Media Room
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Twenty Love Stories at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria: the Works of Art and the Collectors who Love Them
Victoria Collects: A View into Private Collections from the Region
Feb 3 - May 6
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria will open its doors to reveal some of Victoria’s finest works of art that until now have been hidden from public view in private art collections. Victoria Collects, beginning Feb. 3 and running through May 6, 2012, presents pieces generously loaned to the AGGV by 20 passionate local lovers of art. The exhibition features 60 major artworks including paintings, photographs, prints, sculpture, and drawings by artists ranging from Rembrandt, Andy Warhol, Piet Mondrian and Tom Thomson to E.J. Hughes, Betty Goodwin, and Ed Burtynsky. The exhibition also highlights the stories of each of these fervent collectors.
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THROW DOWN - an all new exhibition of contemporary BC artists at the AGGV
Opening Party Fri Jan 27 @ 8pm | Panel Discussion Sat Jan 28 @ 1pm
Five British Columbia artists have taken up the challenge to Throw Down at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria for a new exhibition running Jan. 27 – May 6, 2012. “To Throw Down can mean many things: to celebrate in a big way, to fight for something meaningful, or to contribute resources to make something happen,” explains Nicole Stanbridge AGGV Associate Curator, Contemporary Art. In Throw Down artists Sonny Assu, Gregory Ball, Megan Dickie, Tyler Hodgins and Alison MacTaggart have contributed work for the exhibition that speaks specifically to social issues and ideals that are personally relevant.
Stay tuned for details on the Throw Down Art Forum scheduled for April 1, 2012 and other affiliated programs continuing into the spring.
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* Recent development: please note Sonny Assu will not be unable to attend the panel discussion on Jan 28.
Celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year at the AGGV
Jan 15 - Feb 4, 2012
Against a backdrop of the most exquisite Chinese art from their renowned Asian collection, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria invites you to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year and welcome the Year of the Dragon. Inspired by current AGGV exhibition, The Enduring Arts of China, the festivities begin at the Gallery on Jan. 15 with Family Sunday. During this period the public will have opportunities to participate in a variety of activities including Lantern-making workshops (for both families and adults), a special film screening, and all culminating in a big festival & celebration filled with traditional riddles & activities on Feb. 4.
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Victoria Collects: The Salish Weave Collection
Activist Collectors share their Contemporary Coast Salish Collection at the AGGV
Jan 6 2011 - May 6 2012
The extraordinary, contemporary Coast Salish art collection of Victoria residents George and Christiane Smyth will be presented at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria beginning in the New Year. The Salish Weave Collection is a companion exhibition to Victoria Collects: A View in Private Collections from the Region opening at the AGGV on Feb. 3. When discussing their role as collectors, George Smyth said, “Our collection is a noun AND a verb. The objects are nouns; what we do with the collection is the verb.” For this reason they call themselves “Activist Collectors”; their mission is to promote the works not just passively acquire and display them.
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AGGV’s Audain Fellowship Looks at Contemporary Aboriginal Art in Fresh Ways
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has awarded its first Audain Aboriginal Curatorial
Fellowship to B.C. artists and researchers France Trépanier and Chris Creighton-Kelly.
Their project, Here Now : Here Before, will look at the history of both Aboriginal artists and
artists of colour on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. This research will explore the
influence of these histories on contemporary artists.
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Sisters of St. Ann Transfer Art Legacy to AGGV
Thursday Dec 1, 2011
The Sisters of St. Ann and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria are working together to ensure the Sisters’ legacy as pioneering artists and art educators, begun in Victoria in 1858, continues into the future.
Eighteen paintings from the Sisters’ art collection are being transferred to the AGGV. The works include important historic scenes of early Victoria, inspiring religious works, and Emily Carr’s painting, Wild Lilies, which is currently on display in the AGGV’s feature exhibition Emily Carr: On the Edge of Nowhere. Carr gave the painting to the Sisters of St. Ann in appreciation for the care they provided to her sister Elizabeth, who died in 1936.
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The Enduring Arts of China
*Please note date change* Part I: Founders Gallery Dec 2 - May 6 | Part 2: Pollard Gallery Dec 9 - April 29.
The most exquisite examples of Chinese art in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s extensive Asian Collection will be showcased in a new exhibition opening next month. The Enduring Arts of China opens December 9, 2011 and runs through April 22, 2012. The exhibition features paintings, ceramics, bronzes, jades, ivories other decorative arts dating from ancient times to 1900.
The exhibition contains many pieces newly donated to the AGGV and on public display in Victoria for the first time, including items from Toronto’s Murray and Ann Bell Asian Collection, works from the Elizabeth Stewart Estate and recent important acquisitions from the Menzies family, also of Ontario.
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