The Sidewalk Gallery is located outside Legacy Downtown in our Broad Street windows.
Art of Reconciliation invites viewers to witness and participate in a dialogue with youth about what reconciliation means for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people working together to form friendships and take action. The artwork in this show is the result of weeks of reflection, group discussion and deep learning about reconciliation, Indigenous culture, and colonization.
Pop Anthropology is an exhibition of multimedia artist Eric Metcalfe’s oeuvre, spanning over sixty years, in celebration of the artist’s honorary doctorate from UVic (UVic DFA 2021, BFA 1970). This exhibition continues the playful and charged work of Metcalfe’s life: reimagining images, tropes and stereotypes as poignant and plentiful scraps from which to pull meaning. It honours his early development as a student in Visual Arts at the University of Victoria in the early 1970s, as well as his lifetime achievements as a pioneer in performance art in western Canada and co-founder of the Western Front, one of Canada’s leading and longest running artist run centres
Image credit: Eric Metcalfe, Untitled, 1967, gouache and watercolour on paper.
Isshoni: Henry Shimizu’s Paintings of New Denver Internment is an exploration of Japanese Canadian identity, community, and family. Centering the voices of three generations, issei, nisei, and sansei (first, second, and third-generation), this exhibition provides insight into the intergenerational impacts of the forced uprooting and internment of Japanese Canadians during WWII.
Japanese Canadians in the arts: “Did you think it’d come true?”
A Lansdowne Lecture with artist Bryce Kanbara
April 23, 2022 | 7pm UVic Legacy Art Gallery Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Exploring Japanese Canadian artists, issues of identity, and intergenerational relationships, Governor General Award-winning artist Bryce Kanbara will give a presentation for the opening of the exhibition Isshoni: Henry Shimizu’s Paintings of New Denver Internment. With opening remarks by the exhibition curator, Samantha Marsh.
Artist-teachers practice in a hybrid space where pedagogy, art-making, and research intertwine and inform each other. UVic Art Education faculty and sessional instructors share their diverse perspectives, approaches, and experiences inviting visitors to consider ways in which art education stimulates engagement with critical questions and creates stronger connections between people, places, and ideas.
Artists:
Robert Dalton, Mike Emme, Karen Hibbard, Natalie LeBlanc, Connie Michele Morey, Regan Rasmussen, Natasha S. Reid, Kathleen Schmalz, Alison Shields, Shruti Tandon, Michelle Wiebe, William Zuk, Caren Willms
Image: Mike Emme, Lockers, 1986/2022.
Related Programming
‘that to which we cling’ Drop-in clay hand-building workshop with Regan Rasmussen
Saturday, May 14 2022 | 11-3pm UVic Legacy Art Gallery Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Facilitated by Regan Rasmussen (UVic Art Education), this workshop is dedicated to the theme of resilience. Using local mollusk shells as inspiration and applying clay hand-building techniques, participants will respond to a ceramic sculpture installation from the exhibition Breaking the Mold by making their own small ceramic artifact while considering the question: What beliefs and practices do we cling to for sanctuary and resilience in times of adversity?
Free and open for all ages Drop-in, no registration required
Saturday, June 18 2022 | 12-3pm UVic Legacy Art Gallery Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Come join us for a pop-up art hive in the gallery! Visitors are invited to experiment with art making in a welcoming drop-in community setting. To learn more about art hives, visit www.arthives.org. As a starting point, Natasha S. Reid will facilitate an activity that explores various fruits and vegetables commonly grown in Jamaica.
At the end, you can give your finished art work to ISSAMBA’s La Teranga Food Distribution to be added to a food hamper or you can bring it home and gift it to someone you know.
This art activity is an extension of Natasha’s artwork Plantain Belt currently exhibited in the Breaking the Mold exhibition at UVic’s Legacy Gallery (630 Yates Street).
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.
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).
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
