Tag Archives: Photography

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  

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

Similar Exhibitions:

IN SESSION – ONE

d. bradley muir, The Supernova Scene

d. bradley muir, The Supernova Scene

Megan Dickie | Laura Dutton                       d. bradley muir | Tara Nicholson

January 17 – March 28, 2015

Legacy Art Gallery

Curated by Mary Jo Hughes

View the exhibition catalogue here

This is the first part of an on-going series of exhibitions over the next few years featuring the artists who work as Sessional Instructors in the UVic Visual Arts department. This exhibition looks at the recent practice of four artists who work with photography, video, and digital media arts. In Session – One celebrates the significance and power of photo-based art in an age where social media and advertising threaten to inundate and numb us with visual overload. These artists also investigate themes including the relationship between the photographic image and its physicality as an object, light as a material presence, and the time/space/memory relationship of digital media arts.

Megan Dickie, Laura Dutton, d. bradley muir, and Tara Nicholson are four excellent artists who also happen to be excellent teachers; this combination of talents is rare, and as such they represent true assets to the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Victoria. We are very fortunate to be able to hire professional artists from within the community to teach on a part-time basis. Sessional instructors enliven art departments across the country with their professional experience. They enable us to expose our students to a much wider array of professional practitioners that would be possible if teaching duties were left to full time faculty alone. Often students do not realize that many of their favourite instructors are in fact successful professional artists who leave their busy studios to come and teach a few times a week. As teachers, these artists are instrumental in shaping and preparing the next generation of artists. Their contribution in this role cannot be overstated.

IN SESSION - ONE - FEB focus adIN SESSION - ONE Poster IN SESSION - ONE - focus ad

Rack Card-page-001

Harmonious Interest: A Celebration of Victoria’s Chinese Heritage

Robert Amos, Untitled (Victoria's Chinatown) [detail]
Robert Amos, Untitled (Victoria’s Chinatown) [detail]

February 1 – May 13, 2013

Legacy Maltwood (at Mearns Centre – McPherson Library)

Curated by Caroline Riedel and Margaret Weller

Harmonious Interest draws on the archival and artistic holdings of the university with a selection of material from the Consolidated Chinese Benevolent Association. This association, founded in 1884, is a key community anchor and advocate for the Chinese in Victoria. Other important social, religious and cultural organizations such as the Chinese Freemasons Association (1876), the Tam Kung Temple of the Yen Wo Society (1911) and the Chinese Public School (1899) are represented in photographic collages by artist Robert Amos.

The important work of Dr. David Lai (Geography, UVic), known for his role in the revitalization of the buildings of China town and the Gates of Harmonious Interest, as well as other scholarly studies on Chinese communities in British Columbia are also referenced. As a whole, this exhibition is intended to show the role of some of these key organizations in community building and advocacy for Chinese people in Canada.

This exhibition was produced as part of the Victoria Symphony’s Chinatown Celebration project.

Similar Exhibitions:

The University of Victoria: A Community of Communities

University of Victoria Alma Mater Society President Paul Williams leads a large group of students down Douglas Street protesting fees increase on 18 October 1965.

University of Victoria Alma Mater Society President Paul Williams leads a large group of students down Douglas Street protesting fees increase on 18 October 1965.

August 22 – October 15, 2012

Legacy Maltwood (at Mearns Centre – McPherson Library)

This exhibition features a selection of historic and contemporary photographs of life at UVic over the past 50 years. Taken from Ian MacPherson’s book ‘Reaching Outward and Upward: The University of Victoria 1963-2013, this exhibit promises a vibrant look at the people, places and events that make our campus unique.

Symbols of Living In-Between: Re-stor(y)ing Life Within Life-Threatening Illness

restorying

April 13 – June 4, 2012

Legacy Maltwood (at Mearns Centre – McPherson Library)

Curated Robbyn Gordon Lanning

Explores people living with three life-threatening illnesses (HIV/AIDS, cancer, and chronic kidney disease) and how they represent their experiences through symbols.

Advances in science and healthcare have allowed people with life-threatening illnesses to live longer and healthier lives. But the outcomes of treatment are uncertain and the experience of living in-between a promise of prolonged life, and the possibility of illness reoccurring and progressing, is often misunderstood.

