VANS COMMUNITY SERIES: LES RAMSAY
Les Ramsay Andres Aramburu Les Ramsay Andres Aramburu

VANS COMMUNITY SERIES: LES RAMSAY

5 years ago painter/sculptor Les Ramsay relocated his practice from the bustle of city life in Vancouver to a serene home/studio along B.C.’s scenic Sunshine Coast. Alongside his partner, artist Colleen Heslin, the two have created a space wholly their own in Powell River. Focusing on art from scratch, Les has taken on new influences, inspired by the captivating scenery of this updated environment. His metaphorical art practice is rooted in methods of formal abstraction with an intuitive material processes developed from both inside and outside the studio. Exhibiting his work throughout Canada, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and across the US, Les has come to revere the serenity of an art practice at a slow pace.

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residence: Les Ramsay interview
Les Ramsay Andres Aramburu Les Ramsay Andres Aramburu

residence: Les Ramsay interview

A conversation conducted between Montréal and London with writer and editor Nathalie Agostini and Canadian painter Les Ramsay on the concept of “weird,” collecting, and language.

Let’s start with a quote of yours from a previous interview: “I’m big on trying to outweird myself… I need that challenge or else it’s easy for things to become just decorative.” Around the advent of photography, Walter Benjamin defined the concept of “aura” as the quality essential to an artwork that cannot be mediated through techniques of mechanical reproduction. How do you see the relationship between the concepts of “weird” and “aura” when it comes to a quality that cannot be mediated technically, and mass-produced?

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