Previous exhibit: July 20th to August 22nd, 2010

Persona - Tina & Jochen

From July 20 to August 22, 2010 the Seymour Art Gallery will be showing Persona, a brother and sister collaboration by Tina and Jochen Schliessler. Tina and Jochen are each artists in their own right but have come together to create a unified body of work that they call Persona. Jochen has been drawing and painting since he was a teenager and has taken a surrealistic, modern approach to art. Through the use of computers, he has the tools to manipulate his art even further and to create multiple layers. He finds depth seeking an organic harmony in an otherwise digital domain. Tina began concentrating on film animation and photography. Recently she has been working on a series of photo/painting portraits. She combines black and white photography with oil painting. Persona, meaning in this case "mask", consists of a series of individual portraits, looking beneath the mask to expose layers of the many selves within each person. They have combined Tina's black and white photo portraits with Jochen's intricate drawings. The finished works employ a blend of traditional techniques with high-tech mixed media finishing.

Jochen and Tina Schliessler were born and spend their early years in Baden-Baden, Germany. In their teens they immigrated to Canada with their family. They were influenced at a young age by both, their grandfather and their father's work.

Their grandfather, Otto Schliessler, taught sculpture at the university in Karlsruhe, Germany. He exhibited frequently and was awarded numerous prizes for his sculpting commissions. Their father, Martin Schliessler, was also a sculpture and his main occupation as a highly celebrated documentary filmmaker led him to many parts of the world.

Jochen assisted his father through his early life and was able to express himself artistically in the art of photography and keeping a sketchbook diary. In his teens Jochen started to take his art seriously. He was drawing and painting on a daily basis, but instead of following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps he took a more surrealistic and modern approach to his art. Jochen's art evolves without any pre-conceptions; it is a free, sole searching expression of the time and places around him. Now, through the use of computers, Jochen has the tools to manipulate his art even further and create multiple layers. Exploring this new pallet, he finds more depth seeking an organic harmony in an otherwise digital domain. "rt has no rules" is a saying Jochen always keeps in mind, never forgetting his roots to the more traditional masters of his past.

Tina attended the Emily Carr Art College, concentrating on film animation and photography. She trained under Czechoslovakian animators Stania and Pavel Prochazka, who also inspired her painting. Her first student film landed her an animation series for German TV, and from then on she worked in several disciplines in the film crafts. Tina has been working on a series of photo/painting portraits. She combines black and white photography with oil painting. In her last solo exhibition at North Vancouver's Seymour Art Gallery she built large light boxes for transparencies and also included animation film/video techniques, bringing several of the portraits to life.

Previous Exhibits at the Seymour Art Gallery:

• June to July 2010
• May to June 2010
• April to May 2010
• March to April 2010
• February to March 2010
• January to February 2010
• December to January 2010
• November to December 2009
• October to November 2009
• September to October 2009
• August to September 2009
• July to August 2009
• June to July 2009
• May to June 2009
• April to May 2009
• March to April 2009
• February to March 2009

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the City of North Vancouver and the District of North Vancouver through The Arts Office: