Author Archives: curator

FLUID: Portraits by Blake Little

Image: Blake Little, Leo and Nathan; David; Brynn, ©BlakeLittle2019.

January 11 – April 11, 2020

Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory

Guest curated by Wayne Baerwaldt.

As people who identify as trans, gender fluid, non-binary, Two Spirit, and other diverse gender identities face complex and challenging societal responses, the act of representing oneself can be a brave act of defiance. FLUID, a new photographic portrait series by Los Angeles-based artist Blake Little, sets out to collaborate with diverse local, national and international trans and gender fluid people to capture and reflect some of the concerns and potentials of how they choose to represent themselves through photography.

Supported by the Chair in Transgender Studies. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.


Teacher’s Guide

This FLUID: Portraits by Blake Little exhibition Teacher’s Guide is free to download and use as reference in the classroom.

FLUID: Portraits by Blake Little – Teacher’s GuideDownload

Events & Programs

Film Screening & Artist Talk: Framing Agnes with Chase Joynt

Sunday, April 5th | 2-4 pm Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St. | Lekwungen territory | Facebook Event Supported by the Chair in Transgender Studies

Join trans culture writer and filmmaker Chase Joynt for a discussion about the role of fantasy and fiction in the telling of (trans) histories along with a screening of his recent short film, Framing Agnes. Framing Agnes premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and is being expanded into a feature film with support from Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch program. Joynt joined UVic’s Department of Gender Studies in July, 2019 after his term as a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago. Copies of Joynt’s first book, You Only Live Twice—a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award that was also named one of the best books of the year by The Globe and Mail and the CBC—will be on hand and available for purchase.

About Framing Agnes: In the late 1950s, a woman named Agnes approached the UCLA Medical Center seeking sex reassignment surgery. Her story was long considered to be exceptional and singular until never-before-seen case files of other patients were found in 2017. Framing Agnes features preeminent trans culture-makers breathing new life into those who redefined gender in the mid-century.

Starring Zackary Drucker (She Gone Rogue, Transparent), Angelica Ross (Pose, American Horror Story), Silas Howard (By Hook or By Crook, A Kid Like Jake), and Max Wolf Valerio (Max, The Testosterone Files).

Open Celebration: FLUID Portraits by Blake Little

Saturday, January 25 | 2 – 4pm | Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St. | Lekwungen territory |Supported by the Chair in Transgender Studies

Join us for the opening reception of FLUID featuring a performance by local spoken word artist K.P Dennis.

Myfanwy Pavelic: Mirrored Selves Within and Without

Image: Myfanwy Pavelic, Raincoat (Self-Portrait), 1987, Gift of Dr. Myfanwy Spencer Pavelic.

This exhibition is presented in two parts: 

May 18 – September 15, 2019Legacy Maltwood | at the Mearns Centre – McPherson Library

May 25 – September 21, 2019 –Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.

Victoria-born artist Myfanwy Pavelic (1916-2007) was fascinated with the inner and outer dimensions of being human. Imbued with prescient human insights, and largely self-taught, she created insightful and compelling portraits in pencil, collage, acrylic and oil. 

In an exhibition that spans her entire career, guest curator Patricia Bovey explores how Pavelic’s keen observation, empathy and knowledge of anatomy allowed her to capture her subjects’ inner essence – fears, vulnerabilities and strengths – consistently revealing the tensions between within and without. Her self-portraits honestly convey her own inner explorations and she used this experience to probe the depths of celebrities including acclaimed violinist Yehudi Menuhin, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and renowned actress Katharine Hepburn. Multilayered in feeling and expression, her works exude dignity, beauty and the depths of joy, sadness and despair.

Opening Celebration & Curator Talk – Saturday, May 25 | 2 – 4pm With Guest Curator, Patricia Bovey

Curator Talk with Patricia Bovey

Thursday, July 25 | 7pm

Myfanwy in Context – This illustrated talk will address the significance of Myfanwy Pavelic’s art and situate her visual acumen and accomplishments with portraits within the context of several major Canadian artists including Emily Carr, Paraskeva Clark, Vera Weatherbie and Molly Lamb Bobak.

Image: Jim Tanaka, 2019.

From Self-portraits to Selfies: The Psychology of Representing Self

Thursday July 11 | 7pm | Legacy Downtown  630 Yates St. | Lekwungen territory

Join Jim Tanaka, UVic Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Brain Sciences, at the Legacy Downtown for an interactive evening exploring the connections between Myfanwy Pavelic’s self portraits and our present day notion of selfies. Drawing on current ideas of what makes a good selfie and whether they can capture a person’s true essence, Jim will discuss the psychology of self portraiture and why we take selfies. 



Karl Spreitz: Self-Propelled

Exhibition PosterMarch 7 – July 26, 2015

Extented to August 16, 2015

Legacy Maltwood (at the Mearns Centre – McPherson Library) 

Click here for online exhibition

Curated by Naomi Shields and Emerald Johnstone-Bedell

Self-Propelled showcases Spreitz’s wide-reaching range of photography, films, and book and magazine publications, as well as his friendships and connections to other Victoria artists.

