This publication, produced by the Contemporary Art Gallery in 2008, accompanied the exhibition by Stephen Waddell at the Contemporary Art Gallery, April 4 – June 1, 2008. The exhibition was a survey of the artist’s paintings, photographic studies and films ranging from 1995 to 2008 and was curated by renowned artist Roy Arden. The publication includes a foreword by Christina Ritchie and critical texts written by Katrin Blum and Roy Arden with colour reproductions of 25 artworks.

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Stephen Waddell

Roy Arden

This solo exhibition of Berlin and Vancouver based artist Stephen Waddell is curated by Roy Arden and will present works from 1997 to 2006 in paint, film and photography. Waddell began his career as a painter but eventually came to concentrate on photography. Studying at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia, he moved to Berlin in 1998 but now maintains a studio in Vancouver and spends time living and working in both cities. Waddell's early paintings focused on anonymous urban spaces. These were usually unpopulated, lonely scenes that seemed like memories of experiences of derealisation. He used the camera to make studies for his paintings and these snapshots and polaroids lead him to take up photography full-time. Waddell also made super 8 film studies of urban pedestrians that paved the way for his tableau-scaled photos of solitary figures for which he has become known. These photos are largely unposed studies of strangers caught at work, in transit or at leisure that reinvent the Impressionist project of "the painting of modern life." Like other painters turned photographers, Waddell's indifference toward criteria established within a strictly photographic tradition permitted him to breathe new life and purpose into the medium. His works are better understood as pictures than photographs in that they draw as much from the history of painting as the history of photography.

Guest curated by Roy Arden


Essay: "Stephen Waddell’s Depictive Art," Roy Arden

Two large scale framed photographs hang on adjacent corner walls in the gallery. One depicts tree roots covered in litter and the other a figure sitting on a tree stump near a body of water.

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Various two-dimensional artworks are installed on the gallery walls. Some of them are small-sized photographs and others are paintings. They all depict urban landscapes. 

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Six photographs are installed on the gallery walls. Two of them are framed photographs depicting a shutter gate. A large photograph on the left depicts a mannequin beside a fire truck. 

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Two video works are projected on the gallery walls. Both videos record a person walking in a city. Two black benches are installed near where those videos are projected. 

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Various large-sized coloured photographs are installed in a gallery space. The photograph on the left depicts a young person sitting on a tree stump beside a body of water. 

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Four large-sized photographs are installed on the gallery walls. One photograph depicts a person standing in a body of water. The other photograph captures two people walking in a park. 

Stephen Waddell

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