EMBRACING DIVERSITY
VAG refocuses with exhibit
Over the years, the Vancouver Art Gallery has exhibited its share of pieces by Emily Carr. But even some of the work by that most stalwart of B.C. artists can be problematic.
“Her work is complex,” said Diana Freundl, the VAG's interim chief curator. “We've made a commitment to her work in the collection, but not simply to presenting it, but also thinking critically about it, including her depictions of Indigenous communities from this region.”
Where do we go from here?, the VAG's new exhibit, attempts to course-correct standard art institution narratives by focusing on work by under- and unrepresented Indigenous and BIPOC artists. The pieces are drawn from recent acquisitions and new loans, varied in terms of media and subject matter. Some of the work directly comments on themes of under-representation and institutional mythmaking, while other pieces simply represent an artist's work. The exhibit follows the gallery's statement in the spring expressing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. “We decided to do an exhibition that would present recent acquisitions, while also addressing the under-representation of Black artists in our collection, both locally and nationally,” Freundl said. “Historically, at the gallery, we have privileged European art histories and white male artists and we have a responsibility to produce exhibitions that reflect the diversity of artistic expression existing here.”
Freundl and her collective of six co-curators worked with Nya Lewis of BlackArt Gastown to source loans from Black artists.
“There's only so much that the Gallery can do in terms of its reach into certain demographics of artists,” Lewis said. “Sometimes it's helpful to have guest curators come on who work specifically in whatever community that is. For me, that's the Afro-diasporic art community. It was a matter of introducing them to artists and work that they'd never seen before, and bringing them in and deciding how they could work in conversation with the pieces that the gallery already owned.”
Lewis herself contributes an essay installation in the gallery's rotunda.
“It is about the assumption that there aren't enough Black people in Vancouver to have conversations about anti-Black racism, and why the gallery has taken so long to acknowledge that this too is something that affects everybody here.”
The piece also speaks to the marginalization of Black curators and administrators in institutions like the VAG. The title of the exhibit hints at a broader theme, that of the future of galleries post-pandemic. Freundl sees the questions of equitable gallery presentation and changes in institution policies as related.
“The pandemic has shone a spotlight on a lot of inequalities in the world related to health care, economic accessibility, many things,” she said.
“The gallery is at 20, 25 per cent of its regular admission. And we're not alone in that. That's happening to institutions around the world. It affects the way we work, the kinds of programs we're doing. Everything we're doing is digital. Realistically, we'll have been doing that for a year and longer where we're back to a situation that is like pre-COVID times. And what then?”
Likely, the gallery will continue to examine who it has presented in the past, and how.
Freundl said. “As curators we have a responsibility to acknowledge our past, but also to work with it, to work with contemporary artists of the time. It's as much about internal reflection as a way of presenting the work from these artists.”