AGGV Collection

Where My Heart Settles, Is Where My Home Is

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. 

Say What? Art Terms For Beginners, Part 19

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.

Places We Live In: An Artists Feature

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.

Celebrating Emily Carr’s 150th Birth Anniversary

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.

Rethinking Emily: The Responsibility We Carry

By Mel Granley, Guest Curator

Emily Carr has become almost synonymous with the Pacific Northwest; her work being displayed year-round in different exhibition contexts to ensure the satisfaction of visitors to the AGGV. This drive to see her work is directed by the idea of checking off a list of great and thoroughly known artists within the artistic canon. The issue? The “art canon” is heavily Euro-Western centered and very keenly demonstrates a bias for settler-European art, while largely failing to acknowledge the artistic merits of historic and contemporary BIPOC artists.

Artist In Our Collection: Glenn Howarth (1946-2009)

by Audrey Wang, AGGV Volunteer

Wandering along narrow Fan Tan Alley in Victoria’s Chinatown, you might come across a nondescript door with the name “HOWARTH” on it. This was the artist Glenn Howarth’s studio, where in 1987, he founded the Victoria Drawing Academy.

10 Things to Know About Botanical Art

Botanical art illustration brings together art and science, with artists aiming to accurately depict the visual characteristics of plant and flower species, while producing an image that is pleasing.

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