Pictured above: Gwenda Morgan (1908-1991) | The Two Houses |1967 | wood engraving | Gift of the Artist Wandering through Water Work Space, the visitor will quickly realize that this is not a typical exhibition in an art gallery. This was one of the first things that Curator of Engagement, Nicole Stanbridge, pointed out in […]
The language, history and current state of First Nations prints make up the theme of the AGGV’s newest exhibition Form As Meaning: First Nations Prints from the Pacific Northwest. For centuries, First Nations artists from the Pacific Northwest have developed a visual language made up of shapes, lines and colours that can be seen in […]
A wander through the Victorian-era Spencer Mansion of the Art Gallery will inevitably lead you to an encounter with Iain Baxter&’s Still Life made from vacuum formed plastic and painted with bright turquoise acrylic. Made in 1965, this sculpture is among a series of vacuum formed plastic pieces that Baxter& was well-known for. Born Iain Baxter […]
Join us as we explore issues related to the vast and mighty topic that is WATER. Water as a resource; water as a conduit of trade, exchange, and colonization; water and climate change. The AGGV’s upcoming Water Work Space exhibition functions much like a Research and Development Department – part workshop, part exhibition space.
I hope the viewer will leave the exhibition with an understanding of how the idea of place is subjective and culturally constructed; and to consider the role that artists have played in shaping and informing these attitudes. The exhibition looks at Nootka as a case study and traces an arc of more than 200 years. […]
Established and emerging artists from the Greater Victoria area are featured in Close To Home, an exhibition that has drawn many visitors for its depth and breadth of representation. Genres and styles across cultures make for thought-provoking displays, and among them, the photographic works on show are perhaps some of the most evocative. One […]
In Christian iconography, the apple symbolizes Original Sin, the fall of man and temptation. In Chinese culture, the word for apple, “ping guo”, is a homophone for the word “ping”, meaning peace or tranquility, so an apple symbolizes a wish for peace. Apples also feature prominently in Greek myths. Fruits and vegetables are depicted in […]
Conceptual Art The term ‘concept art’ came into use in the early 1960s and became defined as an art movement around the late 60s. Conceptual art is a transformative art form whereby the idea (or concept) behind the work takes precedence over the actual finished artwork itself. By challenging art as an individual expression, conceptual […]
In our last issue of the emagazine, our article “Powerful Stories Close To Home” related how pairings and groups of artworks in the exhibition Close To Home complemented each other. By viewing these groupings of works in tandem, new ways of understanding and appreciating them were conceived. The Curator’s Tour on June 6 reiterated some […]
The exhibition Close To Home showcases works by local artists from Victoria and the region. Indigenous artists are well represented among them, and in particular, Coast Salish artists feature prominently. Butch Dick is from the Lkwungen community, also known as the Songhees First Nations. His family roots extend into the Xw’chalth’lap community, today known as […]
“Perhaps mine is “environmental” sculpture, rather than geometric…I have never made anything not closely connected with the human being and his environment. Man and his longings, desires, his dwellings, the thresholds he passes over and his places of worship concern me; people, buildings, entrances through which people go in, come out; and the apprehension, the […]
Pictured above: Kristina Kudryk | Portrait of the Artist in the Guise of the Empress Loyola and Under the Spell of Maxwell Bates | oil on canvas | Gift of the Artist, AGGV 2010 Enter through the doors of the Centennial Gallery to see the AGGV’s exhibition, Close To Home, and you will be struck by […]
Pictured: Harold Mortimer-Lamb | Emily Carr in Her Studio | 1936 | Harold and Vera Mortimer-Lamb Purchase Fund, AGGV 1980 1. Emily Carr is indelibly associated with the West Coast, having been born in Victoria in 1871 and spending most of her life in her place of birth. 2. Although Emily Carr considered herself an […]
While all of us waited patiently for the cherry blossoms on Moss Street to come into bloom, the March session of Family Sunday at the Gallery was an array of pink flowers and Japanese calligraphy to celebrate Sakura season. All this was made possible by Michael Abe and his family. We met Michael back in […]
The strong verticals of Tim Paul’s cedar totem carving resonate next to Sybil Andrew’s print of Western Red Cedar. This was the reason behind Curator Michelle Jacques’s placement of the two artworks side-by-side in the exhibition, Close To Home. The visual impact and the difference in colour tonality draw the eye from one to the other. […]
We thank Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura and the guests who braved Victoria’s unusual winter blizzard on February 8, for coming to the AGGV’s inaugural Communities + Collections lecture. The aim of this new series is two-fold: firstly, to bring fresh insight into the Gallery’s permanent collection through lectures, workshops and tours by guest speakers and facilitators; and secondly, […]
“Our collection is full of wonders from around the world, from Rembrandt to Carr and Genghis Khan to ancient Syria. It is the job of the Collections Department to manage these objects (20,000 and counting) to document them, ship them, produce exhibitions, frame them, photograph them and care for them, come have a look behind […]
