The LAB 2.6: Daniel Laskarin
Relapse (just like that)

Daniel Laskarin, still from Relapse (just like that) video installation, 2002

February 7, 2003 to March 23, 2003

Relapse ( just like that ) came about as a continuation of my interest in those moments just before extreme events, during which our certainties collapse, our knowing becomes unsettled. It is at these times that something else is possible, even while we don't know what it might be. It seems to me that the experience of time in everyday life is increasingly extreme, that we increasingly have the sense of existing just before some impending extreme event, and that within this time the possibility for thought itself is at risk.

With this work I have tried to extend the time of such a momentary event so that we might look at it more slowly, more thoughtfully. Initially this work was focussed on ideas of the (im)possibility of reflection within spectacular circumstances, and with ideas of continual collapse and regeneration. The video footage that Relapse uses was substantially completed before September 11, 2001. Those events changed the way that the work can be understood; it has become more complex and while its initial impulse may still be available, it is layered now with subsequent meanings, subsequent readings.

-Daniel Laskarin

Andrew Hunter:
Peake's Folly

Andrew Hunter, From Peake's Folly, 2002

January 17, 2003 to March 12, 2003

For his latest collection-based installation and publication project, Dundas, Ontario artist, writer and independent curator Andrew Hunter follows the trail of James Peake Jr. from the pinnacle of Canadian society to the lonely depths of isolation and despair. The installation is a poetic meditation on the dramatic fall of a late 19th century gentleman whose high Victorian extravagances exhausted a family fortune in the Maritimes and sent him wandering to Canada's West Coast where
he would die alone and penniless.

Using works from the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria's permanent collection, documentary images, artifacts and elements constructed in collaboration with his father William, Hunter creates an environment that traces Peake's sad trajectory from prince to pauper. Employing Victorian imagery of death and mourning and related motifs of floral decay and the shipwreck, Hunter maps out a journey that becomes a cautionary tale about the fleetingness of material success and the uncritical nostalgia for the Victorian era.

Catalogue will be available in the Gallery Shop.

Robert Wise: Dynaflow

Wise, Robert, Loach, 2002

January 17, 2003 to March 12, 2003

Over the past decade, Robert Wise has established himself as a unique figure within the West Coast
sculpture scene through a series of interactive, and mechanically sophisticated machines. His most
recent and ambitious work, Roulette, a new public sculpture for the Victoria International Airport
addition, opened to the public this fall.

"Dynaflow" is a new body of work organized by independent curator and sometimes creative collaborator Christian Giroux. Works in the show range from large kinetic pieces, such as: Loach — a latex "pickle" that spontaneously twitches; to small structures like Burr-2, formed using only disentangled nylon rope.

Wise draws upon his engineering and mechanical skills to activate or re-animate the material world of mass production, creating playful objects that compel investigation and contemplation. Most importantly, he invites us to think of how different technologies can connect us to our social or urban environment, while others can effectively separate us from it. For Wise, sculpture is a holistic form of technology, combining engineering and craftsmanship to either shock or charm us out of our complacency within the given world of objects.

Catalogue will be available in the Gallery Shop.

Post-Impressionist Masterworks
From the National Gallery of Canada

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Portrait de paysan, c. 1900 oil on canvas National Gallery of Canada

December 6, 2002 to March 2, 2003

The Post-Impressionist Masterworks exhibition is the most prestigious and valuable art exhibition to come to Victoria – its only BC destination. The exhibition consists of vibrant, original works, including those of Cézanne, Matisse, van Gogh, and Gauguin. It will be supplemented by a second exhibition of works on paper by some of the same artists and their contemporaries chosen from the Art Gallery’s own collection. The exhibition will also have extensive educational programming.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW! Tickets for the Post-Impressionist Masterworks from the National Gallery of Canada are now on sale. Tickets are required for public viewing of the show from dec 7, 2002 through march 2, 2003. To avoid disappointment, advance tickets are recommended. There are morning tickets for entry from 10:00am - 1:00pm on the specified date, and afternoon tickets for entry from 1:30pm - 4:30pm on the specified date. Thursday evening tickets are also available for entry from 5:00pm - 8:30pm. Tickets cost $12 for adults and $10 for seniors and students. Tickets for children aged 2-12 are $2. To order tickets, please contact the Macpherson Box Office in Victoria at 386.6121 or toll free from outside of Victoria at 1.888.717.6121. You can also purchase your ticket in person at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. A Macpherson surcharge of $1 per ticket will apply to telephone orders. Tickets purchased in person are not subject to the surcharge. HOURS Art Gallery hours of operation during the Post Impressionist Masterworks exhibition are as follows: February 1 - 23, 2003 - Daily 10:00am - 5:00pm - Thursdays 10:00am - 9:00pm - February 14, Valentine's Day 10:00am - 9:00pm February 24 - 28, 2003 - 10:00am - 9:00pm Saturday, March 1, 2003 - 10:00am - 5:00pm Sunday, March 2, 2003 - 12:00am - 5:00pm TEACHERS You can make a Gallery Tour request for your class online. Most Guided Tour spots are taken, but there are still Self-Guided Tour spots available. Click here for more information

Book your stay in Victoria to see the Post Impressionists at the Magnolia Hotel & Spa. Click here.

