Stir Wine Pairing: A collage of colours and flavours comes together through this match-up of the Cultch Gallery, Vennie's, and IMBZZL
We’re chasing the Collage Works exhibition by Ginger Sedlarova and Seema Shah with a stop at a new sub shop on Venables and a just-launched Okanagan-grown rosé
Ginger Sedlarova, Darling Can’t You Hear Me? Collage and watercolour on wood panel,16”x12”. Photo via the Gallery at the Cultch
IMBZZL is a new wine label from Laughing Stock Vineyards. Vennie’s Sub Shop on Venables is all about the art of the sandwich.
Every week, Stir Wine Pairing suggests BC wine and food to go with a local arts event.
The event
Collage Works by Ginger Sedlarova and Seema Shah at the Gallery at the Cultch, online to September 30.
The food
Handhelds from Vennie’s Sub Shop (1692 Venables Street)
The wine
IMBZZL Ruse Rosé 2020
The lowdown
A new exhibition of collage and mixed-media works by local artists Ginger Sedlarova and Seema Shah is now on at the Gallery at the Cultch online, with an artists’ talk on September 12 at 2 pm PDT.
Sedlarova considers herself a collage artist and a storyteller whose works made with a knife, paper, and glue are absurdist and surreal.
“My practice grew from my love of making photo collages in my former newspaper career as a graphic artist, only now I do this by hand,” Sedlarova says in a statement. “It’s cathartic to strip images down to their simplest forms and then build them back up again. I love to play and indulge in the unexpected — life is a collage of events, and my work is how I see the world when I close my eyes.”
Seema Shah, In the Arctic (2019), collage on paper, 8.5" x 5.75”. Photo via the Gallery at the Cultch.
Shah didn’t set out to become a collage artist, but her work almost always includes an element of piecing together disparate elements to form a new meaning and aesthetic; she’s drawn to creating something of value from scraps that would otherwise be thrown away. “The process itself is a metaphor for many aspects of my life and self,” Shah notes in her artist statement.
“Tapping into my subconscious and working intuitively, my collages are layered emotional narratives that reflect my inner landscape,” she says. “Patterns have organically emerged in my collages over time, including the appearance of recurrent themes, metaphors, and imagery. Though my pieces in this exhibition were created independently of one another over the past five years, a stream of water and darkness runs through them.”
The food
Like collage art, what is a sandwich if not a combination of disparate elements combined to become a thing of beauty?
Vennie’s Sub Shop’s Classic Deli.
Vennie’s Sub Shop comes from the same duo behind Downlow Chicken Shack and is Doug Stephen and Lindsey Mann’s ode to the underrated, unsung hero of handhelds.
“There is just so much potential and versatility in building a great hoagie, sub, submarine, hero, or sandwich—no matter what you call it,” Stephens says. “Think of the sauces, the meats, the veg, the cheese. Of course, it takes some finesse in how you build it. Once you’ve got it figured out, you get a taste of everything in each bite.”
On the menu are the Classic Deli, an Italian hero-style sando mortadella, Genoa salami, spicy Calabrian soppressata, provolone, and more; the Aftermath, a collab with David Bowett’s Aftermath Barbecue Pop-up, with low-and-slow smoked beef; the Soy Poached Chicken, with scallion-ginger relish; and more. (Vennie’s a neighbour to the Cultch, located just a few blocks away.)
The pairing
There’s a new kid in town: Laughing Stock Vineyards on Naramata Bench just launched a new label called IMBZZL, a mash-up of the words imbibe and embezzle.
Winemaker Stefanie Dylla, who studied winemaking at Brock University, uses a complex technique for the IMBZZL Ruse Rosé 2020, one that was first used in Gascony, is gaining traction in Provence, and involves leaving the juice on the lees and stirring daily at 0 degrees for 17 days. This approach leads to the wine’s pale, pretty-in-Provence hue. Made with grapes sourced from Thorpe and Bull Pine vineyard, this Syrah-dominant blend has flavours of cherry, peach, and pepper and would go nicely with Vennie’s Warm Pastrami on rye-carumba bread, with house-mustard sauce.
IMBZZL Ruse Rosé 2020 is $19.49 at BC Liquor Stores. The Arterra-owned wine label also makes IMBZZL Double Cross Pinot Gris 2020, aged in stainless steel, medium-bodied, and citrusy ($21.49); and IMBZZL Fast One Red Blend 2018, a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc ($23.49)
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