Art? Or an Apple Fritter?

Lee Hutzulak, a man of many talents, picks up his paintbrush and plays nice with a cast of oddball characters at an even odder venue – a fancy donut shop in Vancouver.

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Lee Hutzulak’s art is no stranger to unusual settings. I first saw his work in 2005 in the window of the late, lamented Dunne and Rundle camera store on Vancouver’s Granville Street. His detailed, highly personal photographs, focused on the detritus of working life and the urban environment, suggested a rare and sensitive eye, along with a fondness for subtle greys. I tracked him down and found out he is also a musician, designer and painter. But art was sidelined for many years by his myriad activities, which ultimately included starting a family. Having picked up the brush again this year, his enigmatic and otherworldly work is on view once again – in a donut shop.

Colour me suspicious of retail storefronts that show art. Artists are often used as proxy decorators, with work chosen for its ability to match the brand. It’s often precious, pretty and inoffensive, as if someone held up Pantone colour swatches to ensure a seamless blend between art and environs. And who knows what the deal is regarding sales?

Although Hutzulak doesn’t recall the exact impetus for his show, Play Nice, which runs from Aug. 11 to Sept. 1 at Cartems Donuts in Vancouver, he’s refreshingly positive. “The Pender Cartems has a nice white wall,” he says. “I’m pretty sure there will be a steady flow of people through the space every day the show is up. Also, 100 per cent of sales go to the artist.”

An established white-box gallery would be equally fitting, but Hutzulak, who graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 1993, sees a benefit to offbeat locations. “I’d like to eventually put my work into a traditional gallery context,” he says. “But in the meantime there are many alternative spaces, like coffee shops, music venues and store front windows, that can nurture the desire to publicly share your work without a lot of art language getting in the way.”

Hutzulak’s work is immediately arresting despite its relatively small scale and soft edges. Figures are often cloaked in whites, creams and ashen greys. Colorful heads and limbs float freely, untroubled by any of the usual rules regarding perspective and scale. It’s tough to decipher the exact nature of the interactions between the characters he conjures. Some seem banal, some joyous. Others are vaguely sinister. The figures often float, sometimes drifting toward the edges of the paper. You could say they are cartoonish. Hutzulak’s art would not feel out of place on a fridge door in a sanatorium inhabited by witty clairvoyants. But there’s a consistency of vision and a wholly original mind at work that I suspect will be rewarded in retrospect.

It’s difficult to place Hutzulak within any art movement. His illustrations make me think of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s Le Pendu but also seem akin to Japanese woodblock prints and paintings of the mid-1600s, particularly the unattributed Hikone screen.

Hutzulak says no movement really pops to his mind either. “But individuals do,” he adds. His list includes historical artists like James Ensor and Hieronymus Bosch, contemporary artists, both international (American Chris Johanson and German Amelie von Wulffen) and Canadian (the Okanagan’s Gary Pearson and Mike Swaney, a B.C.-born artist based in Spain). And then there are outliers like Mike Judge, creator of the television series Beavis and Butt-Head, and Aaron Read, another multi-faceted Vancouver creator. Hutzulak also loves checking out the art at his son’s elementary school and admires children’s book illustrators like Jon Klassen, Shinta Cho and Ryoji Arai. Now it makes sense! It really is a delicious fusion that eschews prejudice and snobbery, by turns joyful, witty and perverse.

Some standouts among the 20 pieces at Cartems include 30 Miles South of Truth or Consequences, which seems to evoke a blue-headed interrogator consoling a detainee in a delicate cloud of misty pink and grey smoke at a 1950s supper club. Jazz Atmosphere is a wistful take on musicians preparing for a gig. It’s Unclear Why the Project Fizzled seems to refer to a musical collaboration that went awry. I think I can make out the faces of certain local musicians. And there’s Baby Veda, named after his daughter.

Some autobiographical elements seem to be in play. Yet Hutzulak suggests resemblances to actual people may actually work in reverse. “The funny thing about drawing characters that don’t have any specific real world reference is that, after the fact, you can almost always find people in the real world resembling them,” he says.

But now to the big question: What’s the difference these days between art and luxury donuts? “Generally, the donuts are fail-safe and guaranteed to please,” says Hutzulak. “I never know if a piece will succeed. My paintings have more glitter and semi-precious magical effects, though.”

If you decide to stop by the show, here’s what he recommends: Smoked maple walnut or, if you’re feeling particularly decadent, London fog. That’s donuts, not paintings. ■

Lee Hutzulak’s show, Play Nice, is on view at Cartems Donuts on West Pender in Vancouver from Aug. 11 to Sept. 1, 2018.

Cartems Donuts

534 West Pender Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 1V3

778-708-0996

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