Cityphile: Izabella Egan

Izabella Egan is Masters Graduate of Sotheby's in London, the gallery manager at the Monte Clark Gallery, the founder of the (International) Contemporary Collectors Club and - what, you want more? - art aficionado extraordinare. In short, she has her finger firmly on the pulse of the International art scene and luckily for us she lives in Vancouver! Here's what she has to say about art, our fair city and...hockey.

I've recently learned about the Contemporary Collectors Club through your blog, The Contemporary Collectors Club - Art and Travel. Can you tell BR readers a little bit about it?

The CCC was founded by myself with the help from two contemporaries from Sotheby's in London. We realized that the art market was changing and evolving, and jokingly used to refer to ourselves as the Generation X of the art market. (If you're a Doug Coupland fan you'll find that ironic, as a Brit I wasn't really aware of Coupland until I started working at the Monte Clark Gallery. We represent Coupland in Canada, so it seems like it was always meant to be!)

There are so many younger people out there that that love art and don't know how to go about getting involved. We wanted to create a forum for then where they they learn about the art market, its artist and how to participate. The CCC was started to give those people a way to do this.

The concept was to make the art market, its artists and players, accessible to a new generation of people that will one day become the taste makers and market players. We wanted to learn about and support new emerging artists. While also educating people that may not have thought about investing in art, as well as exposing new artists to a new group of collectors.

We formed the CCC to bring together like minded individuals who cared about the art industry and wanted to be involved in it from the roots up.

The CCC currently has members from around the world and we aim to meet once a year in New York and London (as these are the art markets central cities.)

Yay! I love it! So what does this mean for art in Vancouver?

I decided to move to Vancouver in 2005 and finally made the move in 2006. It was a life style choice. I love the city, love the people and love the atmosphere here. On top of this I love the art market here in Vancouver. It's so much more intimate and personal than the markets of London and New York. You can physically get involved on so many levels. On top of that Vancouver has one of the strongest schools of contemporary photography to emerge in the 21st Century (Photography is my passion - so it made sense to move here and learn as much as I could).

As a result of moving here I met Megan Cole. The art business world is archaic and really quite backward in terms of the internet, Megan taught me about the power of the blog and the ability to reach out and contact people through blogging. She helped me develop my first blog site. www.c-c-c-vancouver.com The response to the site was great and I realized that there was a need for the CCC here too. The art market is typically dominated by the older generations, probably due to their spending power and disposable incomes. Many of the people that contacted me were young, artistically interested and minded people looking to either begin buying art, or just simply interested in what was going on and where they could learn more without feeling intimidated. A lot of the time the art market is stifled by its stuffy reputation and people are afraid to ask questions in case they look stupid. But if you don't ask... how are you ever going to learn.

So although the CCC is still a members club based in New York and London I am developing now a satellite club here in Vancouver, and until that happens we have the CCC blog to keep people thinking and blogs like yours to keep people informed!

We now also have satellite blogs in Toronto, and Washington DC as well as in London and New York. The blogs have enabled us to increase the awareness to the market, for a generation who are active online and use the internet as a means to grow and expand their knowledge.

I'm hoping to not only raise awareness to the art market here in Vancouver but also for people outside of Vancouver to learn a little about how much talent we have here and what's going on outside the huge metropolises of London and New York.

Sounds amazing! How does one get involved?

At the moment the membership is by invitation only, however I am looking at opening it up in 2008, basically if you're interested in it, read the blog and want to participate and get involved in the conversation and community online, fire me an email and we'll go from there.

Are you a native of Vancouver? What brought you here/back here?

As I mentioned before I'm actually not from here. I'm from England. But I fell in love with this city, then I fell in love, then I just fell in love with Vancouver itself. I think the city does that to you. It sucks you in, the environment and the people. The art industry is the perfect icing to the perfect cake as far as I'm concerned! I have family here so it really feels like home! On top of that I made some incredible friends and just couldn't really imagine living anywhere else in the world. I've traveled the world extensively and have never found a place that quickens my heart the way this city does!

