THEO ANGELL
borned 1968 in Portland, Ore. USA
Graduate of Portland Museum of Art Film School 1989-1991

“Raised in a house without a television” 
Theo’s work has shown from MOMA NYC to the Istanbul Biennale, Asia and Mexico. 
Mr. Angell is a filmmaker, director, editor, cinematographer, writer, composer and since moving moving to rural Canada, a painter and sculptor (wood/plastics).  
Unrelenting explorations of mythic symbols and skewed autobiography permeate his work which include: 
feature length films, music videos, time-based video/audio installations, interactive sculpture, found object assemblage and live multi-media environments. 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

FILM/VIDEO 
'The End of the Road' feature documentary aired on CBC and streams on major platforms internationally
MOMA NY, 2011 —— Lincoln Center NY, 2006 —— Anthology Film Archives NY, 2004                           Istanbul Biennale,Turkey,2003
 PICA Portland, Or., 2005 Hammer Museum LA, 2012 —— Pacific Film Archive UC Berkeley, 2012             MassArt Film Society, 2006
The Museum of Jurassic Technology LA, 2004 —— DIA NY, 2003 —— Aurora Festival:Powell River, BC. 2015 

WOOD PAPER METAL PLASTIC
                         'LUMEN' Group lighting show - Crucible Gallery Powell River 2021                                        ‘CINEMA PANDEMICO’  Movie poster collage exhibition at the historic Patricia Theatre in P.R. B.C. 2020
’LACHESIS’ A collaborative sculpture work, metal and audio components, with Donna Lytle and Gregoire Dupond, The Art Centre, Powell River, B.C. 2019
‘DisEmbodied’ Film poster collage/video installation, The Art Centre, Powell River, B.C. Winter 2018
‘Daftwood’ Solo show, Wooden sculpture assemblage, Studio Curious, PR. BC. Spring 2018
Group show participant at Tidal Arts Centre in Lund, B.C. Summers 2018/2019

RESIDENCIES: CALDERA, OR. 2005 http://calderaarts.org/caldera/
VOOM/Lab HD, NY. 2006 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAB_HD

Links to Various Work:

Cinema Pandemico
https://www.prpeak.com/culture/movie-posters-become-art-at-pop-up-show-in-powell-river-1.24170350
  •   
    The End of the Road - Original Trailer 2014: https://youtu.be/V9bM6b4V98I
  • LACHESIS - A sculptural collaboration 2019: LACHESIS.CA
  • 
Honk If…  2003: https://youtu.be/tIlp_Iohnvc
  • 
Forest Spirit/Myth Building 2006 - Caldera Residence Outdoor Video Project: https://youtu.be/pMJ8NIBxngk
  • The Well - an outtake from the video component from ‘DisEmbodied’ installation,2018: https://vimeo.com/414874224
  • 
Brunt Teers - 4 Channel Video Installation - Disjecta Arts - 2007: https://youtu.be/pECMrsjYsUU

DIORAMA 

I try to describe:

SOCIAL DOCUMENTARY SCULPTURE ANTHRO-OBJECTIFYING CREATIVE CONSUMER CURATION GLEANING THE MIGRATION

of found objects, carvings, from “Economy Shops”  in the qathet regional district, the sunshine coast, the Island, many and various Vancouver thrift stores and flea markets, creating a real proof of the actual flow these multitude of entities have taken. wooden material, sometimes quite old and each one having a different point of origin, outsider objects changing hands in outsider venues and shops, the people’s flow of unique goods which always carry a perceived and curious value.  in whose homes did these figures stand in space, informing the scene?