Organized and Circulated by the National Gallery of Canada. Supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Canada Travelling Exhibitions Indemnification Program.
Media Partners: CH Vancouver Island, Times Colonist, 90.5FM CBC Radio Victoria, BC Transit

Impressions

Renoir, Pierre Auguste, Femme Nue Couchee, late 19th - early 20th century restrike drypoint on cream coloured wove paper Florence Scott Memorial Fund AGGV 60.55 photo credit: Bob Matheson

December 3, 2002 to March 20, 2003

This exhibition features works on paper produced by a number of artists associated with Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Using works from our own collection as well as works generously lent by our good friend George Wallace, this exhibition shows how artists at the turn of the century used the drawn line as an expressive tool for printmaking through various media — etching plates, wood block prints and lithography.

Etchings, such as those by Zorn and Whistler reveal how great draughtsmen used the etching plate with an acute sensitivity, allowing them to reproduce on a plate the delicate nature of their quick drawing gesture. Artists such as Vlaminck found an interesting medium for their angular forms by transferring them to wood block prints. Other artists, including Matisse, were able to convey the sensuality of the odalisque in a few lines deftly drawn on the lithographic stone.

The Salon

Nowak, Anton, Bildhauer Atelier, late 19th century Given in memory of Emmy and Walter Graf AGGV 94.57.1 photo credit: Bob Matheson

December 1, 2002 to March 2, 2003

To provide a sense of context of this “fin-de-siècle” period, we will be transforming the Graham Gallery into a late nineteenth century salon. In Canada, the "salons" or living-rooms of this period were generally sombre affairs, with dark patterned wallpaper above dark wooden wainscoting. Our Salon will also play on the concept of the official "Salon," or the annual painting exhibition that took place in Paris (a tradition dating back to the late 17th century) in which paintings were hung practically in a "floor to ceiling" manner.

Our exhibition features a selection of European and Canadian paintings that would have been most appropriate in a bourgeois household at the fin-de-siècle. Landscape, portrait, genre painting — including still-lifes and animal paintings — are representative of the Art Gallery’s collection from this period.

This selection of works provides an interesting study in contrast with the more radical aspects of Post-Impressionist styles of painting at the turn of the century.

The LAB 2.5: Althea Thauberger:
New Day Jubilee

November 29, 2002 to January 19, 2003

Althea Thauberger, with the assistance of mural artist Dwight Lockhart, creates a photography and painting exhibition inspired by the public mural projects that tell stories and beautify the urban landscape. "I am also interested in the figure in the environment," says Thauberger, "and in a wider cultural sense, the work in some way responds to a crisis in our relationship to the world we live in."

Click for more information on The LAB, including artist biographies and upcoming exhibitions.

Sandra Meigs:
Reverie

Meigs, Sandra, The Newborn #2, 2001

October 18, 2002 to January 5, 2003

Reverie presents two painting installations by artist Sandra Meigs which incorporate the activities of journey, storytelling and fascination.

The Newborn (2001) was created after a trip the artist took to Boat Basin Farm, located on the West Coast of Vancouver Island in Clayoquot Sound. Also known as Cougar Annie's Garden, the farm is named for Ada-Annie Rae-Arthur, who settled in this isolated location in 1915. The garden served as a point of inspiration for Meigs, who drew on the powerful visual and imaginative lure of the setting. Through an installation of lighted paintings and poetic texts, The Newborn recounts the story of a child lost in the woods.

Swoon (2002), Meigs most recent work, was inspired by the artist's travels to the Florida Everglades, where she encountered both the isolated communities neighbouring the site, and issues of ecology and folklore which surround this potent location. Employing minimal forms and a muted palette, Swoon offers the arresting images of animate forest scenes, such as those encountered by a newcomer or a child. A parallel text recounts the story of a young woman who lives in the Everglades, her desire, her burdens, and her social and psychic ties to place.

Sandra Meigs is a painter, filmmaker and writer. She has lived in Victoria since 1993, where she is Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Victoria. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Banff Centre, Ydessa Hendeles Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada. This is her first major solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

The LAB 2.4: Catherine Fern Lewis:
Sanctuary

Unknown, Madonna & Child, nd tempera, silver, gilt, tin, wood on wood AGGV 77.316 Gift of Mrs. Frances Jordan photo credit: Bob Matheson

October 11, 2002 to November 17, 2002

Sanctuary is an interdisciplinary project which incorporates objects from the Art Gallery’s permanent collection with sound and music by new music performer Catherine Lewis. It examines stories of faith and bravery of conviction. "The objects [I selected for the exhibition] spoke of journey and transformation," says Lewis, "which parallel the activity of a traveling musician or poet, in the tradition of the minstrel or troubadour."

Click for more information on The LAB, including artist biographies and upcoming exhibitions.

Erotica in Japanese Prints

Kunisada (Toyokuni III), Utagawa, Miniature Shunga print from Album No. 9, mid 19th century woodcut on paper Gift of Ralph & Jeanne Greenhill AGGV 96.41.8 photo credit Bob Matheson

October 11, 2002 to November 29, 2002

Erotic prints, known as shunga or "spring pictures," were an acceptable subject in Japan's Edo society until the second half of the 19th century when the influence of Western puritanism began to influence popular opinion against them. Shunga are an integral part of the ukiyo-e tradition. To omit these examples of shunga from a survey of Japanese prints would be a technical error, even though their inclusion is bound to offend many people.

Shunga scenes varied from the first tender advances of young love to the brutal violations of dark and terrible debauchery. Shunga undoubtedly served several purposes, from helping to train inexperienced courtesans, to arousing prospective clients and in some cases, educating newlyweds.

Due to the X-rated nature of this exhibition, some visitors may be offended. A wall will shield Erotica in Japanese Prints from those who do not wish to see it.