LAB 4.5:Elizabeth Mackenzie
Child of Slow Time

Elizabeth Mackenzie, Child of Slow Time (detail), 2004 ink wash on rice paper

January 14, 2005 to February 27, 2005

Vancouver artist Elizabeth Mackenzie is intrigued by the relationship between human face recognition and the genre of portraiture. Mackenzie notes, "Our brains are neurologically organized to recognize patterns in general and faces in particular. Psychologists call the pattern that constitutes the face a 'preferred pattern. 'We are predisposed, even at infancy, to try and make sense of it."

Mackenzie visited Victoria last summer to research portraits in the Art Gallery's permanent collection. Child of Slow Time is an installation based on the work Baby with Bib, a drawing by an unknown artist of an unknown child. Using this portrait as her source, Mackenzie creates her work on-site: a series of graphite renderings, interspersed with ink wash drawings on rice paper, drawn or placed directly onto the gallery walls.
The subject of representation is emphasized through repetition, accumulation and the ephemeral nature of the materials used, speaking to the instability of representation. Mackenzie’s drawings function, as the original may have done, as a memorial for an unknown child; a representation of inconstancy and loss.

Beauty Queens

Melinda Morey Migrate, 2003 video still Collection of the artist

December 10, 2004 to February 27, 2005

What is it about islands that fires the imagination? From treasure islands to gulag archipelagos, islands have been invested with a potent mix of myth and reality, fiction and fact. Romanticized and promoted as places of ideal perfection, of intimacy, retreat and renewal, islands also offer stark realities of exile, isolation, seclusion, ecological pressures, and social compression. Their identities injected with silicon slickness and simplified for mass tourism markets, nowhere is the interplay of false and real more intense: islands are beauty queens through and through.

Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and Vancouver Island are vastly different, in terms of the unique narratives of immigration, geography, history and politics which have shaped them. Physically isolated yet characterised by their own urban-rural tensions, such islands are a microcosm for examining local cultural production within globalised conditions. The illusion and fantasy of island life, the ideals of privacy and escape and of meditative solitude, are at odds with the experience of exile, its attendant loneliness, and threat of social breakdown. These unique economies illustrate the need for social continuity and the overarching theme of waiting for rescue or return to collective social experience, as seen in literary and cinematic examples such as Treasure Island or Castaway. Through the dialogue developed both within Canada and internationally, Beauty Queens extends through its research concepts of identity and cultural autonomy within the unique situation of island experience.

Drawn from three Canadian and three international islands, this exhibition presents thirteen artists whose work emerges from and reflects on their island settings: Gerald Beaulieu and Judith Scherer of Prince Edward Island; Jim Hansen and Barb Hunt of Newfoundland; Marianne Nicolson and John Boehme of Vancouver Island Island; Dan Shipsides and Daniel Jewesbury of Ireland; Susan Dayal, Wendy Nanan and Chris Cozier from Trinidad; and Gaye Chan and Melinda Morey from Hawaii. Taking up their positions simultaneously at the centres and margins, the artists in Beauty Queens collectively explore the conditions of island cultural production, and in the process, their common concerns of identity, history, tradition, environment, culture, distance and communication are revealed.

The exhibition catalogue features curatorial essays that examine ideas of spectacle, global/local and the literary imagination in the conceptualization of islands, as well as writings by pre-eminent Canadian authors Michael Crummey, Alistair MacLeod and Audrey Thomas.

Click here for John G. Boehme's Trade Route (performance on November 27)

The French Masters from the National Gallery of Canada

James Tissot, The Letter, c 1878 Oil on canvas National Gallery of Canada

December 4, 2004 to February 20, 2005

Masterworks of 19th Century French Realism from the National Gallery of Canada

In the 19th century, French artists started to move away from mythological and historical painting to concentrate on the world around them. Where former generations of artists had regaled themselves with illustrations of narrative-based subject matter, the Realist movement sought to recreate the visible world. Gustave Courbet, who epitomized the movement, stated that "painting is essentially a concrete art" that is firmly entrenched in the visible world.

OPEN LATE FOR LAST 2 WEEKS! Weekdays, February 7-18, 10am to 9pm Weekends, 10am to 5pm.

