Opening reception – Friday February 21, 5:30-7:30pm
Exhibit open daily from Monday February 24, 10am – 4pm
Artist talk – Friday February 28, 12noon. Mindful Vision: Birgit Freybe Bateman talks and answers questions on her inspirations and and her life as a photographer.

In 2010 Birgit Freybe Bateman, to her surprise, was invited to show her photographs in Russia and the following year 67 of her images were hung in The Stroganoff Palace, which is part of The Russian Museum in St.Petersburg. This honour came about, partly, by her ability to speak German to the non-English speaking curator she met at a dinner, and the remarkable vision and diversity of subject contained in the selection of images she sent to him for consideration. He selected them all.

УВИДЕННОЕ/ Mindful Vision is Bateman’s description of her ability to see potential subjects where others might not, and reflects her mind’s accumulated knowledge and her artistic training in seeing and composing each picture.

This collection is certainly diverse with far-ranging subjects over many continents and ranging from environmental and animal, to industrial. It is interesting that humans, despite often appearing in many images in this collection, are seldom the focus, often only providing a context for the patterns, colours and motifs that so attract Bateman’s eye, or being the patterns, rather than human beings, themselves.

As a young child growing up in a strange to her, post-war Vancouver after emigration from Germany, she found comfort and excitement in her drawing and art classes at school. She could now begin to describe her experiences and to tell stories through her renditions of the world as she saw it. From her middle teens, during summertime and weekend job lunch hours, Bateman would wander the rail tracks and alleys of Vancouver, seeing beauty and design in the ordinary and functional environments that she explored with her camera.

In time, through specializing in arts at university, new interests in creating abstract works, printmaking, textiles and painting developed and refined how and why she took photographs. It is clear that her eye, and how she conveys what she sees and is attracted by, is the driver of her artistic motivation.

ArtSpring is delighted to bring УВИДЕННОЕ/ Mindful Vision to Salt Spring. The first time this Russian Museum collection has been shown in North America.

This is a fascinating and comprehensive exhibition showcasing Birgit Freybe Bateman’s unique perspective on life as it unfolds around her. She pays attention. With an unerring eye for composition, her strong artistic background provides a solid springboard from which she explores colour and pattern in a wide variety of subjects. УВИДЕННОЕ/ Mindful Vision runs the gamut from emotionally seductive to slightly unsettling. As a whole the photographs provide a smorgasbord that, on many levels, satisfies taste and provokes thought.