Vancouver Artist David Wilson Turns ‘Day Into Night’ For Eastside Culture Crawlers

‘The Way it Sounds’ by David Wilson. Acrylic on board.

When the Parker Street Studios open their doors to the public November 18-21, visitors will get a first look at Day Into Night, the latest collection from artist David Wilson and his most recent meditation on time and place.

Wilson enjoys national renown, although his signature rain-streaked images invite immediate identification among locals. Debuting at this year’s Eastside Culture Crawl, Day Into Night finds both the artist and the city that serves as his muse in a moment of transition, with his characteristically super-vivid streetscapes now sharing space with more formally daring experiments. Wilson is especially excited to greet visitors with this latest work—his second year welcoming Eastside Culture Crawlers in person after locating to Parker Street Studios in 2019.

‘I Like To Ride In The Back Seat With You’ by David Wilson. Acrylic on board.

‘Here Comes the Sun Again’ by David Wilson. Acrylic on Board.

David Wilson remarks on Day Into Night:

“Autumn brings about a beautiful and reluctant sense of melancholy, much like the hüzün described in Orhan Pamuk’s 2003 memoir Istanbul—Memories and the City. His writing portrays great upheaval and transition within a wash of melancholic beauty. Similarly, Day Into Night reflects the experiences of moving from one set of circumstances into another. In times of COVID, at both the societal and personal level, transition has occurred at an accelerated pace seldom seen in our history. And this adaptation has been bumpy.

In creating this collection my mind constantly drifted toward the idea that, while change is inevitable, I nonetheless wanted to locate myself within a given moment. Each painting is meant to be emblematic of that condition of being; a freeze-frame capturing the movement from one place to another. It seems to me that finding oneself between states can tell us who we really are and, more importantly, who we can become.

Some of my own change can be found in the actual work itself. Day Into Night features my traditional approach to painting, presented to Vancouverites for the past 20-plus years: the rainy streets; the long dark shadows; the bright lights, and people seeking shelter from the elements. The work speaks to our collective experience of living in this city. But the exhibition also includes loosely rendered monochromatic works on paper, board, and canvas, infused with text, symbols, and other media, integrating a new narrative into this portrait of ‘the present.’ The result is less of a literal representation and more of an idea, allowing both styles to inform each other as the viewer shifts from one image to the next.”

David Wilson

Wilson’s studio, located in suite 206-1000 Parker Street in the Parker Street Studios, will be open to the public November 18-21, during the 2021 Eastside Culture Crawl. All in-person visits will be operated under current public health guidelines. All visitors to the open studio festival weekend must be prepared to show proof of vaccination plus 1 piece of ID to gain entry into the Parker Street Studios building. Masks are mandatory at all times while indoors. View Eastside Culture Crawl COVID Safety info HERE.