Thirty-two people diagnosed with a life-threatening illness (cancer, chronic kidney disease, and HIV/AIDS) volunteered for an interview. They were asked to identify a symbol that represented their experience with their diagnosed illness. Symbols of living in-between: Re-stor(y)ing life within life-threatening illness is the collective effort from a team of nurse researchers seeking new insights into the experiences of individuals that live with the uncertainty of a serious illness.

This exhibit shares a selection of these important images and stories with the public. Symbols range from personal objects and medical documents to favourite music, clothing, and family photographs. Narratives from the participants and poems produced by the research team accompany the stories of these individuals living with a life-threatening illness.  The symbols and narratives highlight how living with a life-threatening illness is much more than a “medical story.”

Symbols of living in-between: Re-stor(y)ing life within life-threatening illness is a travelling exhibit and will be displayed in multiple spaces from galleries to healthcare facilities. This exhibit is part of a larger study entitled Re-stor(y)ing Life Within Life-Threatening Illness.  The Re-stor(y)ing project has been funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).  KRESCENT and the Kidney Foundation of Canada has provided additional support.

The Silent Observer

Untitled

Untitled

February 8 – April 2, 2012

Legacy Maltwood (at Mearns Centre – McPherson Library)

Curated Andrea Routeley

He is known as the “father of Canadian photojournalism,” quietly clicking with the “eye of an artist, the concentration of a surgeon, and the reflexes of a cat.” From Trudeau’s mischievous slide down the banister on Parliament Hill, to Ben Johnson’s momentary thrill of triumph at winning the 100 meter dash, to the accusing glance of a child of the Chernobyl disaster, Ted Grant has created thousands of iconic images over the past six decades, distilling our world into single, expanding moments.  

The Silent Observer features Grant’s latest work, a continued exploration of healers, this time from the point of view of medical interns. Grant captures these young men and women in classrooms, operating rooms and rural clinics, from moments of intense concentration to playful laughter, as they journey from student to physician.

The Emergence of Architectural Modernism II (Victoria Modern Series)

Hubert Norbury, Bay Parkade Entry (1960)

Hubert Norbury, Bay Parkade Entry (1960)

The Emergence of Architectural Modernism II: UVic and the Victoria Regional Aesthetic in the Late 1950s and 60s

November 30, 2011 – February 26, 2012

Legacy Art Gallery Downtown

It features a tour of 1950s and 60s UVic architecture, architect and designer biographies, and a free PDF of the catalogue.

This series of exhibitions and publication projects explores the relationships, personalities and projects contributing to the development of a regional modernist aesthetic in the post-war Victoria urban landscape (1939–2013). It celebrates and coincides with celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the City of Victoria (2012) and 50th anniversary of the founding of the University of Victoria at its Gordon Head Campus.

During the late 50s and 60s, a small number of legacy architectural firms changed Victoria’s built environment with forward-looking planning and bold new architectural forms. Using plans, drawings, photographs and architectural models from the period, this exhibit explores a number of planning initiatives, design projects and building programs that defined this important phase in the development of the Capital Region.

This is the second in a series of exhibitions and publications exploring the relationships, personalities and projects contributing to the development of a regional modernist aesthetic in the postwar Victoria urban landscape. This exhibition develops themes of the earlier exhibition Town and Gown: Centennial Square and the Gordon Head Campus: Seminal Projects (2011).

Exhibition Catalogue: Victoria Modern 3: The Emergence of Architectural Modernism II; UVic and the Victoria Regional Aesthetic in the Late 1950s and 1960s (2011)

Similar Exhibitions:

Victoria Modern Series Catalogues:

Victoria Modern 1: Investigating Postwar Architecture and Design on Southern Vancouver Island: an introduction (2005)

Victoria Modern 2: From a Modern Time: The Architectural Photography of Hubert Norbury: Victoria in the 50s and 60s (2009)

Click here for the Victoria Modern website

Lords and the Land: Stone in East Anglia

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

July 6 – September 28, 2011

Legacy Maltwood (at Mearns Centre – McPherson Library)

Curated by Dr Michael F. Reed

This exhibit documents the relationship between stone and tenurial authority in the 10th and 11th centuries in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, England. Many of the objects and buildings featured in the exhibit have not been the subject of scholarly discourse for over ninety years. Only a few archeologists even know of their existance. This exhibition presents rare photographs taken from four years of extensive archaeological fieldwork in East Anglia by Micael F. Reed, PhD (York, UK, 2009).

Dr. Reed is a specialist in the material culture of early medieval northern Europe. His research and teaching is multidisciplinary, incorporating archaeological, art-historical and literary methodologies. Dr. Reed’s area of special interest is Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian England, particularly stone sculpture as a medium for the expression of lordship, ethnicity and eschatology.

