point out that both Kwi Am Choi scholarship winners are her students. Alanna Reyse is a 4th year Visual Arts student at ECU but took classes with Ying-Yueh at Capilano College and Amy Duval is a 3rd year BFA student at Kwantlen College.

In the 3D Gallery Alanna Reyse is showing lots of little drawings of small animals as “Creature Critiques” but it was her installation of six stages of a tree growing from seed, in clay, that took my attention.

The Plum Gallery has been taken over by Amy Duval, with masses of mould-formed industrial shapes attached to the walls, supplemented with related drawings. She calls her show “Mechanics of Growth” to illustrate ‘imagined relationship between the human body and machinery’. When I went to take a photo of Amy with her show all her Kwantlen U instructors leapt into the picture!

All three of these current shows at Port Moody Arts Centre are well worth a visit. They will be up until June 2nd.