By Paul Gessell

Brandon McVittie is probably best known as the former co-owner of the much missed Artguise, a Bank Street art gallery and shop selling artists’ supplies from 1996 to 2010. Artguise wisely took chances on emerging artists of the day, including Kristy Gordon, Juan Carlos Noria, and Amy Thompson, and in the process went a long way in developing a market in Ottawa for new collectors to acquire the work of young, developing artists.

But McVittie is also an accomplished artist himself. His latest exhibition, Newstalgia, runs from Dec. 6 to 24 at Wall Space Gallery. McVittie is enamoured with the 1940s and so he has taken the themes and aesthetics of that period and added his own contemporary touch to make the old look new.

McVittie was recently interviewed by The Artful Blogger:

When I see some of your images of soldiers or partiers, I can’t help but hear the Andrews Sisters singing boogie woogie in the background. Are you trying to recreate a 1940s aesthetic in these paintings or is something else at play?
There definitely is a 1940s vibe to many of the genre pieces in Newstalgia. Not only can this be identified by the attire of the figures in these paintings, but also with how the compositions have been rendered stylistically and in the colour palette that has been employed. There is the intention that they look and feel vintage while being iconic. The ’40s had such profound influence on the modern era. (more…)