The Vancouver Art Gallery presents exhibitions of work by artists ranging from historic masters to leading-edge contemporaries. These include major thematic exhibitions, presentations of solo artists and smaller, more focused showcases. In a typical year, 2 to 3 exhibitions are borrowed from other institutions and 10 to 12 exhibitions are developed in-house, drawing on our permanent collection and loans of works from around the world. In addition, the Gallery tours a few of its exhibitions each year.
![]()
Tamara Henderson The Scarecrow’s Holiday, 2015 textile, wood, glass, sand, pigment, rope Courtesy of the Artist and Rodeo, London Photo: Robert Wedemeyer, Courtesy of China Art Objects |
Since its inception in 1931, the Vancouver Art Gallery has regularly organized survey exhibitions of local art. Building on this robust history, which began with the BC Annuals
(1932–68) and continued with significant curatorial projects of recent decades, the
Gallery now introduces Vancouver Special, a survey exhibition that will occur every three
years. The triennial model offers a sustained engagement with the contemporary artists
who make Vancouver a dynamic art community. The title of this initiative, Vancouver
Special, is borrowed from the housing archetype that was popular in Vancouver between
the 1960s and 80s. Originally affordable and easily adaptable, this regional house style is
experiencing renewed attention in the midst of the current housing crisis. Ambivalent Pleasures is the first iteration of this series and it features works by 40 artists produced within the last five years—Vancouver’s post-Olympic period. The exhibition includes many emerging artists as well as those who are more established but whose ideas were prescient. Some are recent arrivals to Vancouver, while others are long-term residents who have already made significant contributions. Others are nomadic, less settled in one place and are working energetically between several locations. |
The featured artworks do not adhere to a singular subject or style, but instead offer a set
of overlapping conversations:
These artists live and work in an uncertain context of economic slowdowns, widening divisions of wealth, technological acceleration and global warming. Their disciplined expressions of pleasure may offer ways of perceiving the gaps between where we are as individuals or a society and where we would like to be. At a time when our experiences of pleasure are often too fleeting or superficial, encountering these artworks reminds us to be conscious of finding our own modest pleasures as we interpret and navigate the often contradictory conditions of contemporary life. Artists: Derya Akay | Maya Beaudry | Raymond Boisjoly | Eli Bornowsky | Rebecca Brewer | Colleen Brown | Matt Browning | Mark Delong | Kim Dorland | Barry DoupÉ | Michael Drebert | Julia Feyrer | Jeneen Frei Njootli | Tamara Henderson | Colleen Heslin | Julian Hou | Allison Hrabluik | Gareth James | Garry Neill Kennedy | Tiziana La Melia | Khan Lee | Arvo Leo | Lyse Lemieux | Glenn Lewis | Anne Low | Elizabeth McIntosh | Jordan Milner | Antoni Oko | Ryan Peter | Sylvain Sailly | Rachelle Sawatsky | Walter Scott | Krista Belle Stewart | Angela Teng | Mina Totino | Ron Tran | Tristan Unrau | Charlene Vickers | Brent Wadden | Alison Yip
Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Daina
Augaitis, Chief Curator/Associate Director, and Jesse McKee, Head of Strategy at 221A,
with curatorial assistance from Mandy Ginson.
|
|
Publication |