Each carving i use is either complete on it’s own or almost (some I alter with my own carving knife) and when combined with others their individual feeling and identity achieve an expansion of possibility and connection. in studying the characters in my collection i conjecture a myriad narrative plots. my shop is full of carvings, wooden bowls, wooden objects of any kind really. vintage salvaged wood is stacked up on the walls also, with decaying wood elbowed-in, strange diseased branches now finished dying and ready for their close-up. these will build the landscape, the backdrop, the ocean sky and city buildings. and of course the frames, each chosen to suite, because some people love frames, i am one. i’ve basically surrounded myself with everything i’ve collected over the last ten years since moving to B.C.  i’ve been playing with them in my mind, slowly arranging them into a grand narrative mini-series.  in doing this I came to the conclusion that the overarching commonality should be their journey and what they can tell us when they’re finally put together in the end.

Every diorama i make is also a group show of sorts, made up of nameless artisans, the unknown progenitors cutting with knives, sanding with stones, painting with oil hardwood figures from east Asia and the south Pacific,  chalky old white wood from Africa, Quebecer hunters with rifles on their shoulders, a Pope, a Virgin Mary, a Ma and a Pa, an out-house. each figure represents an occupation or iconic saint or caricature, idol, or an animal, a deer in the woods, the bear reaching for salmon, a wolf keeps watch in a forest of relics, a herd of Serengeti creatures graze in the distance, and all brought out from whence they came till they arrived here, an artistic and transitory effort en masse.  the story is in the ingredients, the flotsam of folk art drifting it’s way westward till no more it can go but to settle down and become part of the landscape.  

This mode of creation is a combination of: 

  1. archaeology: in the searching and puzzling, in the gathering of these separate pieces, these precious finds

  2. curation, a person should have discerning taste

3. documentary maker: creating the story from this cosmic findery where perhaps i am the gravitational pull on the things i find in my travels, inferring a collective meaning in the random encounters

4. hunter gatherer. i hunger (to shop) and go where the objectional food is to be found and each store and shop is it’s own shifting, curated and priced-out midden heap, like a filter.

I’ve always been fascinated by dioramas and miniature worlds.  My brothers and I would create plastic model dinosaur landscapes together and model railroad worlds. Naturally the Miniature Museum under the Empress Hotel in Victoria blew my mind! Perhaps it was this encounter which made me what I’ve become now, a child arranging figures. But after so many years in front of a computer with my audio/video work I decided it was time to start “using my hands” again.  Plus I didn’t want my kids to see me sitting on my ass all day in front of a screen (“screen time” is a big deal with kids).  I also like the idea of going against current art and culture trends with their increasingly hi-tech parameters.  My experience as a life-long on-and-off-again carpenter has certainly come to bear on this particular mode of art.  And my early years working in an antique shop in Portland, Oregon brought a certain level of appreciation for the subtle feeling of old things, their “energy”.  Especially for me is finding the flawed pieces, the ones that were never quite finished, of little value to collectors.  These I can afford to buy but only choose those with a flaw that rings true. 




STILL LIFE WITH VIRUS

Paintings and Sculpture 

by Theo Angell


 Petri Dish Profiles, Frontline Angels, Old Timers, Trace Contacts, Case Clusters, Vaccine Virgins and The Safety Boys of Summer!  

"Due to the COVID 19 Pandemic” AND the subsequent home schooling of my two children, I found myself with a different kind of time on my hands. And so I began a series of paintings on glass. I wanted to create giant petri dish portraits of the virus as I imagined it would look magnified a million times.  This work is all about colour, those globular shapes and the interaction of chemicals.  Others are portraits of those involved in the fight against its spread or those who have succumbed for different reasons, all happening in the midst of our current climate. We are masked and un-masked, a living barometer gauging our reaction to this threat. 

Some of my paintings happen on multiple layers of glass, creating a 3D world floating in the clear canvas.  Some of them happen on giant iphones with broken screens and grievous cell damage.  In each of the paintings however, beauty was attempted, politics avoided. My previous experience in painting took place in NYC and consisted almost entirely of the painting of walls, both residential and commercial, my "minimalist" phase.  And my life-long work and hobbyist as a carpenter dovetails nicely with my love for frame making.  Since moving to Canada I've begun a series of dioramas, sculptures and collages made entirely of wood, a few of which will be included in this show.