GALLERIES
Due to provincial health regulations, a ban on live performances will continue until at least February 5. But it’s still possible to visit local art galleries and museums. Here are a few exhibitions taking place in Metro Vancouver.
SELECTED STORIES: 1980–2020
Richmond Art Gallery until January 30
To celebrate its 40th year, the RAG has mounted an exhibit from its permanent collection, reflecting, in part, its journey.
The show features early works by established B.C. artists like Wayne Ngan, Susan Point, and Gu Xiong. Also on display are prints by Anna Wong from her series Great Wall, which pays homage to the landscapes of China, where the parents of the Canadian printmaker were born.
The gallery has included two abstract works from Toni Onley. Painted in the 1960s, they helped to establish Onley as an important B.C. artist, and this is the first time that they have been shown in public.
EVERYTHING LEAKS
Polygon Gallery until February 7 Vancouver artists Marisa Kriangwiwat Holmes and Maya Beaudry took separate paths as students at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design. The Hong Kong–born Holmes majored in photography, with a minor in curatorial studies; Beaudry went into sculpture.
The two artists collaborate in Everything Leaks, an exhibit described as a response to the current “era of visual information overload”.
“Produced in response to an increasingly digital and dematerialised culture, the artist’s works are demonstrably tactile, incorporating fabrics, sculpture, and printed photographs,” reads a media release from Polygon Gallery.
Together, according to the exhibit’s blurb, Holmes and Beaudry “construct an imagined architecture of the mind, speculating on the ways in which photographic images entrench themselves and live within our psyche”.
VICTOR VASARELY
Vancouver Art Gallery until April 5
When David Bowie released Space Oddity in 1969, the album’s cover featured his portrait on top of an art work with blue and violet spots on a green background. That work was the creation of Victor Vasarely, celebrated as the father of Op Art (or optical art).
BBC recalled the legacy of the Hungarian-French abstract artist when Vasarely’s works were exhibited at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in March 2019.
According to the British broadcaster, Vasarely “watched his pioneering geometric designs and hypnotising optical illusions come to represent his generation” by the early 1970s.
“Vasarely’s carefully calibrated patterns of bright squares and luminous circles, which make his paintings’ surfaces appear like warping space-time webs—now rippling and concave, now spinning and convex—was the hottest of hot demands,” the BBC reported.
IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT
Museum of Anthropology at UBC until spring 2021
This inaugural exhibit by the museum’s Elspeth McConnell Gallery of Northwest Coast Masterworks presents a meaningful archive for reconciliation. This is because it is much more than simply mounting historical works by Indigenous artists for display as creative objects.
More importantly, the 110 pieces of work serve as a nexus to stories in the past that were lost through time or, worse, obliterated by colonization.
“Indigenous community members are now reconnecting with these objects and rebuilding their past,” the museum notes about the exhibit.
Artists interpret life and the world they live in. This exhibition provides their view of their times.
OBLIQUE TRAJECTORIES
Burnaby Art Gallery until April 18
As an artist, Gary Lee-Nova produced a substantial body of work, showcasing his versatility in various mediums. He is a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and filmmaker.
Lee-Nova rose to prominence during the 1960s and 1970s. He is often referred to as an important figure in the so-called West Coast Scene during that time.
He also guided numerous aspiring artists, having taught for 25 years at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design, where he is currently a professor emeritus. It’s worth noting that as a young person, he got his education at the university’s forerunner, the Vancouver School of Art.
The exhibit Oblique Trajectories presents almost a half-century of Lee-Nova’s works. These include large-scale paintings, sculpture, lithographic prints based on paper collages, silkscreen prints, and digital collage. The show is by appointment only. Call 604-297-4422 to book a visit.