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Plaza Galleries goes for gold

Main street gallery unveils collection of Olympic-inspired pieces alongside work of the old masters
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The nooks and crannies of Whistler's many art galleries are filled with artistic treasures; stunning landscape portraits, awe-inspiring photography, sculpture, ceramics and other fine art forms. But thanks in large part to the profile of the Olympic Games, one local gallery has managed to land a significant collection of work by a few of the legendary master artists: Rembrandt, Chagall, Renoir and Picasso.

The collection of 25 pieces includes Chagall's lithographs, "Joshua and the Vanquished Kings" and "La Femme Oiseau" and a series of black ink etchings by Picasso. Of course, there's also the matter of the original "Nu Blanc Au Bouc Orange" by Chagall worth $1,000,000 hanging above the fireplace.

"I'm ecstatic!" said gallery director David Helfrich,

"You'd never see a collection like this without being in a museum, and one of the top museums in the world."

Helfrich explained that he has been working with a company that is based out of San Francisco and New York - "probably the biggest dealers of old masters in the West and in New York" - to make this exhibition a reality.

One of their representatives will be on hand, working with The Plaza Galleries' staff to answer questions about the valuable and iconic pieces for the entire month the exhibition is on display in Whistler.

All of the pieces are for sale and Helfrich is hoping they attract some interested art lovers and collectors.

"Put it this way: never before has a collection like this been put together for a gallery this small," Helfrich said.

Helfrich handpicked the pieces that he felt were most representative of the artists, leaning towards lifetime work rather than posthumous pieces of questionable integrity.

"The Rembrandts are going to be easy to sell because they're all lifetime pieces," Helfrich said. "He had posthumous pieces that were done after his death, but I always found them kind of questionable because some of his students finished them off."

The Picasso and Chagall pieces are a combination of etchings, lifetime etchings and lithographs.

The masters' collection will be hung in a separate room in the gallery; a dedicated space which will ensure the pieces stand apart from their contemporary works and other collections.

On top of this collection of masters' works, The Plaza Galleries has assembled a wide range of very special Olympic-inspired collections. Preparing the gallery has been a labour of love for Helfrich. A quick visit to the gallery shows that they have, in fact, been very busy finding pieces that speak to all members of the visiting public. The walls are covered in canvases and sculpture, with only a few inches of white wall peeking out between.

Helfrich estimates that 70 to 75 per cent of the artists they represent are Canadian, though there are a few international and American artists like Nick Paciorek featured, as well.

Paciorek already has a wealth of Olympic experience under his belt, having captured the Games over the past 10 years in vivid collections of mountain vistas and urban spaces. His most recent series, "Olympic Inspiration: On the Slopes, in the Valleys," features studies of Vancouver and Whistler in the lead-up to the Games.

His collection centres around the idea that each Olympic host city has a unique personality that is reflected in the Games.

"I was in Cortina skiing and... I ended up just doing a couple turns here and there, and I was like, 'what's this building?'" he recalled. "I ended up in the middle of the outdoor Olympic stadium."

He found himself inspired by the architecture and rich Olympic history of the building and the beautiful mountains surrounding the venue.

"It just gave me a real sense of, 'wow, the landscape affects the athletes every day!"

While Paciorek focuses mainly on urban landscapes, he has successfully branched out into the rural for his Olympic series, capturing the majestic mountains that play host to many of the Winter Olympic events.

Intrigued by how the figures relate to the surrounding environment, as elements of scale, proportion and light come into play, Paciorek finds himself drawn to intense, warm colours that are found during the shift in light from dusk to dark - rich pinks and hues as the sun sets and rises.

"There's concrete, light and all this other stuff, but it's also in a natural sometimes in urban areas, to even outdoors in Whistler," he explained in a recent interview.

Paciorek completed his formal training at the Art Institute of Chicago and Maryland Institute of Art. Capturing the West Coast landscape is an exciting challenge for the painter, who now calls Rhode Island home.

"It's always great to go to just a totally different place because right now, I work in New York and other cities around the United States, but the landscapes such as the mountains and everything, just with skiing, its just a totally different environment."

To complete his most recent series, Paciorek spent time in both Vancouver and Whistler, studying the characteristics of the area and the people.

"Vancouver is different than Torino, Torino is different than Chamonix, and so the landscapes from any different venues are always changing, but it's how people and the athletes interplay with the area," he said.

And they're not just different in a physical sense; each Olympic host city has a different spirit.

Paciorek hopes his paintings will offer people the opportunity to take away a moment in time and a memory from the 2010 Games.

"I'm hoping to give anyone - an athlete, a person that actually skis some of these slopes - to take that moment and stop and say, 'I've been there, I felt that.'"

In addition to Paciorek's pieces, Helfrich has unearthed some true treasures to share with the world.

There are two display cases full of vibrant, one-of-a-kind blown glass sockeye salmon created by Oregon artist Andy Nichol and more fused glass in the form of full-sized snowboards and skis crafted by Kate McLeod, another Oregon artist. One of the gallery's mainstay exhibiting artists, Kal Gajoum, has new paintings on display that capture the speed, beauty and light of a day of skiing in rich, textured oils. Artist Marc Ahr will also be attending many of the 2010 sporting events and creating new watercolour illustrations on-location, on a daily basis, displaying and selling many of these brand-new pieces through Plaza Galleries. And if that wasn't enough, former Whistler resident Al Boileau has created some Olympic-inspired wood relief sculpture of skiers just in time for the Games.

Located in Town Plaza, The Plaza Galleries is sure to be a hub of Whistler's art community during the Olympics. The gallery will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to midnight daily throughout the Games.