Constructing Sights in the Workplace

Wandagloves.NEFMay 5 – May 18, 2011

Legacy Maltwood (at Mearns Centre – McPherson Library)

Curated by Dr. Wanda Hurren

This project focused on the aesthetics of workplace construction sites / sights, and featured enlarged and mounted photographs created by the participants of a photo-based research project. Goethe reminds us that “the hardest thing to see is what is in front of our eyes.” Construction sites have become so common that we almost stop noticing them, or when we do notice, it’s often the negative aspects: dust, noise, interruptions to our usual ways of accessing spaces, etc. The featured images will be gathered by construction trade workers and UVic employees working in the MacLaurin Building during a seismic upgrade, and by the researcher/curator for this project, Dr. Wanda Hurren.

The Emergence of Architectural Modernism I (Victoria Modern Series)

Centennial Square Fountain, Rod Clack and Jack Wilkinson (c.1965)

The Emergence of Architectural Modernism in Victoria I: Town and Gown: Centennial Square and the Gordon Head Campus: Seminal Projects (1962-1972)

March 10 – May 2, 2011

Legacy Maltwood (at Mearns Centre – McPherson Library)

Curated by Martin Segger

In the early 1960s two large architectural projects emerged in Victoria which redefined the urban landscape. The development of the Gordon Head Campus in its garden landscape suburban setting repositioned Victoria College as it emerged as the new University of Victoria. On a smaller scale the completion of Centennial Square, with its mix of heritage restoration and stridently modern buildings, provided a new direction for the revitalization of Victoria’s urban core.

This exhibition explores how these two important projects developed, sharing a mix of local young architects, planners and designers. In the process they created a set of iconic buildings and settings which set local architectural and design directions that have profoundly influenced urban design in Victoria to the present day.

No accompanying catalogue

Similar Exhibitions:

Victoria Modern Series Catalogues:

Victoria Modern 1: Investigating Postwar Architecture and Design on Southern Vancouver Island: an introduction (2005)

Victoria Modern 2: From a Modern Time: The Architectural Photography of Hubert Norbury: Victoria in the 50s and 60s (2009)

Victoria Modern 3: The Emergence of Architectural Modernism II; UVic and the Victoria Regional Aesthetic in the Late 1950s and 1960s (2011)

Click here for the Victoria Modern website

STAGE: Photographic Portraits

 

Untitled, Frank Pimentel, n.d.

Untitled, Frank Pimentel, n.d.

January 11 – February 2, 2011

Legacy Maltwood (at Mearns Centre – McPherson Library)

Curated by Emma Conner, Toby Lawrence, Karen Merrifield & Holly Romanow

Showcasing the works of Frank Pimentel, Nina Raginsky and Ulli Steltzer, STAGE challenges the viewers to look beyond the aesthetic qualities of photographs to investigate the dichotomy of construction versus reality.

In looking at photographic portraiture there is a conflicting duality. The initial assumption is a presentation of reality, yet historically, portraiture was often staged, with subjects posed in front of painted backgrounds, accompanied by objects to augment certain elements of character. In the same sense, portraits by photographers Pimentel, Raginsky and Steltzer in the late twentieth century are constructions of their individual perceptions. Each with their own variation of portrait photography, the images provoke questioning into the significance of their compositional elements.

While the creation of the photograph is inherently determined by what the eye is able to see, the capture of something we perceive to be real instigates the reanalysis of our reality. The real movement becomes a constructed image, subject to point of view and created through the vision of the individual photographer. Like paintings and drawings, photographs are essentially the photographer’s own interpretation of the world. Raginsky states, “These photographs probably have little to do with an ordinary sense of reality; they are my particular stance on the world that I find at times to be rather thoughtless and brutal and difficult to endure.” Portrait photography has the ability to distort; yet also offers evidence into the existence of the subject or circumstances as they were at the time of the photograph.

As an alternate way of experiencing reality, the action of taking the photograph transforms the photographer into an active participant, the voyeur taking control of the situation. In this manner we experience authority held by the photograph itself, and we are forced, here, to make our own conclusions about the construction of spaces and placement of the subjects or the true documentary character of the photos. Within distinctly different constructions of photography we must decipher what choices have been made and why, questioning the character and the truth of the photographs and how their environments change their subjects, complicate them, bolster them.