VampSites

The small painted portrait of a mischievous vampire is easy to miss. It’s hung slightly above eye level outside the entrance to Mitchell Wiebe’s joyful exhibition, VampSites, at Regina’s MacKenzie Art Gallery until Jan. 5.

The vampire, titled Best Friend, could be a stand-in for the artist, almost like an artsy version of the Wal-Mart greeter. Or maybe the vampire is simply looking for a delectable neck to bite.

Does that sound too fantastical? Not for this mind-bending show that, in 1968, might have drawn exclamations of “far out” from acid-tripping hippies – especially in the black-light room, where paintings of magical beasts and dizzying swirls of paint seemingly suck you in like an alien spaceship. This being 2019, young thrill-seekers may get an idea what their stoned parents – or grandparents – were into back in the day. 

“I like a painting to read as if the imagination of the viewer can have a conversation with another world,” says Wiebe. 

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Mitchell Wiebe, “VampSites,” 2019

installation view at MacKenzie Art Gallery (photo by Don Hall)

But back to vampires. To vamp, according to Google, comes from the word “vampire” and means “to tease or flirt, especially in a showy and manipulative way,” something VampSites certainly does.

The vampire’s lair is surely inside a small room in one corner of the gallery. Peer inside and see among this hoarder’s delight of small paintings and found objects a crudely made sign that reads: Vampirical Paintings Hang From The Wall To Display Future Forms of Reverse Magic Realism. Now what the heck does that mean? You could go crazy trying to figure it out. Maybe Wiebe is just messing with our heads.

VampSites features psychedelic paintings, dollar-store ornaments and sparkly clothing that no campy vampire could resist.

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Mitchell Wiebe, “Donkey Holds the Line,” 2002

acrylic and oil on canvas (courtesy of the artist)

One wall shows photographs of his 2011 home studio in a Cold War refuge nicknamed the Diefenbunker, near Halifax. The Regina-born artist did a residency there, turning each room in the sprawling, abandoned facility into a studio for a different project. He covered some of the bunker’s walls in gaudy paint. It’s probably a poor idea to let Wiebe housesit for you.

VampSites is meant to be a hybrid of studio and gallery. Visitors were welcome to watch Wiebe as he installed the exhibition, which was shown previously at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown. 

Delightfully free of politics, the show is a funhouse that lets people contemplate portals to adventure, terror and beauty. Some elements look ready to collapse, replicating the transitory nature of so many aspects of human life. But, more than anything,VampSites lets us peer into the complex mind of an artist – perhaps one who is also a vampire. ■

Mitchell Wiebe: VampSites is on view at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina from Sept. 20, 2019 to Jan. 5, 2020.

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