I love my work. Monte Clark is possibly the most talented and dedicated person I have ever worked for. I couldn't imagine going to work anywhere else or for anyone else. He's got so much to teach me and I've got so much to learn. As a result I couldn't imagine living anywhere else in the world.

Any thoughts on the Vancouver Arts scene and how it is evolving?

The art industry here is active and alive, but sometimes I feel like it's fragmented. There is an incredible amount of artist run activity and some great galleries, but there seems to be a void in between the collectors and buyers (or taste makers for want for a better phrase) and the artists. There needs to be a middle ground. Young collectors and young artists need a forum to find out about each other. It's a great world to be involved with and I'm really passionate about the scene here. I love what the artists do for themselves, the artists run centres are great and the young people are really good at getting out there and participating but still for some reason the buying power reminds in the hands of our parents generation. I think a lot of that is down to the lack of openness and transparency in the market. People don't know how to get started!

As you're also the gallery manager at Monte Clark, can you tell us about any great exhibits we can look forward to this year?

Oh so many! We had an opening for Scott McFarland on Saturday. I love Scott's work. It's powerful, intellectual and challenges the realms of photography. He's really fantastic. After that we have a solo show by Greg Girard. Its going to be awesome, he's so talented. I can't wait to see his new works.

It's always the exciting being a gallery manager and working with contemporary artists. You never truly know what's coming next from the stable of artists. Karin Bubas is one of Vancouver's most talented female photographers, (you guys had a blog about her works at the VPL recently) the other day she blew me out of the water by producing some incredible water colours for her solo show with our Toronto gallery. I mean it was amazing. Not only is she a truly gifted photographer, she's got an amazing talent for creating incredible compositions. (Secretly I'm hoping to see if she ever tries her hand at oils for us!) .

What about galleries/art spaces you like to frequent other than that Monte Clark?

I'm a big fan of the artists run centres such as the Access Artists Run Centre, I recently attended a charity auction they had. It was a great night and really nicely organized. I also love the Tracey Lawrence Gallery. I'm a big fan of Blanket Gallery too. I love their dedication and drive. I should also mention the Contemporary Art Society Vancouver (CASV). Tthey put together some great talks and events. Centre A puts on some great exhibits too. There are so many! I don't really know where to stop.

I'm looking forward to seeing how so many of Vancouver's young artists grow and develop. I think that because there is such a strong support system between the emerging artist and the mid career artists Vancouver and Canadian art stands a strong chance of dominating the art market in the next 30 years. Id love to see someone acknowledge the school here in a similar way Saatchi did with the YBA's (Young British Artists) Imagine it... it even sounds good... the YVA's. I can see it now with "Uncles" and "God fathers" like Jeff Wall and Roy Arden guiding them so deftly how can these young artists fail!

Wow, so much arty goodness! And I agree. We definitely need to get the YVA's established in Vancouver right away. With so much passion and energy, it seems hard to believe that you have time for anything else! What do you do for fun in town when you don't feel like being around art?

Some times I get "arted out." When that happens Vancouver has so much to offer..... I love the mountains. I'm learning to snowboard (I say learning because I don't seem to be getting any better!) I love hiking and in the summer basically just getting out there. I live in Kits so it's great to hang out at the beach and relax. I think my favourite thing to do here in Vancouver is to simply be outside. The air is so clean here! After spending years living in London and its smog, nothing really tickles me like walking along to dog beach with a cup of tea, looking at the mountains and taking in the scene. It's such an active city, whether its cycling the sea wall or snow shoeing at cypress.... there is always something to keep my occupied. However, even when I think I'm completely arted out I still always seem to have my camera in my pocket!

I'm also really getting into hockey. As a Brit it's all still very new me, but it fills my rugby void! It's gritty, aggressive, competitive yet graceful and skillful. Id love to see the Canucks take on the Falcons Rugby team! That would be a great match! (Although I think the home game on ice would be distinctly unfair!)

Izabella, thanks so much! It's been great talking with you and I'm so excited for what you're doing with Vancouver's art scene!