This exhibition draws on the National Gallery of Canada's rich collection of 19th century French paintings to demonstrate the beginnings of Realism in the work of artists such as Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet and Honoré Daumier. Corot's Bridge at Narni (above), the earliest work featured here, looks back to classical tradition yet hints at the beginnings of new landscape painting in France. Courbet, in his impressive Cliffs at Étretat, demonstrates through the act of plein-air painting (painting in the "full air" in front of the landscape), the need to capture reality as it is directly perceived by the artist.

The works of artists, such as Jean-François Millet and Johan Barthold Jongkind, provide important perspectives on the art of painting at the time. Millet's interest in peasant life and Jongkind's harbour scene reflect the growing interest in scenes of everyday life. The exhibition concludes with paintings by artists such as Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Henri Fantin-Latour and James Tissot that provide the viewer with a remarkable synopsis of the painting of this period in France. Degas' Woman with an Umbrella is a perfect example of Realist painting with its close and unidealized observation of the sitter. Tissot's The Letter (below), while working from a firmly based narrative tradition, also regales the viewer with a sense of delight in his meticulously observed details of romance and intrigue.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue by Dr. John Collins, Assistant Curator, European Art, at the National Gallery of Canada. This exhibition is organized and circulated by the National Gallery of Canada. It is supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Canada Travelling Exhibitions Indemnification Program.

front page image:
Edgar Degas Woman with an Umbrella, c. 1876
Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Canada

French Drawings from the National Gallery of Canada

This exhibition features 76 French drawings from the 16th to the 19th centuries from the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. Through an exceptional range of techniques and materials, the exhibition explores various aspects of the art of drawing, from the sketch to the finished work, addressing such varied subjects as historical or religious themes, landscapes, portraits and genre scenes. The exhibition, organized chronologically, is built around five main themes. The earliest works, dating from the end of the 16th to the middle of the 17th century, are remarkable for their emphasis of fine draftsmanship featuring drawings by artists such as Jacques Callot and Jacques Bellange. The second period, under the influence of 17th and 18th century academic doctrine, includes works by Charles LeBrun and Charles de La Fosse. Drawings by Antoine Watteau, François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard reveal the importance of the Rocaille movement. Neoclassicism and Romanticism are featured in drawings by Jean-Dominique Ingres, Jacques-Louis David, Eugène Delacroix and Théodore Géricault. The final section of the exhibition presents drawings from the second half of the 19th century by artists such as Paul Cézanne, Odilon Redon and Edgar Degas. These works reveal the full extent of the expressive possibilities of drawing as a medium and allow us to gain a greater understanding of the creative process.

A special admission price applies to this exhibition Adult: $12 Senior/Student: $10 Children Under 12: $3 Tickets available at the door or in advance through the Tourism Victoria Online Reservations System, or by calling toll-free at 1.800.663.3883 Regular Hours Monday to Sunday: 10 am - 5 pm Thursday: 10 am - 9 pm Holiday Times Christmas Eve (Dec. 24): 10am - 1pm Christmas Day (Dec. 25): Closed Boxing Day (Dec. 26): 10:00am - 5:00pm Holiday Hours Dec. 27 - 30: 10:00am - 9:00pm New Year's Eve (Dec. 31): 10am - 1pm New Year's Day (Jan. 1): 10:00am - 5:00pm Member Admission Members will recieve a pass for two free admissions (valid when shown with Membership card)and a pass for admission on the free preview day (December 2, 2004).

Book your stay in Victoria at the Magnolia Hotel & Spa.

Presented by Aim Trimark Investments
local support by:
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria Volunteer Committee; The Magnolia Hotel; Times Colonist; CH Vancouver Island; 90.5FM CBC Radio One Victoria; BC Transit; Western Living

The LAB 4.4: Ralph Stanbridge
Daumier and Dystopia (Drawn from History, Drawing from the Present)

Ralph Stanbridge Carriage (After Daumier), 1983-84 mixed media collection of the artist

November 25, 2004 to January 9, 2005

The French artist Honoré Daumier (1808 –1879), through his caricatures, paintings and sculptural works, presented his contemporaries with images of the folly and absurdities of the social issues of his time. As one of art’s earliest social realists, he was able to illuminate the economic disparities, injustices, and the marginalization of many members of nineteenth century French society.

