Category Archives: Past Exhibition

Exhibitions offered by the University of Victoria Legacy Art Galleries from 1964 to present.

Rooting for Reclamation

October 2 – December 7, 2024

Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory

Rooting for Reclamation is a space of Black reclamation by guest curator Madison Bridal. Featuring local artists Aya Behr, Kemi Craig, Nathan Smith, and Tajah Olson, this exhibition showcases each artist’s personal interpretation of what Black reclamation means to them. Themes of identity, connection to ancestry, Black beauty, Black joy, strength, representation, community, and home are all explored through the meaningful pieces shared in this exhibition.

Read the curatorial essay.

Image: Nathan Smith, Anansi (detail), 2019.

The Chorus is Speaking: Experiencing Identities of Blackness in Canada

September 18 – December 7, 2024

Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory

Ojo Agi – Christina Battle – Charles Campbell – Chantal Gibson – Dana Inkster – Karin Jones – Jan Wade – Syrus Marcus Ware; 8 artists of incredible insight and inventiveness brought together in an exploration of facets of the Black experience on Turtle Island through sculpture, drawing and painting, installation, film, and poetry.

Curated by Michelle Jacques and Jenelle Pasiechnik.

Read the curatorial essay.

Image: Karin Jones, The Bond, 2024. Image courtesy of Art Mûr.

Masked Identity: Artworks by Robert Burke

April 20 – September 7, 2024

Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory

Masked Identity focuses on the life and art of Robert Burke, Denesuline (Chipewyan)/Black artist from Fort Smith, NWT. As a residential school survivor of 10 years, Robert knows the power of art. Robert’s art speaks to his life stories that emerge from the various social and political injustices he has experienced throughout his life on systematic, community, and individual levels that have informed Robert’s intricate symbolism. Creating his own elements and symbols, Robert steps out of a defined cultural iconography to construct his own unique style. This exhibition calls viewers in to witness Robert’s artistic and personal transformation as a Survivor who found healing and reconciliation through art.

Explore the Masked Identity 3D virtual exhibition.

Image: Robert Burke, Spirit Mask (detail), 2003.

Fire Season

April 20, 2024 – September 7, 2024

Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory

Canadian artist collective Fire Season presents an exhibition of works from their biennial publication, an edited journal of written and visual sense-making on the topic of wildfires. The exhibition features poetry, visual art, photography, and video installation from contributors to the Fire Season book and archival wildfire materials from the BC Forest Discovery Centre to take a comprehensive and inclusive look at how wildfire continues to impact British Columbia in a kaleidoscope of cultural, political, industrial, and ecological ways.

Curated by Amory Abbott and Liz Toohey-Wiese.

Participating artists:

Amory Abbott
Sara-Jeanne Bourget
Ana Diab
Kerri Flannigan
Jonathan S. Green
Jude Griebel
Colton Hash
Eli Hirtle
Sylvia McKelvie
Andreas Rutkauskas
Kyle Scheurmann
Liz Toohey-Wiese

Image: Sara-Jeanne Bourget, Charcoal Studies II, 2021.

Latent

January 6 – April 6, 2024

Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory

The exhibition Latent emerges from conversations between artist Lynda Gammon and curator Carolyn Butler Palmer over the past several years about how artists who identify as women are often overlooked, ignored and sidestepped. At the Legacy Art Galleries, over the past decade the majority of solo exhibitions have featured the work of women artists and this exhibition furthers a desire to bring forward their work by honouring the many women who remain hidden in the University of Victoria’s Art Collection and the mechanisms that conceal them from view: the vault, accessioning, and the catalogue.

Artist bio: Lynda Gammon
See all events: Latent events & programs

Image: 12-minute meditation on untitled (serigraph), Elza Mayhew, n.d., Lynda Gammon, 2023.

Shaping Relations, Tethered Together

November 25, 2022 – February 18, 2024

Legacy Maltwood Gallery | On campus in the Mearns Centre – McPherson Library
Lekwungen territory

Curated by Mel Granley.

Shaping Relations, Tethered Together dives into Legacy’s permanent collection to explore ideas of togetherness and that which cultivates relationships. Each work examines a different facet of the relationships people form with one another, the world around us, and our relationships with ourselves. Tenderness and the importance of connection are meditated on throughout the exhibition, through a diverse selection of media and artists.

Showing at the Legacy Maltwood Gallery on campus, please come visit this eclectic show and spend some time with us.

Image: Rain Cabana-Boucher, French exit (detail), 2021.

Qw’an Qw’anakwal – To Come Together

Artist Portraits

Jan 22, 2022 – February 29, 2024

First Peoples House | UVic Campus
Lekwungen territory

Visit the exhibition website

Curated by Andrea Walsh, Smyth Chair in Arts and Engagement

Amanda LaLiberte’s photo portraits showcase 12 Coast Salish artists who participated in the Visiting Artist Program hosted by the UVic Department of Anthropology.

Image credit: Amanda Laliberte, 2021.

Untitled ṮEṮÁĆES

September 23 – December 9, 2023

Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory

Untitled ṮEṮÁĆES is the result of an artistic collaboration between TEMOSEṈ Charles “Chazz” Elliott (Lekwungen/W̱SÁNEĆ), Jesse Campbell (Métis) and Dr. Kim Shortreed to prototype a motion-activated art installation that speaks aloud toponyms, or place names, in SENĆOŦEN and English.

This non-traditional map is an artograph of the islands that surround W̱SÁNEĆ territories, in the Salish Sea, including the place settlers call the Saanich Peninsula.

Haptic refers to the sensation of touch, position, and motion. Using a haptic map, viewers are invited to experience connections to place through representations of landscape and place names, and to provide a way to learn orally about SENĆOŦEN and settler namescapes through curiosity and play.

Full exhibition text available online.

Explore the Untitled ṮEṮÁĆES 3D virtual exhibition.

Image: Chazz Elliott, Kim Shortreed, Jesse Campbell, Untitled ṮEṮÁĆES (detail), 2023

Under the Shade of the Lotus Tree: Pari Azarm Motamedi and Rozita Moini Shirazi

September 23 – December 9, 2023

Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory

Under the Shade of the Lotus Tree: Pari Azarm Motamedi and Rozita Moini Shirazi is an exhibition that delves into the deep impact of leaving one’s homeland and the need for a connection to one’s roots. This show explores the power of Persian poetry as a foundation of cultural preservation and self-expression via the works of Persian-Canadian artists Pari Azarm Motamedi and Rozita Moini Shirazi. Motamedi and Moini Shirazi expertly translate and modernize classic Persian symbols, and stories, uncovering hidden messages in poems and tackling socio-political challenges in their nation. These artists inspire us to consider the complications of displacement and the everlasting value of art in bridging cultural barriers with powerful vision and elegant brushwork.

Explore the Under the Shade of the Lotus Tree 3D virtual exhibition.

Organized by the West Vancouver Art Museum.
Curated by Hilary Letwin and Anahita Ranjbar.

Image: Rozita Moini Shirazi, The Valley of Unity (detail), 2022.

Francis Dick’s Walking Thru My Fires

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.

Dance Like Everybody’s Watching

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.

Gule Wamkulu: Dancing Indigenous Governance

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