Original Wood Assemblage - 'Portrait' (Man Ray)

Laird Campbell works from his studio in the Cowichan Valley on the east coast of Vancouver Island, building abstract compositions from reclaimed and found wood. His practice is rooted in a sustained engagement with materials — with the way aged wood holds time, with the geometry that emerges when fragments are placed in relation to one another, with the tension between accident and intention that runs through every piece he makes.

Man Ray made portraits that were never quite portraits — images that hovered between likeness and abstraction, between the recognizable and the strange. 'Portrait' (Man Ray) takes that spirit into three dimensions. The composition is built from reclaimed wood, its fragments arranged into something that suggests a face, a presence, a gaze — without ever resolving into one. The framing is deliberate: a thin wood border that holds the work without containing it. 

This original work is a Wood Assemblage: a hand-built composition of reclaimed wood pieces. Close-up photography reveals the extraordinary grain and texture of the wood.

This work was exhibited at the Federation of Canadian Artists Gallery in the 2022 On the Edge exhibition, where it was awarded 3rd Place — a recognition of the way it sits at the edge of categories, between sculpture and assemblage, between portrait and abstraction.

Medium: Original Wood Assemblage (reclaimed and found wood)
Dimensions: 13 × 12" in a thin wood frame (1.4" wide)
Display: Front and reverse both displayed
Exhibition: Federation of Canadian Artists Gallery, 2022 On the Edge Exhibition — Prize Winner, 3rd Place
Authenticity: One-of-a-kind original; signed by the artist