Since 1987, the AGGV has had the pleasure of hosting the Art Gallery Paint-In, bringing together local artists, community organizations, and the local community for what has grown to become Vancouver Island’s largest free arts festival, and year after year, it’s our amazing volunteers who are at the heart of it all.
We are delighted to announce that the AGGV has acquired an exceptional work by renowned Cree artist, Kent Monkman. This is the first work by Monkman to enter the AGGV collection and the piece is now on display in our current exhibition In the Flesh: The Nude in Art, Past and Present.
Steven McNeil, AGGV Chief Curator & Director of Collections and Exhibitions, shares much anticipated news about the Gallery’s permanent collections and the diverse selection of works to be exhibited in two newly dedicated Gallery spaces. The ongoing exhibition, A View From Here: Reimagining the AGGV Collections, will boast a rotating selection of some of the Gallery’s finest pieces.
Crossing: Art, Heritage and Personal Journeys opened on the Lunar New Year, February 10, and by no coincidence. Crossing delves into the intricate narratives of three local artists, who, along with their families, embarked on transformative journeys from Asia to Canada.
AGGV Membership and Donor Services Coordinator, Tony Adams, reminds us of all the ways AGGV Membership connects our community to the arts, and gives us opportunities to celebrate art together.
Steven McNeil, AGGV Chief Curator & Director of Collections and Exhibitions, explains the difference in meaning of the terms “Nude” and “Naked” in art history.
Mel Granley, AGGV Assistant Curator, describes the importance of Kali Spitzer’s Photographic work, which “embraces the stories of contemporary BIPOC, queer and trans bodies, creating representation that is self determined, with her collaborative process being informed by the desire to rewrite the visual histories of Indigenous bodies beyond a colonial lens.”
Curators of the exhibition Symbiosis, Jaimie Isaac, former AGGV Chief Curator, and Mel Granley, AGGV Assistant Curator, spoke with a sample selection of participating artists from the show and explored resonant themes between works, and ideas around fungi and forest ecologies.
Keep your eyes open for pop up libraries in select locations in Victoria starting on Sept 12 through to Oct 22. Blackspace Library, led by multi-disciplinary artist Kemi Craig, emerged as a way to share books authored by and about artists of the Black diaspora, Black visual culture, and Black creative expression.
Tattoos have had a presence in my life since I was a small child. My maternal grandpa has a single tattoo: a rose on his shoulder with my grandma’s name that he got after they were married.
Piles of illustrations have accumulated over the past few months, as encouraged by co-curators Mel Granley and Jaimie Isaac, of all sorts of mushrooms and fungi inspired by the exhibition. Viewers are welcomed to share their artworks to showcase the intrinsic communal feeling inspired by our favourite symbiotic fungal friends.