Lawren Harris show coming to Two Rivers Gallery
The Group of Seven has a British Columbia champion and he will be at the Two Rivers Gallery tonight.
Ian M. Thom is the curator of the travelling art show Lawren Harris: Canadian Visionary, a display of original works by one of the Group Of Seven’s most heralded members. Harris is credited with being the catalyst for the iconic and definitively Canadian team of painters. They became world famous for their landscapes depicting Ontario and Quebec but Harris added the far north and Western Canada to his body of work, including sketches of the Mount Robson and Jasper area.
He moved to Vancouver in 1940 where he lived until his passing in 1970, adding an abstract phase to his repertoire in the interim.
Thom, one of the senior staff of the Vancouver Art Gallery, is an expert in Harris’s work and will be personally on hand at the Two Rivers Gallery (2RG) tonight to show viewers around the exhibition.
“It’s a one-night-only thing,” said 2RG curator George Harris (no relation to the Group of Seven alum). “Ian is the curator of this exhibition and it’s just a thrill to have him here. He’s an extraordinarily knowledgeable guy. He knows this material inside and out and it’s a remarkable privilege to have him visit.”
The exhibition is already open to public viewing. Rather than give a lecturestyle address about the broad topic of the show, this visit will give the local public a chance at a much more inside and involved look at these rare paintings and their rare painter.
“It will be an intimate walking tour of the exhibition where Ian will take us through, artwork by artwork, the paintings that hang in the exhibition space, and draw from his knowledge and sto- ries and information that Ian has about this special work.”
The public is invited to come meet Thom and take part in the one-room walking tour beginning at 7:30 p.m. There is no charge to attend.
The exhibition is the centre of another special event at the 2RG. On June 8 the gallery hosts Uncork & Unwind: Lawren Harris. It’s the latest installment in the gallery’s “paint nights” series whereby local hobby artists get together, have a glass of wine (included in the admission price) and use the surrounding masterworks toinform their own work that night among friends.
“At this paint night, we’ll be making artwork inspired by his abstract landscapes,” said a 2RG public invitation.
Your $40 ticket includes all the supplies you’ll need, as well as a glass of wine (with more available for purchase at $5 per glass). This social artwork event happens from 7-9 p.m.