Victoria artist Ralph Stanbridge’s interest in Daumier’s work, and in social commentary as a choice of subject matter, was established when he taught Modern Art History at Camosun College from 1977 to 1984. This, combined with his interest in appropriation of art historical images, led him to construct two large sculptural installations utilizing reproductions of Daumier’s work Third Class Carriage and Don Quixote. Stanbridge’s re-presentation of this work, Carriage (After Daumier) 1984–85, runs concurrently with The French Masters exhibition, which includes one of the original versions of Daumier’s Third Class Carriage, Stanbridge’s subject of study.

The exhibition includes a second work from Stanbridge's latest projects: a series of animated studies using computer assisted traditional animation processes, reflects on current art and political life, referencing editorial cartoons and illustrations that address the new folly and absurdities of the 21st century. Inspired by the early socio-political animation of the Zagreb School of the 60s and 70s, and encouraged by the work of contemporary artists, such as South African William Kentridge, Stanbridge investigates the current social injustices of an over-consuming and security obsessed world.

Sugimoto Hiroshi:
A Pilgrimage to Ancient Cities

Hiroshi Sugimoto, Kanzenon-Bosatsu washi-paper, metal-leaf, black-ink

September 17, 2004 to November 21, 2004

A Pilgrimage to Ancient Cities is a look into the visually captivating work of esteemed contemporary Japanese painter, Sugimoto Hiroshi – produced between 1998 and 2004. It features over 35 large format paintings on a variety of Japanese papers.

Sugimoto Hiroshi’s paintings capture the unique and rustic character of ancient architectural structures, such as bridges, ancient streets, shrines, temples and castles. He makes regular pilgrimages to sites of beauty across Japan, China, Cambodia and Italy, during which he captures scenes of grandeur with his brush, using subtle yet effective colours. His love of architecture and ancient ruins is well apparent in his breathtaking work.

Hiroshi Sugimoto (b. 1951) studied at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He has painted large sliding doors and screens for a number of important historical Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in Japan. His knowledge of ancient architecture and interiors provides him with the ability to make the proper aesthetic judgments in his designs for these well known monuments. He has held numerous major exhibitions in Japan. The Gallery is extremely pleased to welcome his work to Canada.

The LAB 4.3: John Luna
The Red Room

John Luna, The Red Room, 2004 installation

September 17, 2004 to November 14, 2004

John Luna examines the parameters of cultural institutions in The Red Room, a project which transforms the LAB space into a mock turn-of-the-century picture gallery. Luna’s gallery makes thematic allusions to the Art Gallery’s history inside the Gyppeswick mansion.

The salon-like setting reflects the imaginative revision of period restoration rather than an archival past, while the paintings invoke the “authenticity” of a studio process. Placing the paintings in this setting presents the notion – relevant to both the Art Gallery and Victoria itself – that the experience of historical revision hides a flip-side: the acknowledgement of loss or ruin.

The Red Room mingles the public and the domestic, the formal with the fugitive, and in doing so comments on the possibilities and limitations of paintings in creating, or reacting to, a sense of place.

Allyson Clay:
Imaginary Standard Distance

Allyson Clay, Untitled III, self portrait, 1995-97 cibachrome transparency, fluorescent lights, small framed c-print Collection of the Kamloops Art Gallery.

September 11, 2004 to November 21, 2004

Allyson Clay’s Imaginary Standard Distance incorporates several bodies of work by this Vancouver based artist and includes a range of media from painting to video. The artworks explore the experience of a woman in the city and related issues of gender, identity, the politics of the gaze, lived architecture, and the boundaries between public and private space.

Clay started out as a painter and this exhibition takes off from the point in the late 1980s at which she moved away from painting and into more narrative and text-based works, a strategy to interject everyday experience into the heroic art tradition. Though Clay’s interests have gravitated towards photography and video, painting has continued to inform her practice.

The works in the exhibition are intended to act as a dialogue over time, revealing concerns that have remained consistent in the artist’s work. The title

Imaginary Standard Distance is taken from a phrase in E.H. Gombrich’s book Art and Illusion, from a section dealing with formal perspective and the tendency to see the world according to what we know. It is used here for its poetic associations and potential to encourage the imagination in relation to standard assumptions about meaning, particularly as they relate to social space, gender, and the history of imaging. The strategy is to create open narratives that make room for idiosyncrasies and encourage personal associations.