Spreitz uses whimsy and paradoxical imagery to challenge the conventions of mundane life. This self-driven, multi-talented connoisseur developed an authentic artistic style that echoes his character and life experiences. Anti-authority satire, human mechanization, and formal compositions derive from his Austrian upbringing, athletic training, and film and photography career. This selective retrospect presents various artwork, film, photographs and ephemera documenting Spreitz’s life and cultural contributions.

Image Exhibition Poster

Digital sign final Rack Card revised date Spreitz Poster

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Making A Scene! Victoria’s Artists in the 1960s

Gods of the Sun Dogs, Margaret Ellen, c. 1960

Gods of the Sun Dogs, Margaret Ellen, c. 1960

April 2 – June 27, 2015

Legacy Art Gallery Downtown

Curated by Emerald Johnstone-Bedell

The 1960s marked the emergence of a vibrant contemporary art scene in Victoria. Events such as the BC centennial celebrations and Expo ’67 foregrounded regional and national artistic production, and the newly formed Canada Council for the Arts around a source of financial support to practicing artists. The politically charged spirit of the time, born out of war experiences and social justice movements, generated a desire for change and experimentation. This included artistic movements towards anti-hierarchial approaches inclusive of applied and non-Western art.

This show brought together ceramics, film, printmaking, painting, and sculpture to give visitors a glimpse of what the art scene of the 1960s would have looked like. Making a Scene! also highlighted the importance of growing institutions and movements of the 60s like the budding University of Victoria Art Collection, the birth of the Limners group, and the establishment of rights for First Nations artists.

View the exhibition website here

movie night poster

 

final Rack Card

 

 

poster working

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bridge Over Troubled Water: Yoko Takashima with Ruby Arnold

Still from Bridge Over Troubled Water, Yoko Takashima

Still from Bridge Over Troubled Water, Yoko Takashima

April 9 – May 30, 2015

Legacy Small Gallery

View the online catalogue:

Bridge Over Troubled Water – Catalogue

Bridge Over Troubled Water is an interactive video and sound installation created by Victoria artist Yoko Takashima, with technical assistance in collaboration recent UVic graduate, Ruby Arnold. Takashima filmed about 40 volunteers signing the Simon and Garfunkel classic Bridge Over Troubled Water. Her manipulation of these recordings allows for the faces and voices to blend and transform over time in such a way that no identical image or performance will ever be seen. Unexpected narratives and raw human connections are forged between performer and viewer in this constantly self-generating installation.

Bridge Over Troubled Water is the second installment of IN SESSION, a series of exhibitions featuring UVic sessional instructions in the Visual Arts Department.

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Adaslā: The Movement of Hands

Sewing button blankets at First Peoples House. Photo by Michael Glendale

Sewing button blankets at First Peoples House. Photo by Michael Glendale

January 16 – April 25 2014

Legacy Art Gallery Downtown

This exhibition centres around the creation and exhibition of the World’s Biggest Button Blanket. Created over the fall 2013 academic term, in collaboration with students at UVic’s First Peoples House, the blanket invites new conversations about indigenous button blanket makers and the artistic traditions that surround them. A project of the Williams Legacy Chair in Modern and Contemporary Art of the Pacific Northwest.

For more info about the Big Button Blanket click here

Art of the Book 2013

Karen Kunc, Fractured Terrain
Karen Kunc, Fractured Terrain

November 22, 2013 – March 24, 2014

Legacy Maltwood (at Mearns Centre – McPherson Library)

Art of the Book 2013 both embodies and defies the traditional definition of what a book can be. The content ranges from calligraphy to blackout poetry, while the books take on imaginative forms such as luggage-style tags or DNA’s double helix. Drawing from ancient techniques, the artists have represented a full history of book making, including the modern e-book. Organized by the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild, this 30th anniversary juried exhibit features award winning work from some of the best makers in Canada and the United States.

A companion exhibit of the 31st annual Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada is featured in the adjacent McPherson Library Special Collections Reading Room from October 28 – November 29.

Events:

On November 25, 2013 an opening reception was held to great success. Two local CBBAG members gave a guided tour of the exhibition and Caroline Riedel spoke about the exhibition.

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Honoris Causa: University of Victoria First Nations Artist Honourands

Henry Hunt, Kwagiulth Chief and Frog

Henry Hunt, Kwagiulth Chief and Frog

February 2014

First Peoples House at the University of Victoria

Curated by Emerald Johnstone-Bedell

Twice yearly at convocation the University of Victoria awards honorary degrees to those who have demonstrated distinguished and extraordinary achievements. During its 50-year history UVic has granted honours to seven First Nations artists who have contributed not only to the arts but also to the community at large as leaders, activists, visionaries, role models, and groundbreakers. This exhibition features works from the University of Victoria’s art collection and an excerpt from the citation that was read at the occasion of granting the degree.

