UBC Museum of Anthropology Opens New Exhibition

Fidelis is pleased to be a part of the production for this exhibit, for which we printed many of the photographs, including several 7 foot portraits, to be mounted from the MOA ceiling! We encourage all of you to stop in and see the exhibition for its unique content, and subject matter. Congratulations to Douglas Curran on this successful show!

Opening Reception Tuesday, February 6, 2007, 7:00 pm – friends and family welcome. All donations received at MOA on February 6 will be forwarded to the Stephen Lewis Foundation

Exhibition on display through September 3, 2007

The exhibition is guest curated and assembled by Vancouver-based photographer Douglas Curran, who has documented the Chewa mask culture for over ten years. In conjunction with the show, Mr. Curran will speak at the Museum about Chewa cosmology Tuesday, February 20 at 7:00 pm.

Fred Herzog chooses Fidelis for landmark exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery

Photographer Fred Herzog’s landmark exhibit of colour photographs at the Vancouver Art Gallery is a life-time achievement that was made possible with the expertise of Fidelis.

Fidelis Printmaking began working with Herzog in 2004. Over 500 hours of digital scanning, re-mastering, and printing were required to produce Herzog’s unique colour images that document the nostalgia of urban life in Vancouver during the 1950s and 60s. “We were honoured to be Fred’s choice for handling this precious collection. We knew that Fred’s images would find a place in history through the Vancouver Art Gallery exhibit, so image integrity was paramount,” says Fidelis co-owner Alan Somerville.

That the photographs should have a long life was also very important for display purposes and ownership. Fidelis created Herzog’s colour prints with a pigment-based inkjet process on archival paper. The pigment-based ink is rated to last over 100 years. This process is particularly suited to Herzog’s images. Prior to the introduction of the digital archival printmaking offered by Fidelis, a high-quality print method for Herzog’s Kodachrome slides was not available. “It’s our business to give artists access to the very best image-making technology and expertise, so for Fred we were able to custom scan each individual slide, capture every detail, and colour correct exactly to his specifications. Basically he was the art director and on the technical side we were the conduit to achieving his vision,” says Somerville. The resulting prints reward our eyes with all the sharpness and brilliance of colour in the original slides.

Fred Herzog: Vancouver Photographs can be viewed at the Vancouver Art Gallery until May 13. The images that Herzog created with the help of Fidelis Printmaking also appear in book that that accompanies the exhibition.

More of Fidelis’ prints will be seen at the Vancouver Art Gallery when the exhibit of contemporary photographer Roy Arden opens in the fall of 2007.

Client Email Update

Hello Everyone,

In order to invite you to open houses, seminars, and special events we need your current email address. We discovered in December, that many of your email address have changed, and that Shaw in particular will not allow us to email you a group email.

At your earliest opportunity, please email me your current email and postal address, so that I can update your file. For those of you that do get blocked by Shaw, please check this part of our website regularly for event information. We'll do our best to keep it more current. Thank you in advance. K.

Doing Your Homework

This article was send to me by a Fidelis client. A sad story about an artist who put too much trust in a stranger.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-artfraud18jan18,0,7378016.story?coll=l

This was disturbing to me, we hear so many sad stories. I thought I'd share my comments with you all.

Comments to the article:
Unauthorized reproductions have been a problem since the beginning of time, sadly, there will always be people with no integrity. The best way to avoid this, it to use suppliers, dealers, reps that you can reach, live close to your town, and have lots ( I mean 100's) of references.

Most artists and photo-based artists know the Somerville (co-owners of Fidelis) name from Gamma, we have a history in the community. We do excellent work, but most of our clients, have done their homework, and know we wouldn't be in business this long if we lacked integrity.

But some people, try to save money, sign a bad contract, or sign with someone because they are "nice".

A sad local story is a downtown gallery who sells the consigned artwork for more than the agreed price. Pays the artist the commission on the agreed (lower) price, and pockets the difference.

There have been several start-up printmakers, who appeared to finance their new business equipment, by offering to rep artists, only after they had the artwork scanned at their premised for a large fee. They claimed it needed to be ready for sale, although, why couldn't it be scanned high-res after a deal was on the table? Did anyone question them?

So many stories, not all are criminal, some are just bad business deals for the artist.

Some artists don't read the fine print in a contract. In the case of this article, they may not even have a contract, or read it if there was one, and in the excitement, I doubt they checked for references.

I'm sad for the people in this story, and I hope by circulating it, artists will become more business savvy.

I'll put my thinking cap on. Maybe we can come up with a copyright protection device for artists. Giclee is not the criminal here, as artwork can be copied many ways (i.e having an artist in China make a painted copy).

What can be done???
In Summer of 2006, Fidelis introduced our "Certificate of Authenticity". It accompanies all our prints (if the artist want to use it). It outlines our warrantee, handling and whether it is an edition/original etc. It has a catalogue number referenced to the artist's invoice, and our computer database. We encourage artists to be sure their dealer includes this with the sold print.

Alan and myself (Karen) teach an Art Marketing class at Langara. This we do, with guest speakers, not for the pay, but as a service to the community. Fidelis has also offered many workshops with friend and marketing consultant Alice Rich. These are all valuable for artists, I am sad to report, however, that even the free seminars are not well attended.

We will continue to keep you posted on other related stories, as this is a small community and we need to watch out for one another. But be reminded, that there are many reputable printmakers, dealers, and reps, all of which have your best interests at heart.