Vincent Trasov
Vincent Trasov (1947, Edmonton, Canada) is a painter, video and performance artist based in Brandenburg and Vancouver. Deeply involved in the development of networks, his work is often media-based and has a collaborative spirit. Image Bank, which he co-founded in 1970 with Michael Morris, facilitated an international method for personal exchange of information between artists. Using aliases that frequently changed, Image Bank was a subversive post-war project reworking images and text found in mainstream media.
Since 1971, Trasov has been working with videotape recordings. It was around the same time that Trasov assumed the alter ego Mr. Peanut through performances, Mail Art, happenings, exhibitions, drawings and sculptures. Many of these performances as Mr. Peanut were recorded on tape, including his campaign as Mayor of Vancouver in 1974.
In 1973, he was co-founder and co-director of Western Front Society, Vancouver, a center for the production and presentation of new art activity. In 1981, he was invited with Morris as a guest of Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD to Berlin. Ten years later, the two founded the Morris/Trasov Archive, permanently housed at Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, to research contemporary art and communication. Trasov has had numerous international exhibitions and is represented in public and private collections in both Europe and North America.
Education
1966-68
Studies of languages (French, German, English) and humanities, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Residencies:
1990
Artist-in-residency, Banff Centre, Banff, Canada
1981
Artist-in-Residence, Berliner Künstlerprogramm, DAAD, Berlin, Germany
Grants – Prizes:
2008
MAYOR’S AWARDS 2008; Award for Public Art, Vancouver
1981
DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) Berliner Kuenstlerprogramm.
Solo Exhibitions
2021
Image Bank, curated by Krist Gruijthuijsen, Maxine Kopsa and Scott Watson, Belkin Gallery Vancouver, Canada
2020
My Fifty Years In A Nutshell, ChertLüdde, Berlin
2019
Image Bank, curated by Krist Gruijthuijsen, Maxine Kopsa, Scott Watson, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
2018
Ohne Worte (without words), Franc Gallery, Vancouver
Ohne Worte, Kirche Kruessau, Möckern, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany
Mr. Peanut, Kunstverein Amsterdam, Amsterdam
2015
Mondo Artie A Network Event with video and performance, Archivio Emily Harvey, Venice
Mondo Artie “Yves Klein Fan Club”, performance at Galerie Eva Vautier, Nice.
2014
Get Hold of this Space La carte de l’art conceptual au Canada, Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris
2013
Continental Drift Konzeptkunst in Kanada- die 1960er und 70er Jahre, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
2012
Selected Works 1980 to 2012, Trench Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965 1980, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Again Again and Again: Serial Formats and Repetitive Actions, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Papyri, Guestbooks and Similar Departures by Guests of the Emily Harvey Foundation 2004 – 2012, Emily Harvey Foundation, Venice, Italy.
2010
Make it Strange, Malaspina Printmakers, Vancouver
Art’s Birthday 2010: Artists’ Network Meeting, Project Space, ESA, PatrickStudios, Leeds
Aion Experiment, Project Arts Centre, Dublin
2009
All That is Solid Melts Into Air Five Reflections on Materialist Spirituality in Contemporary Art, Cultuursite Onder de Toren, Mechelen, Belgium.
2008
Mr. Peanut a.k.a. Vincent Trasov, Weserburg Museum für Moderne Kunst, Bremen
Documentary Protocols II, Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montreal
Light On in Babyland 1970-1974, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Hart House, Toronto
2007
The Monochromatic Field: Works from the collection, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver
Before the Internet: Networks and Art, Western Front Society, Vancouver
Documentary Protocols I: Emulations of the Administrative ethos in Artistic Practises of the 1960s and 1970s in Canada, Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montreal
The Great Learning – Origin of the hand of the spirit and the shark-fin bathing cap, “LIVE” Performance Art Biennale, Vancouver
2006
The Mr. Peanut Mayoralty Campaign 1974, Art Gallery of the South Okanagan, Penticton, Canada
2005
Intertidal Vancouver Art & Artists at Muhka, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpen
The Mr. Peanut: Mayoralty Campaign 1974, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, Canada
Classified Materials>>Accumulations, Archives, Artists, Morris/Trasov Archive, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
2004
Histories, Tracey Lawrence Gallery, Vancouver
2002
Golden Streams Artists’ Collaboration and Exchange in the 1970s, Blackwood Gallery, Mississauga
2001
The Mr. Peanut Mayoralty Campaign 1974, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, UBC, Vancouver, Canada
2000
Gay Chic of the 70s from the Morris/Trasov Archive, Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver
1999
How Sad I am Today: The Art of Ray Johnson and the New York Correspondence School, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver.
