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…
Tag: Artist
New at the Vancouver Art Gallery
The most valuable purchase I have made since moving to Vancouver was to buy memberships to the Vancouver Art Gallery for myself and my son. When I brought the memberships home and showed them to my son he was interested. When I told him that the membership came with two extra passes and if…
First Nations Artists Honoured by the BC Achievement Foundation
“The fact that everyone was calling it a luncheon tipped me off right away. They don’t call it that where I come from! I knew I couldn’t wear jeans like I had to the formal opening at the Bill Reid Gallery” On November 15th, 2016 the BC Achievement Foundation celebrated six First Nations Artists with…
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Teaches with Humour
“The monumental pieces almost fool you into the illusion that you have stepped back in time and are seeing the ‘traditional’ life of First Nations People of BC.” Walking into the Museum of Anthropology at the University of BC is a little bit like walking into a parallel universe. A place that Yuxweluptun used to…
Picasso at the Vancouver Art Gallery – What Is Great Art?
“The question my date asked was: ‘What makes a great artist?’” The question my date asked was: “What makes a great artist?” I was a little stumped. Four years studying art history hadn’t really prepared me to answer that question. I tried, with the typical caveats: “it depends who you ask”, “men were usually the…
YVR’s Jade Canoe Turns Twenty
On a beautiful sunny day in April, YVR celebrated 20 years since the Spirit of Haida Gwaii, The Jade Canoe arrived at the YVR airport. Bill Reid originally had the sculpture created as a 1/6 scale clay model and then later enlarged to its full size. This final clay version was then cast in bronze and…
MashUp With the Whipper Snapper
The complimentary tickets to the Vancouver Art Gallery have been sitting in a cup on my desk for months now. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to go; it’s finding the time. It couldn’t be just anyone I went with, it had to be my son. That was the intent behind the gift. My coworker’s…
Sean Karemaker: Comics and the Child Within
After work at the airport I hopped on the skytrain and headed towards downtown. I had been invited to check out an artist’s new studio and pick some drawings for the art case displays at the airport; 5:00pm on a Tuesday I think it was. It was raining as is usual on a winter night…
New Art at The YVR Airport by Haida Artist Reg Davidson
I walk by them every day at work. As I pass the entrance to the skytrain on the left and the Air Canada USA check ins on the right, I can see them only partially on the other side of security. The effect is breathtaking. The red paint on wood seems to almost glow…
Blue Refuge: Joyce Ozier Dives Deep
I met Joyce for the first time when I came to the Fazakas Gallery for the opening of the Beau Dick show in October. She struck up a conversation and, being new to the city I was thankful for a friendly face; even if it was one I didn’t know yet. I immediately felt comfortable…
Interpretive Search for a Guinness at the VAG
Finding a date to an event in the city is as hard as … well, it’s as hard as finding an alcoholic drink at the Vancouver Art Gallery. And I should know; I spent the better part of a week on Tinder and the better part of an evening at the VAG discovering just that….
In Search of HeART in the City
The Bill Reid Gallery sits unassumingly tucked in off the street. At first it’s a little elusive, but once you are up the set of stairs and find yourself in the carefully manicured courtyard, you understand immediately why this location was chosen. Although I had been here before, this was a little bit different. The…
Little City Arts 