100 Years of French Art and How Canada Was Influenced

Vancouver Art Gallery French Moderns: Monet to Matisse 1850-1950 ANDAffinities: Canadian Artists and France On until May 20, 2019 Before New York, it was France that held the highest status as the birthplace of the latest art movements in the Western world. The exhibit, French Moderns: Monet to Matisse (1850-1950) at the Vancouver Art Gallery…

Artist Strain Subverts the Colonial Gaze

Manuel Axel Strain Unsettling Perspectives: Subverting the Colonial GazeDowntown Eastside Centre for the Arts January 9 – 26, 2019 I love checking out little art shows around Vancouver, and last night I got the chance to see one at the Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts for the first time. Manuel Axel Strain is an…

The Universality of Guo Pei’s Designs

Guo Pei: Couture Beyond Vancouver Art Gallery October 13, 2018 – January 20, 2019 This season’s blockbuster, not-to-be-missed show at the Vancouver Art Gallery is Guo Pei: Couture Beyond. The Guo Pei exhibit features everything from Chinese wedding dresses, to religious iconography, to the dress worn by singer Rihanna at the Met Ball in 2015….

Dana Claxton: Fringing the Cube

Dana Claxton: Fringing the Cube Vancouver Art Gallery  October 27, 2018 – February 3, 2019 About ten minutes into the media preview for Dana Claxton: Fringing the Cube at the Vancouver Art Gallery, curator Grant Arnold turned to Claxton to ask her about one of her performance pieces. As she started talking I realized she…

There’s No Place Like Home

A few months ago, I was approached by Dave Gordon with a request to work on a project he had just started. The project was Skeena Salmon Art Fest – an initiative aimed at beautifying Terrace, BC with public art and celebrating salmon as significant culturally, as a food source, and as a tourist draw…

Kerry James Marshall at the Rennie Museum

Kerry James Marshall: Collected Works, will show at the Rennie Museum until November 3, 2018. In order to view the show, you have to book a tour at the Rennie Museum HERE. There is no charge for admission. Here’s a peek into some of his work currently on display there, as seen by yours truly at…

Murakami Storms Vancouver

  It’s February 1, 2018, 8:40 a.m. and Murakami is already getting wired in for the media preview interview at the Vancouver Art Gallery for the opening of his show, The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg. I’m surprised to see him there so early, before most of the media and staff have arrived. And it’s not…

The Space – An Art Gallery and a Unique Business Structure

Yaletown. It’s about the coolest place in Vancouver and that’s one reason why Jolayne Devente chose it as the location for her gallery. As the brain child behind the unique business structure at The Space, an Art Gallery, it’s part of what she counts on to make the gallery a success. The other thing she counts on…

Every Painter Paints Herself

“Her Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura) shows the artist, through her own eyes; beautiful, graceful, and at the same time confident and powerful” I was thrilled when I found out that Artemisia Gentileschi‘s self portrait was coming to Vancouver. This rare Baroque female painter has long held my fascination and her Self…

If Grandpa Had Been an Artist: Reflections on The Black Paintings

If Grandpa had been an artist, he might have painted those years away. If he had been an artist, he might have sketched the face of the friend he held in his arms, dying, or painted the feeling of being left for dead all night. If Grandpa had been an artist, we might have something like…

Monet the Revolutionary

To paint something the way it felt, instead of the way it looked, was completely deviant To most art lovers, the name Claude Monet brings up images of art that is easy on the eyes. This is a show you can go to see without having to feel like you’re missing something. Monet doesn’t push…

An Evening with Susan Point at the Vancouver Art Gallery

Since I had been to see Susan Point‘s exhibit, “Spindle Whorl” at the Vancouver Art Gallery four times already, I was thrilled when I received an invitation to accompany Kenji Nagai, art photographer, to the private event at the Vancouver Art Gallery featuring Susan Point herself. Being an amateur photographer myself, I had the chance…