Holidays out of town often include a visit to a local art gallery. Why not do the same if you’re planning a staycation this summer?
From the institutional to the commercial, the Lower Mainland has a packed palette of great galleries and public art to check out.
“Our doors are open to everyone. Whether you’re an experienced collector or simply curious. We encourage people to come in, explore, ask questions, and spend time with the artwork,” said Fazakas Gallery owner LaTiesha Fazakas.
To help you plan some art-focused day tripping, here are five art show suggestions to put on your summer outing list.
A Summer Hang/Beau Dick
Where: Fazakas Gallery (659 East Hastings St., Vancouver)
The Vancouver gallery delivers a dive into Northwest Coastal art with its A Summer Hang show. “Full of colour and movement,” the show features panels, paddles, masks, painting and sculpture.
“These works demonstrate that Indigenous art is both deeply rooted in cultural knowledge and is unmistakably contemporary,” said Fazakas in an email to Postmedia. “Each artist brings a distinct voice and mastery of their medium, showing how art continues to carry stories, identity, innovation, and cultural continuity into the present.”
The Fazakas Gallery also has a room dedicated to iconic Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation hereditary Chief and master carver Beau Dick, including numerous large- and small-scale masks from 1984-2004.
Within that room is also a library dedicated to Northwest Coast art for visitors who would like to learn more.
The Takao Tanabe: Inside Passage exhibition at Whistler’s Audain Art Museum celebrates the 100th birthday of one of B.C.’s most influential and enduring artists. On until October. 19 the exhibit showcases Tanabe’s range from highly abstract compositions from the 1950s to hyper real landscapes created in the early 2000s. Seen here is Tanabe’s Strait of Georgia 1/90: Raza Pass, 1990, acrylic on canvas, 142.2 x 186 cm. Photo courtesy of the Audain Art Museum. One time use
Takao Tanabe: Inside Passage
Where: Audain Art Museum (4350 Blackcomb Way, Whistler)
When: Now until Oct. 19
If you find yourself in Whistler, a trip to the Audain Art Museum is always a must-do. Aside from the spectacular permanent collection, the museum is currently showing Takao Tanabe: Inside Passage.
Celebrating the 100th birthday of the highly influential B.C. artist, the exhibit, according to Curtis Collins, the Audain’s executive-director, offers an, “Incredible range of his paintings that arc from highly abstract compositions of the 1950s to hyper-real landscapes created in the early 2000s.”
Considered the most comprehensive display of Tanabe’s 70-year career, the exhibit is also accompanied by a full-colour and bilingual book from Goose Lane Editions and the National Gallery of Canada.
Haruka Saito’s painting Hidden Dimension is part of the Ongoing/Pacific Crossings exhibit on at the Richmond Art Gallery. The result of a cultural exchange between Richmond Art Gallery, curator Makiko Hara, and Nozomu Ogawa, Director of Tokyo’s Art Center Ongoing, the show runs now through to October. 4. Photo: courtesy of RAG one time use
Ongoing/Pacific Crossings
Where: Richmond Art Gallery | Richmond Cultural Centre (180-7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond)
When: Now until Oct. 4
This exhibition is the result of a seven-year cultural exchange between the Richmond Art Gallery, independent curator Makiko Hara, and Nozomu Ogawa, the director of Art Center Ongoing, an alternative and experimental contemporary art gallery in Tokyo.
The exhibition presents works by Japanese artists affiliated with Art Centre Ongoing, and Vancouver-based artist Karilynn Ming Ho.
“Displaying vibrant, colourful, dreamy, playful and at times absurd art works, Ongoing /Pacific Crossings highlights the eclectic range of contemporary art practices from Tokyo that examine new possibilities for alternativeness — in both art and life,” said Hara in an email.
On until Sept. 5 at the Will Aballe gallery Bill Bissett: Over 40 Years of Art brings together paintings made between 1963 and 2021.
Bill Bissett: Over 40 Years of Art
Where: Wil Aballe (1375 Railspur Alley, Vancouver)
When: Now until Sept. 5
Spanning nearly six decades, Bill Bissett: Over 40 Years of Art brings together paintings made between 1963 and 2021. The pieces in the show are from private collections, allowing the gallery to show rarely seen works. Also included in the exhibit of around 25 pieces are works from his Bissett’s landmark 1984 Vancouver Art Gallery solo exhibition, Fires in the Tempul.
Bissett, now 86 years old, is an Order of Canada recipient and one of the country’s most well-known queer voices in the Canadian literary — he has produced 70 books of poetry and Jack Kerouac called him one of “the great poets”— and artistic scenes.
“Bill Bissett is one of the most significant and under-recognized figures in Vancouver’s conceptual art history,” says gallery owner Wil Aballe. “The show is an opportunity to place Bill’s visual work in the context it deserves, alongside the city’s broader lineage of conceptualism … It’s also part of a longer-term commitment of my gallery to bridge Vancouver’s historically significant artists with the emerging Canadian scene we represent today.”
Originally painted in 2020 by Montreal artist Kevin Ledo, this mural of Admired Stó:lo musician and artist Inez Louis is one of many murals that grace historic downtown Chilliwack.
Chilliwack Mural Festival
Where: Historic downtown Chilliwack
When: Aug. 14-16
While obviously not a gallery experience, this event brings art to the streets for a three-day festival of large-scale murals from emerging and established Canadian and international artists. Set in historic downtown Chilliwack. The event includes all sorts of vendors, performances, and flat-out family fun. Visit chilliwackmuralfestival.com for more info.
Another great way to enjoy the murals and get some local history while you are at it is to join local expert Michael Berger of Chilliwack Tours for one of the eight, free tours he is hosting during the mural festival. Sign up at chilliwacktours.com.