The LAB 3.0: Tyler Hodgins The Work Project

This project explores the idea of “artist’s work”. For the past ten years I have supported myself and my family by working at an orthotics laboratory, says Hodgins.

Hodgins utilizes the castings produced at the orthotics factory to create cumulative, process-based work in the LAB space which transforms these utilitarian items into fine art objects. The…

A Little Bit of Funk

This exhibition offers a look at some of the newest items in our growing collection of almost 16,000 works, focusing on Western and contemporary art and includes recently acquired works spanning the last 30 years by artists: Mowry Baden, Joan Balzar, Tom Burrows, Gathie Falk, Sam Francis, Medrie MacPhee, Susan Point, Mary Pratt, Taras Polataiko, Robert Rauschonberg, Jean-Paul Riopelle and Robert Youds, among others.

Asian Ceramics

This exhibition examines the fascinating development of ceramics in Asia and traces the movement of styles and techniques, particularly those from China, which had a tremendous impact on other nations of Asia such as Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and even countries in the Near East. There will be approximately 150-200 stunning examples of ceramics from Asia and a few from the Near East and Europe, showing Asian influences.

Catalogue will be available in the Gallery Shop.

The LAB 2.6: Daniel Laskarin Relapse (just like that)

Relapse ( just like that ) came about as a continuation of my interest in those moments just before extreme events, during which our certainties collapse, our knowing becomes unsettled. It is at these times that something else is possible, even while we don’t know what it might be. It seems to me that the…

Robert Wise: Dynaflow

Over the past decade, Robert Wise has established himself as a unique figure within the West Coast
sculpture scene through a series of interactive, and mechanically sophisticated machines. His most
recent and ambitious work, Roulette, a new public sculpture for the Victoria International Airport
addition, opened to the public this fall.

“Dynaflow” is a new body of work organized by independent curator and sometimes creative collaborator Christian Giroux. Works in the show range from large kinetic pieces, such as: Loach — a latex “pickle” that spontaneously twitches; to small structures like Burr-2, formed using only disentangled nylon rope.

Wise draws upon his engineering and mechanical skills to activate or re-animate the material world of mass production, creating playful objects that compel investigation and contemplation. Most importantly, he invites us to think of how different technologies can connect us to our social or urban environment, while others can effectively separate us from it. For Wise, sculpture is a holistic form of technology, combining engineering and craftsmanship to either shock or charm us out of our complacency within the given world of objects.

Catalogue will be available in the Gallery Shop.

Andrew Hunter: Peake’s Folly

For his latest collection-based installation and publication project, Dundas, Ontario artist, writer and independent curator Andrew Hunter follows the trail of James Peake Jr. from the pinnacle of Canadian society to the lonely depths of isolation and despair. The installation is a poetic meditation on the dramatic fall of a late 19th century gentleman whose high Victorian extravagances exhausted a family fortune in the Maritimes and sent him wandering to Canada’s West Coast where
he would die alone and penniless.

Using works from the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s permanent collection, documentary images, artifacts and elements constructed in collaboration with his father William, Hunter creates an environment that traces Peake’s sad trajectory from prince to pauper. Employing Victorian imagery of death and mourning and related motifs of floral decay and the shipwreck, Hunter maps out a journey that becomes a cautionary tale about the fleetingness of material success and the uncritical nostalgia for the Victorian era.

Catalogue will be available in the Gallery Shop.

Post-Impressionist Masterworks From the National Gallery of Canada

The Post-Impressionist Masterworks exhibition is the most prestigious and valuable art exhibition to come to Victoria ? its only BC destination. The exhibition consists of vibrant, original works, including those of C?zanne, Matisse, van Gogh, and Gauguin. It will be supplemented by a second exhibition of works on paper by some of the same artists…

Impressions

This exhibition features works on paper produced by a number of artists associated with Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Using works from our own collection as well as works generously lent by our good friend George Wallace, this exhibition shows how artists at the turn of the century used the drawn line as an expressive tool for printmaking through various media — etching plates, wood block prints and lithography.

Etchings, such as those by Zorn and Whistler reveal how great draughtsmen used the etching plate with an acute sensitivity, allowing them to reproduce on a plate the delicate nature of their quick drawing gesture. Artists such as Vlaminck found an interesting medium for their angular forms by transferring them to wood block prints. Other artists, including Matisse, were able to convey the sensuality of the odalisque in a few lines deftly drawn on the lithographic stone.

The Salon

To provide a sense of context of this ?fin-de-si?cle? period, we will be transforming the Graham Gallery into a late nineteenth century salon. In Canada, the “salons” or living-rooms of this period were generally sombre affairs, with dark patterned wallpaper above dark wooden wainscoting. Our Salon will also play on the concept of the official…