Paradox

Daniel Laskarin, blue chair :: if this

Daniel Laskarin, blue chair :: if this

October 31, 2013 –  January 11, 2014

Legacy Art Gallery Downtown

Curated by Mary Jo Hughes

par-a-dox n. 1. A statement that seems to contradict itself but may nonetheless be true.

The notion of paradox provides an apt means of curating seven divergent artists who make up the University of Victoria’s Visual Arts department. Despite their widely varying practices, they share fundamental interests in the contradictory nature of our very physical and psychic experiences in, and of, the world around us.

Paradox presents the recent work of the artists teaching in department of Visual Arts of the University of Victoria. The seven faculty members (Daniel Laskarin, Sandra Meigs, Robert Youds, Vikky Alexander, Lynda Gammon, Jennifer Stillwell, and Paul Walde) are mid-career and senior artists with national and international careers. Each artist will be represented by work characteristic of current practice relating to the theme of the paradox implicit in our experience of art.

Paradox aims to bring wider understanding to the particular strengths of this nationally acclaimed academic program, which is rooted in explorations of phenomenology and in the perceptual, conceptual, and interactive contexts of contemporary visual art.

Events:

An opening reception was held on November 1, 2013 with the seven artists and public in attendance.

On December 1, 2013 an experimental concert titled Music for Mycologists was held in support of Paradox. Paul Walde’s large mushroom spore prints (Interdeterminacy, 2012) also act as musical notation. Tina Pearson (flute, voice), George Tzanetakis (bass clarinet) and Paul Walde (bass guitar) interpreted the prints sonically and also played pieces by John Cage and Vaclav Halek.

American composer John Cage was an avid mycologist. Cage often quipped that music and mushrooms have nothing to do with one another except for the fact that they appear next to each other in the dictionary. Experimental Music Unit put this statement to the test.

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Shakespeare’s “Big Books”

Detail of a portrait of William Shakespeare

Detail of a portrait of William Shakespeare

September 21 – October 23, 2013

Legacy Small Gallery

Curated by Dr. Janelle Jensted and Dr. Erin E. Kelly

Click here to read more about the University of Victoria’s celebration of the Bard.

The Shakespeare First Folio (First Collected edition of his plays) is one of the Western world’s best-known and most iconic books. Discover why these folios have held people’s fascination through the centuries and enjoy and opportunity to see all four 17th century folios together for the first time in BC.

This exhibition was part of the Shakespeare Onstage-Offstage community celebration of the Bard. View the Shakespeare Onstage—Offstage brochure here and learn more about the events here.

Coalescence: Bridging Contemporeneity & Tradition

Richard Hunt, An Eagle [and golf course]

Richard Hunt, An Eagle [and golf course]

August 28 – November 18, 2013

Legacy Maltwood (at the Mearns Centre – McPherson Library)

Curated by Emerald Johnstone-Bedell and Lesley Golding

This exhibition at the Maltwood Prints and Drawings Gallery offers an in-depth look at the work of five contemporary Northwest Coast artists: Francis Dick, Charles Elliott, Richard Hunt, Tim Paul and Moy Sutherland. Drawing on works from the University of Victoria’s extensive Northwest Coast print collection, this exhibition demonstrates how the artists use traditional stylistic elements and cultural references to express contemporary experience.

These five artists represent the three main culture groups of Vancouver Island: Coast Salish, Nuu-chah-nulth and Kwakwaka’wakw and were selected for their innovative work as well as their longstanding influential relationships with both the university and the local community.

Highlights of the exhibition include Richard Hunt’s An Eagle [and golf course], which injects both humour and unexpected imagery into a traditional formline composition, and Francis Dick’s Comes a Woman, which addresses female spirituality. Additional themes include environmentalism, the Christian faith, cultural revival, commercialization, mentorship and personal relationships. The prints are accompanied by quotes from the artist providing insight into the inspiration and creative process associated with the work.

Core Samples: Visual Arts Faculty 1966-1986

Don Harvey, Black Diamond #3

Don Harvey, Black Diamond #3

June 19 – October 25, 2013

Legacy Art Gallery Downtown

Curated by Caroline Riedel

View the online catalogue:

Core Samples – Catalogue

This exhibition presents an overview of the University of Victoria’s Visual Arts department from its earliest days as a breakaway department from the Faculty of Education to the individually and collectively earned reputations for innovation in painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and sculpture.

Thirteen artists who were also appointed faculty members are included in this exhibition including John Dobereiner, Donald Harvey, Pat Martin Bates, Gwen Curry, Douglas Morton, Roland Brener, Mowry Baden and Fred Douglas. Primarily drawing on work from the university’s permanent collection, this exhibition reflects a range of media and groundbreaking artistic practice.

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