Clay negotiates the margins between seduction and intervention, curiosity and voyeurism, avoiding sensation while focussing on the subjective gaze, implicating the viewer within the view. Elements of the work can be seen in the context of the current acceptance and ever-popularization of surveillance culture in relation to private space.

While these works address issues pertinent to the times, they do not propose simple answers. Their intent is to maintain the discursive potential of interpersonal exchange as part of their aesthetic.

Allyson Clay lives and works in Vancouver where she is Associate Professor of Visual Art at Simon Fraser University. She graduated from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and received her MFA from the University of British Columbia in 1985. She has been exhibiting since that time. Her work has been shown in exhibitions in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Taiwan.

Karen Henry
Exhibition Curator

Herbert Siebner:
A Celebration

Herbert Siebner Sun Faces, 1966 oil impasto on masonite AGGV: Anonymous gift

September 10, 2004 to November 28, 2004

Last year, the Art Gallery was busy organizing a retrospective exhibition to be entitled Herbert

Siebner: 50 Years in Canada. Sadly, Herbert Siebner passed away August 3, 2003 as we were completing arrangements for the exhibition. A year later, the Art Gallery is proud to present this exhibition celebrating the life and career of this outstanding painter and printmaker. Beginning with works produced in Europe in the late 1940s and continuing to his most recent work, this exhibition will allow visitors to become reacquainted with, or introduced to, the work of this important Victoria based artist. Throughout his career, Siebner demonstrated a keen interest in expressionism through his prints and his paintings. These works feature bold gesture and rich colour as integral components. Myth, poetry, sensuality and sex are all key elements of his art. This variety of interests is reflected in the multiple ways in which Siebner created art and manipulated the surface of his paintings and works on paper. A selection of works from each of his five decades in Victoria will form a testimonial to Siebner’s contribution to the visual arts – in our community and in Canada.

The LAB 4.2: Farheen HaQ
Breathing Space

Farheen HaQ, Breathing Space, 2004 installation view

July 30, 2004 to September 6, 2004

Farheen HaQ explores the notion of religious freedom of expression within a secular society through a video and photo installation which examines the spiritual and sacred in public spaces.

HaQ performs simple actions that are either religious or culturally coded, introducing subtle changes that push the gesture beyond its normal expression. Within the video projection, HaQ focuses attention on the reconsideration of a simple gesture by slowing down and repeating movements to emphasize and recontextualize their inscribed meaning. Through a series of photoworks, HaQ uses the cityscape as a site and/or backdrop for her gestural interpretations.

HaQ’s work is at once a reclaiming of her own cultural practices as a Muslim woman and an investigation into how private gestures can dramatically change the anonymity and controlled nature of public space.

The New Print Movement of Japan

Shinsui Ito, Girl with a Fan, 20th C woodcut on paper AGGV 91.52.36 Senora Ryan Estate photo credit: Bob Matheson

June 25, 2004 to September 12, 2004

Traditional ukiyo-e woodblock printing was all but dead in Japan by the early 20th century, and artists were anxious to find a replacement. Their efforts resulted in the shin hanga or New Print Movement. These artists wanted to build on the foundations of the ukiyo-e school using new designs and subjects appropriate to the modern age. They preserved the traditions of working in teams that included the artist, an engraver, a printer and sometimes a publisher.

The shin hanga movement developed between 1911 and 1920, partly as a result of European interest in ukiyo-e prints. Japanese art circles had a low opinion of ukiyo-e until they discovered the enormous impact of Japanese prints on European Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. Their new prints brought about the neo-ukiyo-e style or shin hanga. These prints incorporate classic ukiyo-e subjects including lovely women, kabuki actors and landscapes. Once considered popular commercial products, these prints are now highly collectable and often surpass the value of ukiyo-e prints. This exhibition will include prints by artistic giants like Hiroshi Yoshida, Kawase Hasui, Tsuchiya Koitsu, Hashiguchi Goyo, Ito Shinsui as well as foreigners living in Japan using the same techniques.