EcoLux☆Lifestyle: Ann Goldberg Creates Decadent Art That Tantalizes

A decade from now, 2020 will be the year that West Vancouver-based hyperrealist artist Ann Goldberg remembers as the year she launched an exhibition during a pandemic. Booked well in advance, the mouthwatering pieces for Cake: A Modern Marie Antoinette were well on their way to being created, and no roadblocks were going to stop this professional artist.

Showing at the Pendulum Gallery, HSBC

While the Cake exhibition debuted during the pandemic at the Pendulum Gallery, Goldberg was not about to let this delicious exhibit be ignored. “I wasn’t sure the exhibition would happen as I watched the COVID-19 numbers rise, but the gallery curator Chris Keatley assured me we would find a way to make it happen.”

Ultimately, the exhibition space worked exceptionally well during the pandemic, with the gallery’s large open space viewable to the public 24-hours a day. Visitors were able to mask-up, enter, and enjoy the space comfortably and then cross West Georgia to the historic and prestigious Vancouver Art Gallery Cafe for a late lunch.

Ann Goldberg: An Artist for All Seasons

Ann is a career artist who is professionally represented by Calgary’s Gibson Art Gallery. Her focus lies entirely on finding the most striking version of everyday objects around her, especially observing and translating the importance of light on the focused item.

She practices hyperrealism by taking hundreds of high-resolution digital photographs, then edits and selects the best for aspects like vivid colours or a particularly striking beam of light. The final oil painting becomes so bolder than real life, or “a handmade reproduction of something that has been reproduced mechanically,” she explains.

The Making of Cake: A Modern Marie Antoinette

Goldberg’s artistic style is influenced by her educational background. Before committing to art full-time, she achieved a degree in mathematics and fine arts and then studied and practiced as an architect in Vancouver for ten years. From these precision-focused disciplines comes an artistic exactness that captures qualities that might otherwise be brushed aside with a single stroke.

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