Zero Hour: Tenth Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Morris/Trasov Archive, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Western Front Society and Goethe-Institute, Vancouver
1997
Harmony, Winchester Galleries, Victoria, Canada
Morris/Trasov Archive On Line (e-mail and Internet exhibition),Tang Station, Berlin
1996
Colour Research: Works from the Morris/Trasov Archive, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver
1995
Berliner STRASSENNAMEN IM DRITTEN REICH – Berlin Street Names in the Third Reich, Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
Morris/Trasov Archive Colour Research, Plug In Gallery, Winnipeg
1994
STRASSENBILD – Street Painting, Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Morris/Trasov Archive Colour Research, XXII Bienal Internacional, São Paulo
Hand of the Spirit: Documents of the Seventies from the Morris/Trasov Archive, UBC Fine Arts Gallery, Vancouver
1993
STRASSENBILD – Street Painting, Akademie der Kuenste, Galerie am Pariser Platz, Berlin, Germany
1992
The Word Paintings, Gallery 76. Windsor, Windsor Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Morris/Trasov Archive Inaugural Exhibition, UBC Fine Arts Gallery, Vancouver
1991
The Word Paintings, Montréal, Plug In Inc. UBC Fine Arts Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
The Word Paintings, Montréal, Oboro, Canada
Group exhibitions
2023
My Demons My Angels, ChertLüdde, Berlin
2020
Election Day, curated by Enar de Dios Rodríguez, das weisse haus, Vienna, Austria The Tin Man was a Dreamer: Allegories, Poetics and Performances of Power, curated by Grant Arnold and Mandy Ginson, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2014
Papier 14, Contemporary Art Fair of Works on Paper, Montreal, Canada
Through the Looking Glass May, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, Canada 2012
Group Exhibition, John Blake: Artists Collection, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2011
Faces Works from the Permanent Collection, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Unreal Works from the Permanent Collection, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Like Some Pool of Fire, Open Space, Victoria, Canada
Selected Works from the Gordon and Marion Smith Collection, Art Gallery of West Vancouver, Vancouver, Canada
Calgary Collects; The Art Gallery of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
Exchange and Evolution 1974 – 1999, International Video Program, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, USA
2010
Make It Strange, Malaspina Printmakers, Vancouver, Canada
Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-1980, curated by Grant Arnold, Vincent Bonin, Catherine Crowston, Barbara Fischer, Michèle Thériault, and Jayne Wark, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada. Travelling exhibition to Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Edmonton, Vancouver, Canada
Constellation & Correspondences Networking Between Artists 1970-1980, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2009
Berlin 89/09 Kunst Zwischen Spurensuche und Utopie Art Between Traces of the Past and Utopian Futures, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany
Fall MauerFall Grenzueberschreitungen und Grenzerfahrungen im Spiegel der Kunst, Stadtmuseum Berlin, Germany
All That is Solid Melts Into Air Five Reflections on Materialist Spirituality in Contemporary Art, Mechelen, Cultuursite Onder de Toren, Hasselt, Belgium
2008
Art Metropole: The Top 100, organized by the National Gallery of Canada, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada
2007
The Monochromatic Field: Works from the Collection, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Collecting Works on Paper, Virginia Christopher Fine Art Gallery, Calgary, Canada
2003
The Williams Legacy: Contemporary Art of the Pacific Northwest, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
Temporal Surfaces, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
In My Solitude, Gallery Neubacher, Toronto, Canada
2002
Looking for Dick, Open Studio, Toronto, Canada
1999-2001
Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s-1980s, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York, USA, (travelling exhibition)
1997
Gift for India, Gallery Chemould, Max Muller Bhawan and Artists Centre, Mumbay, India
1996
International Artists Writing Reading Room, Side Street Projects Gallery, Santa Monica, California, USA
Transient Moments: Vancouver and the Performance Photograph, Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver., Canada
1995
Werkschau 3: Konzepte-Objekte-Installationen, Neues Kunstquartier Berlin, Berlin, Germany
1994
Out of America, Amerika Haus, Berlin. 5 Jahre Danach, Haus am Luetzowplatz, Berlin, Germany
1991
Interferenzen: Kunst aus Westberlin 1960-1990, Riga, Latvia
1986
Das andere Land: Auslaendische Kuenstler in der Bundesrepublik, Große Orangerie, Schloß Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany
1983
Vancouver: Art and Artists 1931-1983, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Germany
Selected Projects:
2000
“Colour Research 1967-2000” (website). Patrick Chan and Morris/Trasov Archive, Vancouver.
