Laurie Mackie and Laura Strybosch
present
Between Here and There
a two-person exhibition at Studio 553
553 1/2 Fisgard Street, Victoria BC. V8W 1R5
April 10-21, 2025. Opening April 10, 6:00-9:00
Hours: Friday April 11, Saturday April 12 and Sunday April 13, 10:00-5:00.
Friday April 18, Saturday April 19 and Sunday April 20, 10:00-5:00.
Sunday April 13 at 2:00, join the artists as they talk about their practice.
Laura Strybosch, “Cement Plant”
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Bev Thompson's Studio 553 in Chinatown
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Laurie Mackie, “Southwest”
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Studio 553 welcomes you to the heart of historic Chinatown. Studio 553 is a spacious upstairs gallery, restored to its original charm by Bev's hardworking crew. Bev is an artist who offers the rental space for cultural events and social occasions. "Building community and promoting the arts are important,” she says. To contact Bev please call: 250 510-9713.
[email protected]; www.studio553.ca
Studio 553 welcomes you to the heart of historic Chinatown. Studio 553 is a spacious upstairs gallery, restored to its original charm by Bev's hardworking crew. Bev is an artist who offers the rental space for cultural events and social occasions. "Building community and promoting the arts are important,” she says. To contact Bev please call: 250 510-9713.
[email protected]; www.studio553.ca
Please note: The second-floor studio at 553 1/2 Fisgard Street, is not wheelchair accessible.
Laurie Mackie,
"White Sun”, acrylic on canvas, 38x54 in, 2020-2024
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Laurie Mackie, "Southwest”, acrylic on canvas, 36x48 in, 2019-2020
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Laurie Mackie is a professional artist with an active studio in Sidney. Her continually-evolving practise includes printmaking, installation and photography. Mackie has exhibited at arc.hive and Xchanges, two artist-run galleries in Victoria. In 2019, the Burnaby Library featured 22 of her prints in a solo show. As well, two large prints exhibited at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts.
Mackie met Laura Strybosch at Studio 553 while attending life drawing sessions. They both attended classes at Ground Zero Printmakers. Mackie is inspired by Strybosch’s technical abilities which foster tension and dynamism in her work.
“Sharing exhibition space at Studio 553 with Laura is a rare treat,” she says. Mackie and Strybosch’s large-scale contemporary paintings will shine on the warm brick walls of Studio 553.
“Sharing exhibition space at Studio 553 with Laura is a rare treat,” she says. Mackie and Strybosch’s large-scale contemporary paintings will shine on the warm brick walls of Studio 553.
Mackie became enamoured with hard-edge painting in 2018, after viewing geometric abstract works by Joseph Kyle. Kyle was active in the Victoria College of Art and served as director for 25 years. In works like White Sun and Southwest Mackie combines shapes and colours in unique configurations - delighting the sensory palette. Geometric painting requires a methodical approach, similar to printmaking explains Mackie and the results are joyful. “From the start, I was hooked on hard-edge,” she says, “it was so satisfying and fun to paint.”
Laurie Mackie, "Hard Copy”, acrylic on canvas, 48x36 in, 2025
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Laurie Mackie, “Number 10 Pink Bamboo”, acrylic on canvas, 48x36 in, 2018-2024
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In Hard Copy Mackie mixes architectural shapes and forms with areas of flat colour. The artist’s palette is varied, using sedate blue tones to contrast with bright areas of chartreuse, mustard yellow and bright pink. Sharp angles and flowing shapes move the viewer’s eyes around the large composition. Hard Copy makes a playful reference to bygone days when printed material was abundant and referred to as hard copy.
Number 10 Pink Bamboo conveys the idea of vertical building blocks by using small areas of pigment. The blocks are squares and rectangles of various hues, that delineate a thin robotic structure at the composition’s left edge. This precarious structure is balanced by a central gray ground and curved red accent far right. Thin pink lines with notches like bamboo add interest and connecting points within the painting. Number 10 Pink Bamboo was reworked from a smaller painting completed at a
Golden Artist Colour workshop with Sara Robichaud. The workshop provided Mackie with access to a wide variety of quality paints, mediums and gels. Delighted and inspired, she undertook a creative journey she knows well: building up a coherent abstraction using the tools at hand and a wealth of experience.
Golden Artist Colour workshop with Sara Robichaud. The workshop provided Mackie with access to a wide variety of quality paints, mediums and gels. Delighted and inspired, she undertook a creative journey she knows well: building up a coherent abstraction using the tools at hand and a wealth of experience.
Laura Strybosch, “Excavation 2”, mixed media, 48x48 in, 2025
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Laura Strybosch, “Darkhouse”, mixed media on canvas, 48x48 in, 2025
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Laura Strybosch has always loved drawing. As a child she delved into the world of comic books, producing her own in a vivid graphic style. In high school, her art teachers encouraged her to expand upon her graphic genre. Later on, Michael Morris became an important mentor. Morris (1942-2022) was a leading figure in conceptual art theory and practice on the West Coast. He was one of her tutors at Victoria College of Art and gave her some important feedback. “You see the surface of things”, he said one day after watching her draw. Hearing these words from a well-respected artist encouraged Strybosch. She describes it as “a light going on” which validated her natural tendencies in painting and drawing.
Seeing the surface of industrial landscapes and excavation sites might cause some to turn away. But Strybosch finds the desolate landscape of rock and earth bleakly beautiful and transcending. She will visit a site several times to photograph the ongoing construction, then consolidate these changes into her final painting. Strybosch finds joy in painting her impressions of the surface by making marks and symbols - dancing across the canvas with her tools. Strybosch is an accomplished mid-career artist, active within Victoria’s arts community. She feels fortunate to be exhibiting her work with Mackie - a colleague she describes as professional, gifted and intelligent.
Laura Strybosch, “Cement Plant”, mixed media on canvas, 36x48 in, 2020
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Laura Strybosch, “Electric Wasteland”, mixed media, 48x48 in, 2025
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With Ground Zero artists, she has visited industrial areas of the city recalled in Cement Plant. This large painting (36x48 inches) combines the artist’s myriad skills in a mixed-media adventure. An imaginary environment appears wrapped in billows of steam puffing from indeterminate sources. Linear shapes are stacked in odd configurations among the barbed wire fencing and uneven ground of metallic shards. On the monochromatic background the semi-formed boxes glow in neon colours, a sign of human activity.
Her process includes many washes of acrylic paint along with areas enlivened by gestural brushwork. Details such as the shards and barbed wire are formed from loosely applied and repetitive mark-making. The artist uses collage to create areas of interest, incorporating fragments of paper, thread and cloth. “Visiting these sites is my way of paying homage to the permanence of earth and bedrock,” she says, “in spite of human intervention”.
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