Francis Dick’s
April 22 – September 9, 2023
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory
Walking Thru My Fires showcases the work of one of the most prolific living Indigenous artists on the West Coast. This deeply personal exhibition explores Indian Residential School legacies, urban Indigeneity, reconciliation, and the healing power of art through Francis Dick’s prints, paintings, carvings, and music. It is an autobiography written in art.
January 14 – April 8, 2023
Legacy Downtown Sidewalk Gallery | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory
Local artist Simone Blais presents her debut documentary, Dance Like Everybody’s Watching. The short film exposes the lives of three Black dancers in Victoria, BC (lək̓ʷəŋən territory) as they expose their worlds of flamenco, hip hop, and dancehall. While the dancers grapple with racism, tokenism, and stereotypes, we are reminded that dance is always political. This film deals with themes of cultural appropriation in dance and is uniquely a BC production. 100% of the production, cast and crew are based in Victoria, BC.
Image: still from Dance Like Everybody’s Watching.
January 14 – April 8, 2023
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory
Gule Wamkulu invites the visitor to bear witness to the Great Dance that serves as the governance structure of the Chewa people. This immersive exhibition features photographs, films, and objects that celebrate how we, as diverse African Canadians, build community while being relationally respectful of all Coast Salish expressions of sovereignty.
—Guest curator, Dr. Devi Mucina, Program Director, School of Indigenous Governance & Kl. Peruzzo de Andrade
September 28 – December 22, 2022
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory
Curated by Kim Dhillon
Piers is a group exhibition showing contemporary artwork ranging across media by 18 artists spanning generations, nationalities, and backgrounds, exploring how artists’ practices change through teaching, learning, and mentorship.
Artists:
Katie Bethune-Leamen, Cedric Bomford, Lauren Brinson, Yan Wen Chang, Megan Dickie, Laura Dutton, Annika Eriksson, Daniel Laskarin, James Legaspi, Christopher Lindsay, Evan Locke, Danielle Proteau, Hollis Roberts, Arlene Stamp, Jennifer Stillwell, Beth Stuart, Grace Tsurumaru, Paul Walde.
Exhibition booklet: view
Artist bios: view
Image: James Legaspi, still from magnolia, 2020, HD video, 18 minutes 13 seconds.
Oct 23, 2021 – Nov 13, 2022
Legacy Maltwood Gallery | On campus in the Mearns Centre – McPherson Library
Curated by Dorian Jesse Fraser, Doctoral Candidate, Concordia University (UVic MA, 2013).
Watch: Pop Goes the Art! Curator Talk
Read: West Coast Modernism and the Pop Sauvage of Eric Metcalfe, essay by Dorian Jesse Fraser
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.
June 25 – Sept 17, 2022
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory
Curated by Jessie Demers
Still Standing: Ancient Forest Futures brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists to reflect on our relationship with old-growth forests in B.C. from a range of cultural and philosophical perspectives. The exhibition explores the relationships between art, ecology and activism in order to envision futures which honour reciprocal relationships with nature.
Artists: Carey Newman, Connie Morey, Gord Hill, Heather Kai Smith, Jeremy Herndl, Jordan Hill, Kelly Richardson, Kyle Scheurmann, Mike Andrew McLean, Paul Walde, Rande Cook, Valerie Salez. Image: Jeremy Herndl, The Black Cedar, 2021.
Solo exhibition by Connie Morey
July 2 – Sept 17, 2022
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory
Out of Place delves into the relationships between the ground beneath our feet and the roofs over our heads. Through sculpture, photography and stop-motion projection, artist Connie Michele Morey explores ecological displacement (a colonial separation from the earth as home) and its impact on labour and housing dislocation. The exhibition grows out of tensions embodied in the artist’s mixed settler and Indigenous identity, alongside her personal experiences with housing insecurity. Emerging from travel to over fifty former village and industry sites on the east and west coasts of Canada, Out of Place questions what it means to be at home with the body, community, and earth. Image: Connie Morey, Roof Over My Head, Slag Heap, Coal Mine #1, K’omoks Traditional Territory (Comox Valley, BC), 2019.
April 30 – Sept 10 2022
Legacy Downtown Sidewalk Gallery | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory
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.
Learn more about the Art of Reconciliation project
Image: Dahlila Charlie, Matriarch’s Dream, 2021.
October 23, 2021 – October 2, 2022
Legacy Maltwood Gallery | Mearns Centre – McPherson Library
Lekwungen territory
Curated by Dorian Jesse Fraser, Doctoral Candidate, Concordia University (UVic MA, 2013).
Watch: Pop Goes the Art! Curator Talk
Read: West Coast Modernism and the Pop Sauvage of Eric Metcalfe, essay by Dorian Jesse Fraser
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.
April 22 – June 18, 2022
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory
Inner Gallery
Curated by Samantha Marsh
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.
いっしょに
ヘンリー清水・ニューデンバー強制収容絵画展
２０２２年４月２２日〜６月１８日
レガシー美術館 ダウンタウン
いっしょに：ヘンリー清水のニューデンバー強制収容の絵画は、日系カナダ人のアイデンティティ、コミュニティ、そして家族についての探求の試みです。この展覧会では、一世、二世、三世の三世代の声を中心に、第二次世界大戦中の日系カナダ人の強制移動と強制収容の世代を超えた影響についての洞察が展示されます。
Image: Henry Shimizu, Bon Odori.
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.
Watch the lecture on YouTube
April 16 – June 18, 2022
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory
Organized by Natasha Reid, UVic Art Education
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.
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
More about Regan Rasmussen: https://www.reganrasmussen.com/
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).