1999
“How Sad I am Today: The Art of Ray Johnson and the New York Correspondence School” (website), Sharla Sava, Morris/Trasov Archive and Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver.
“Zero Hour: Tenth Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall” (website), Morris/Trasov Archive, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and the UBC Institute for European Studies, Vancouver.
1982
Video Narcissus (with Michael Morris). Galerie Ars Viva Edition, Berlin and Berliner Kuenstlerprogramm, DAAD, Berlin.
1973-80
Co-founder and co-director of Western Front Society, Vancouver.
1969-74
Assumed the identity of Mr. Peanut in exploring identity, persona, anthropomorphism and contemporary mythology. Ran for mayor of Vancouver in 1974 as Mr. Peanut with the support of the artistic community on the following art platform: P for Performance, E for Elegance, A for Art, N for Nonsense, U for Uniqueness and T for Talent. Received 3.4% of the vote.
1969
First fire process performances and works. Formed the concept of an “Image Bank” (since 1990 the Morris/Trasov Archive) with Michael Morris.
Bibliography – Selected Articles and Publications:
2021
“A look at three Canadian artists known as the Image Bank: Michael Morris, Vincent Trasov and Gary Lee-Nova” by Mark Bloch on Noah Becker’s Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, October 2021, online.
“Entrepreneur Mindset // Image Bank at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery” by Jonah Gray on ReIssue, online, Septemer 2021.
2020
“Als die Post Bananen- und Erdnusskunst brachte” by Tilman Baumgärtel on taz am Wochenende, 7/8 November 2020, p.48.
2018
“The Alphabet Book,” Kunstverein, Amsterdam.
2017
“Mr. Peanut Drawings,” New Documents, Los Angeles.
2013
“The Last Art College Nova Scotia College of Art & Design 1968 – 1978”; Garry Neill Kennedy; Cambridge, The MIT Press.
2012
“This fall, my vote goes to Mr. Peanut” by Sabra Milroy on The Globe and Mail, 29 September 2012, p.R5.
2011
“Byproduct On the Excess of Embedded Art Practices”, edited by Marisa Jahn, YYZ Books, Toronto.
2010
“Documentary Protocols (1967-1975),” Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Université Concordia University, Montréal.
“Constellation & Correspondences Networking Between Artists 1970-1980,” National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.
2009
“All That Is Solid Melts Into Air Five Reflections on Materialist Spirituality in Contemporary Art,” Mechelen Cultuursite Onder de Toren, Mechelen.
“Berlin 89/09 Kunst Zwischen Spurensuche und Utopie Art Between Traces of the Past and Utopian Futures,” Berlinische Galerie, Berlin.
2008
“Mr. Peanut for mayor! Not as nuts as it sounds” by Marsha Lederman on The Globe and Mail, 21 June 2008, p. R3.
“Nut who ran for mayor has place in B.C. story” by Grania Litwin on Victoria Times Colonist, 18 June 2008 (June 18), p.R11.
2005
“A really nutty character” by Grania Litwin on Victoria Times Colonist, 2 June 2005
“Memories of Mr. Peanut and a parallel art world” by Robert Amos on Victoria Times Colonist, 16 June 2005, p.D6.
