Tag Archives: Painting

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.

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.

Pop Anthropology

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.

Isshoni

Henry Shimizu’s Paintings of New Denver Internment

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.

Related Programming

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.

Watch the lecture on YouTube

The Averted Eye Sees: The Life and Work of Glenn Howarth – Part II

October 15, 2016 to January 7, 2017

Curated by Jenelle Pasiechnik (UVic MA, 2015)
With supervision from Caroline Riedel (Legacy Art Galleries)

Legacy Art Gallery Downtown | 630 Yates Street

Exhibition Website

Glenn Howarth was a pillar in Victoria’s arts scene from the late 1970s until his death in 2009. He also had an enduring connection to the University of Victoria — as a Visual Arts student in the 1960s, a sessional instructor, an artist-in-residence with the Engineering Department, and recently with a bequest of his archival papers and digital art. Howarth was an innovative creator and inspired teacher searching for ways to communicate the artistic process and the perceptual functions of the eye and brain that contribute to visual perception. His work was often infused with surrealistic imagery which recalls the work of Francis Bacon. Howarth was also responsible for innovations in computer graphic art in the early 1980s working on the Telidon system as an artist in residence at UVic’s Engineering Department with Dr. Ernest Chang. He represented Canada with this work in the Sao Paulo Biennale and at Expo 86.

The Averted Eye Sees draws on UVic’s significant collection of Howarth paintings primarily from the Michael C. Williams estate, as well as Howarth’s writing, sketches, ephemera, and digital archive, part of the regional artists archive initiative of UVic Libraries Special Collections and Archives. It also includes a fascinating case study on the challenges of ‘retro-computing’ in recreating Howarth’s early experiments in digital artwork.

Due to the popularity of the exhibition on campus this summer, a second edition of this exhibition will be featured in the small gallery downtown, allowing for the viewing of a larger selection of Howarth’s powerful oeuvre.

The Averted Eye Sees: The Life and Work of Glenn Howarth

July 30, 2016 to October 23, 2016

Curated by Jenelle Pasiechnik (UVic MA, 2015)
With supervision from Caroline Riedel (Legacy Art Galleries)

Legacy Maltwood (at the Mearns Centre – McPherson Library)

Exhibition Website

Glenn Howarth was a pillar in Victoria’s arts scene from the late 1970s until his death in 2009. He was an innovative creator and inspired teacher searching for ways to communicate the artistic process and the perceptual functions of the eye and brain that contribute to visual perception. He was also responsible for innovations in computer graphic art in the early 1980s working on the Telidon system as an artist in residence in the Engineering Department at the University of Victoria campus with Dr. Ernest Chang. In 1983 he represented Canada in the Sao Paulo Biennale with some of this work and also presented it locally at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and UVic’s Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery.

The Averted Eye Sees draws on UVic’s significant collection of Howarth paintings from the Michael C. Williams estate, as well as Howarth’s writing, sketches, ephemera, and digital archive, part of the regional artists archive initiative of UVic Libraries Special Collections and Archives. It also includes a fascinating case study on the challenges of ‘retro-computing’ in recreating Howarth’s early experiments in digital artwork.

Curator’s Tour + Reception

The Averted Eye Sees: The Life and Work of Glenn Howarth

October 7, 3:30-5pm

Free & open to the Public

Room 027 – Legacy Maltwood (at the Mearns Centre – McPherson Library)

Join us for a curator’s tour and special showing of archival materials to celebrate local artist and educator Glenn Howarth and his lifelong obsession with visual perception. The exhibition includes paintings, drawings, prints and Howarth’s pioneering work in digital art (recently restored by the UVic Libraries), for which he received international recognition at the 1983 Sao Paulo Biennale and at Expo 86. Highlights of Howarth’s extensive personal archive including journals, letters, sketches and photographs will be seen at this one-time event. Reception to follow.

Guest curator Jenelle M. Pasechnik was the recipient of the 2015 Margaret Russell Graduate Internship in Curatorial Studies, which supports the preservation of art created by BC artists.

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

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

Similar Exhibitions:

Karl Spritz: Self-Propelled

Margaret Peterson: A Search In Rhythm

April 11 – August 18, 2014

Legacy Art Gallery Downtown

Discover more about Margaret Peterson by visiting the project website, click here.

Watch a short video about Margaret Peterson featuring Patricia Bovey | Robert Amos | Nick Tuele | Anne Mayhew | by Justine Drummond, click here.

This special curatorial project was developed in partnership with the University of Victoria Legacy Art Galleries and UVic’s Special Collections and University Archives with funding support from the BC Arts Council. The project allowed for a co-op intern to select and develop a project to present new interpretations and scholarship utilizing primary research material and original works of art held at the university. Under the mentorship of the Legacy Art Gallery Director, Curator of Collections, and the University Archivist, the student created an exhibition and public program that highlights a major Canadian artist and furthers an important initiative of the University of Victoria, namely the building of the local artists’ archival holdings. This exhibition is one of the first of a series working with the artists’ archives at the University of Victoria.

Windows Into Heaven: Religious Icons from the Permanent Collection

: Icon of the Virgin Hodegetria, 18th century, Gift of Dr. Bruce and Mrs. Dorothy Brown

April 23 – July 19, 2014

Legacy Small Gallery

View the online catalogue:

Windows Into Heaven Catalogue

Co-curated by graduate student Regan Shrumm and Dr. Evanthia Baboula, (History in Art)

Featuring Russian icons and crucifixes from the University of Victoria’s permanent collection, this exhibition examines religious, historical, and cultural meanings past and present.

The objects featured in this exhibition originate in pre-revolutionary Russia and include icons of varied forms as well as crosses – important liturgical instruments and quintessential Christian symbols.

Epiphany: Highlights from the Legacy Permanent Collection

Image: Maxwell Bates Circus People, 1969

May 1 – July 15 2014

Legacy Art Gallery Downtown

Curated by Mary Jo Hughes

An epiphany in its broadest sense is the experience of sudden realization or insight. Through an epiphany, our world broadens and new understandings and ideas are unlocked. Indeed, this widening of perspective remains the ultimate goal for most artists. The experience of epiphany is what the exhibition aims to engender in viewers through highlights from the extensive permanent collection held by the University of Victoria’s Legacy Art Galleries. It is intended that each piece will offer a unique insight or a fresh experience that was not entirely expected. Artists in the exhibition include, Robert Davidson, Emily Carr, Norval Morrisseau, Lawren Harris, Frederick Varley, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Myfannwy Pavelic, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jack Shadbolt, among others.

Paradox

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.

Similar Exhibitions:

Core Samples: Visual Arts Faculty 1966-1986 (2013)
Visual Arts Department Faculty Group Show (1979)