Always interested in biographies of settler women in the Province, I had opportunities to exhibit Sophie Pemberton’s work but never enough time to conduct in-depth research on a woman that I felt had been partially miscast and become stereotyped.
Steven McNeil joined the AGGV as the Curator of Historical & Canadian Art in October 2022 – a brand new position in the curatorial department, so we’re excited to get to know him more in an interview!
By Dr. Laurie Dalton.
In exhibitions, press, and films about the artist, there has long been an emphasis on the fact that Maud Lewis never travelled far from the Yarmouth-Digby-Marshalltown corridor in western Nova Scotia. That she was a happy-go-lucky folk painter, not artistically trained, and one that merely painted “happy little pictures” for passers-by and tourists. This does not give much room for looking at her paintings as objects of art, and as being part of the wider economic, social, and visual culture of the time – which is the focus of the book.
By Marina DiMaio, Digital & Print Assets Coordinator.
Back in 2018, pretty much fresh out of grad school, I found myself at the beginning of my very first job at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Through my own multidisciplinary art making, I’ve always been interested in contemplative practices, and the idea of creative process as spiritual practice. So, with the support of an Early Career Development Grant from the BC Arts Council, I had the incredible opportunity to extend and deepen the artistic research that I began exploring as an MFA student at UVic by contributing as a curatorial assistant at the AGGV to a multiphase project, by curator Haema Sivanesan, considering Buddhism as an artistic methodology.
By Mel Granley, Guest Curator at the AGGV.
June is recognized as National Indigenous History Month. National Indigenous Peoples Day is a holiday celebrated in Canada every year on the 21st of June. This holiday was officially established in 1996 and is intended to “recognize the history, heritage and diversity of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples in Canada” according to Canada.ca. I ask myself, what does this day mean to me? I am a Métis and Ukrainian person living in Canada, and this day brings mixed feelings of pride and concern.
By Heng Wu, Curator of Asian Art, AGGV.
A horse-drawn carriage passing the Legislative Assembly building, instantly captured in freehand-style brushwork, resonating with a festival night in China about 900 years ago recorded in a poem by the Chinese poet Xin Qiji (1140-1207). A young girl in traditional Chinese dress dancing under a maple tree, paired with a line transcribed in the seal-script calligraphy, which reads, “Where my heart settles, is where my home is.” The colorful float homes gilding Victoria’s Fisherman’s Wharf rendered in traditional Chinese ink wash with a tone of Western oil painting.
Jaimie Isaac joined the AGGV as the new Chief Curator in September 2021, and we’re excited to get to know her more in this interview!
The current exhibition The Places We Live In considers the many ways artists interpret the natural world around them, from the micro to the macro. The range of works featured here is equally varied! This issue of Art Terms takes a few wide-ranging, unrelated, examples from this exhibition.
The exhibition Places We Live In delves deep into the natural world, our place in it and its place in us, from the point of view of artists in the AGGV’s permanent collection. In this article, we will look at a few of the Canadian artists featured in this exhibition, whose works impel us to look closely at the microcosm of life on earth, to look up to the sky and vast cosmos above us, and to look around at our natural surroundings that support life on earth.
By Audrey Wang, AGGV Volunteer
December 13th, 2021, marks the 150th anniversary of Emily Carr’s birth. Beyond this commemoration, the AGGV’s exhibition Emily Carr: Seeing + Being Seen features artworks that carry significance that is as relevant today as they were nearly a century ago when they were first made.