“The Mr. Peanut Mayoralty Campaign of 1974” by Allan Antliff on Canadian Art, Fall 2005, Vol. 22, No.3., p.140.
2004
“Mr. Peanut through the Ages” by Julia Dault on National Post, 24 June 2004, p.B3.
“Trasov’s Nutty Art: Crunchy and Smooth” by Robin Laurence on Georgia Straight, 22 July 2004.
2002
“Golden Streams Artists’ Collaboration and Exchange in the 1970s,” Blackwood Gallery, Mississauga.
2001
“How Sad I am Today” by Ray Johnson, Morris/Trasov Archive and Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver.
2000
“Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s-1980s,” Queens Museum of Art, New York.
1997
“Art and Design,” Magazine Profile No. 54, Guest edited by Michael Petry, London.
1995
“Bar Everyone” by Alison Gillmor on Border Crossings, vol. 14, no. 1, November 1995.
“Werkschau 3: Konzepte-Objekte-Installationen,” Neues Kunstquartier Berlin. Senatsverwaltung fuer Soziales – Kuenstlerfoerderung, Berlin.
“Zwei kanadische Kuenstler in Berlin – Impulse fuer ein unabhaengiges Netzwerk,” Zeitschrift fuer Kulturaustausch 1995/2, Institut fuer Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart.
“Erinnerungskarton” from the exhibition 5 Jahre danach, Haus am Luetzowplatz, Berlin.
1994
“Hand of the Spirit: Documents of the Seventies from the Morris/Trasov Archive,” Morris/Trasov Archive and University of British Columbia, Fine Arts Gallery, Vancouver.
1993
“Whispered Art History: Twenty Years at the Western Front” edited by Keith Wallace, Arsenal Pulp Press, Vancouver.
1992
“La Collection: tableau inaugural,” Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal.
“Vincent Trasov: Word Paintings” by Christina Ritchie on Canadian Art, vol. 9, no. 4 (Winter), pp 67-68.
“Morris/Trasov Archive Portfolio No. 1: The Search for the Hand of the Spirit” by Morris/Trasov Archive and University of British Columbia, Fine Arts Gallery, Vancouver.
1991
“Report from Montréal-Modernity and the City” by Marcia E. Vetrocq on Art in America, vol. 79, no. 11, November 1991.
“Interferenzen: Kunst aus Westberlin 1960-1990,” Neue Gesellschaft fuer bildende Kunst, Berlin.
“Practising beauty. Curatorial Laboratory Projects #5,” Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton.
“Word Paintings,” UBC Fine Arts Gallery, Vancouver.
1990
“Morris/Trasov Archive tabloid,” Banff Centre and Morris/Trasov Archive, Banff.
1989
“In these Times of Diminishing Visual Returns: the Video Work of Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov” by Karen Henry on Video Guide, vol. 10, no. 1, March 1989, pp. 3 and 18.
1986
“Buero Berlin – Ein Produktionsbegriff,” Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin.
“Das andere Land: Auslaendische Kuenstler in der Bundesrepublik,” Edition Deplana, Berlin.
1985
“Vincent Trasov” by Rolf Langebartels in: “Berliner Aufzeichnungen Berlin Notes”, Ed.: The Walter Philipps Gallery, Banf, 1985, pp.40-47.
1983
“Vancouver: Art and Artists 1931-1983,” Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver.
1982
“Vincent Trasov Berliner Bilder”, Ed.: edition Ars Viva! & Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD, Berlin.
“Berliner Bilder,” Galerie Ars Viva Edition and Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD, Berlin.
1979
“Live Art: 1909 to the Present,” edited by Roselee Goldberg, New York.
1978
“Image Bank Correspondence Issue,” Art Rite, no. 18., Dollar Art Series, New York.
1977
“Image Bank Postcard Show,” Image Bank, Vancouver and New York City.
1976
“The Rise and Fall of the Peanut Party. Journal: Twenty Days in November (with John Mitchell)”, Air, Vancouver.
1974
“Image Bank Directory Issue,” File, no 7. Toronto.
1972
“International Image Exchange Directory,” Talonbooks, Vancouver.
1971
“Image Bank Postcard Show,” Coach House Press, Toronto.