The French Masters from the National Gallery of Canada

Masterworks of 19th Century French Realism from the National Gallery of Canada

In the 19th century, French artists started to move away from mythological and historical painting to concentrate on the world around them. Where former generations of artists had regaled themselves with illustrations of narrative-based subject matter, the Realist movement sought to recreate the visible…

The LAB 4.4: Ralph Stanbridge Daumier and Dystopia (Drawn from History, Drawing from the Present)

The French artist Honor? Daumier (1808 ?1879), through his caricatures, paintings and sculptural works, presented his contemporaries with images of the folly and absurdities of the social issues of his time. As one of art?s earliest social realists, he was able to illuminate the economic disparities, injustices, and the marginalization of many members of nineteenth…

The LAB 4.3: John Luna The Red Room

John Luna examines the parameters of cultural institutions in The Red Room, a project which transforms the LAB space into a mock turn-of-the-century picture gallery. Luna?s gallery makes thematic allusions to the Art Gallery?s history inside the Gyppeswick mansion.

The salon-like setting reflects the imaginative revision of period restoration rather than an archival past, while the…

Sugimoto Hiroshi: A Pilgrimage to Ancient Cities

A Pilgrimage to Ancient Cities is a look into the visually captivating work of esteemed contemporary Japanese painter, Sugimoto Hiroshi ? produced between 1998 and 2004. It features over 35 large format paintings on a variety of Japanese papers.

Sugimoto Hiroshi?s paintings capture the unique and rustic character of ancient architectural structures, such as bridges, ancient streets, shrines, temples and castles. He makes regular pilgrimages to sites of beauty across Japan, China, Cambodia and Italy, during which he captures scenes of grandeur with his brush, using subtle yet effective colours. His love of architecture and ancient ruins is well apparent in his breathtaking work.

Hiroshi Sugimoto (b. 1951) studied at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He has painted large sliding doors and screens for a number of important historical Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in Japan. His knowledge of ancient architecture and interiors provides him with the ability to make the proper aesthetic judgments in his designs for these well known monuments. He has held numerous major exhibitions in Japan. The Gallery is extremely pleased to welcome his work to Canada.

Allyson Clay: Imaginary Standard Distance

Allyson Clay?s Imaginary Standard Distance incorporates several bodies of work by this Vancouver based artist and includes a range of media from painting to video. The artworks explore the experience of a woman in the city and related issues of gender, identity, the politics of the gaze, lived architecture, and the boundaries between public and…

Herbert Siebner: A Celebration

Last year, the Art Gallery was busy organizing a retrospective exhibition to be entitled Herbert Siebner: 50 Years in Canada. Sadly, Herbert Siebner passed away August 3, 2003 as we were completing arrangements for the exhibition. A year later, the Art Gallery is proud to present this exhibition celebrating the life and career of this outstanding painter and printmaker. Beginning with works produced in Europe in the late 1940s and continuing to his most recent work, this exhibition will allow visitors to become reacquainted with, or introduced to, the work of this important Victoria based artist. Throughout his career, Siebner demonstrated a keen interest in expressionism through his prints and his paintings. These works feature bold gesture and rich colour as integral components. Myth, poetry, sensuality and sex are all key elements of his art. This variety of interests is reflected in the multiple ways in which Siebner created art and manipulated the surface of his paintings and works on paper. A selection of works from each of his five decades in Victoria will form a testimonial to Siebner?s contribution to the visual arts ? in our community and in Canada.

The LAB 4.2: Farheen HaQ Breathing Space

Farheen HaQ explores the notion of religious freedom of expression within a secular society through a video and photo installation which examines the spiritual and sacred in public spaces.

HaQ performs simple actions that are either religious or culturally coded, introducing subtle changes that push the gesture beyond its normal expression. Within the video projection, HaQ…

Interface: The New Victoria Open

Interface explores how artists working in various media on Vancouver Island and in the Gulf Islands respond to and incorporate the diverse meanings of the term ?interface? into their current art practice. While initially inspired by last year’s provincial forest fires, the theme of ‘interface’ allows a diversity of ideas to be presented. As described…

Opium: The Heavenly Demon

Opium ? potent and evocative ? it holds a near-mythical place in the drug pantheon with connotations of mystery, languor and sinister beauty. For millennia opium has been used medicinally by many cultures around the world. In the West, opium was self-administered until the early 20th century. Trade in opium was legal, as long as duties and taxes were paid, but this changed with concern over the suffering caused by growing addiction in the United States, Europe and China. With changing pharmaceutical laws in the early 20th century, the availability of opium dried up and prices skyrocketed. A previously legal and affordable purchase became an illicit and expensive transaction. Smuggling increased and a whole new criminal class was born. Politicians and the media exploited this situation, demonizing and sensationalizing the addict, the pusher and the drug. On tour from the Vancouver Museum, this exhibition traces opium from ancient cultures to the shores of North America, revealing both the miraculous and devastating effects of opium and its derivatives. The exhibition includes paraphernalia related to opium smoking such as pipes, lamps, containers, an opium bed, movie posters and films which dealt with opium in the west and more.