Add colour to life with free days at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
Published 10:00 am Sunday, January 11, 2026
The free for all Thursday evenings at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria invites residents to explore a reimagining of the local collection.
A View From Here, Reimagining the AGGV Collections, is co-curated by the current chief, head of Asian Art and former assistant at the Rockland gallery.
The Roger Lee Gallery of Asian Art and the Graham Gallery are dedicated to showcasing selected strengths of the permanent collections. One gallery focuses on world-renowned Asian art collections and the other is devoted to works by Indigenous and Canadian artists, from the nineteenth century to the present.
There is a common approach to interpreting the collections within these galleries: looking at key historical works through a contemporary lens. Our interpretive approach is intentionally broad, because our collections themselves are broad in scope: spanning the continent of Asia (with emphasis on the art of China and Japan); and the lands that make up present day Canada (with a strong emphasis on the art of Coastal British Columbia).
Three exhibitions run now through spring – Dangerous Beauty, Fifty Shades of Ink and sheeshe ‘ch tharer – a crack in the mirror and residents can see for free each Thursday as a sponsorship allows the gallery to opens its doors to all from 5 to 9 p.m.
Dangerous Beauty, curated by Steven McNeil, AGGV chief curator and director of exhibitions, features the prints of Albrecht Durer and runs through May 3. Sharing work from the AGGV collection, this exhibition presents 12 prints that showcase the artist’s skill as a printmaker and his fascination with dramatic subjects centred on danger. Durer’s prints often merge themes of danger and beauty, incorporating monstrous figures as well as scenes that evoke imminent or unfolding peril.
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“Ink has five shades” is a foundational principle in the tradition of Chinese ink painting, and Fifty Shades of Ink, curated by Heng Wu, AGGV Curator of Asian Art, explores the idea.
First articulated in the ninth century by the artist and art historian Zhang Yanyuan, this idea has shaped both the creation and appreciation of ink art for more than a thousand years. It reveals the expressive power of ink, which, through the subtle interplay with water and the dynamic engagement of the brushstroke, can unfold into works rich in depth, texture, and tonal variation. In the hands of a skilled artist, the shifting shades of ink become vessels of emotion and vitality, transcending colour to reveal a polychrome world within monochrome.
Taking inspiration from this classical principle, Fifty Shades of Ink expands the idea, suggesting that the potential of ink is endlessly nuanced. This exhibition draws from the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s rich collection of Asian ink paintings to celebrate the expressive possibilities of the medium. Also on view are historical ink sticks and ink stones, offering insight into the material and cultural heritage behind this timeless art form.
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Organized and circulated by the Reach Gallery Museum and guest curated by Sajdeep Soomal, sheeshe ‘ch tharer | a crack in the mirror runs through April 12.
The show centres around a body of works that takes the synthetic, plastic-laden material culture that surrounds contemporary Sikh institutions as its starting point.
The exhibit is a survey of recent works by artist Simranpreet Anand, including collaborative pieces with artist and ethnomusicologist Conner Singh VanderBeek. Anand’s practice, indebted to familial and cultural community, engages materials and concepts drawn from the histories of Punjab and its diasporas. The title of the exhibition, sheesh ‘ch tharer, captures the fissures emerging from her ongoing encounters with matter and material culture in the globalized world.
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The gallery also hosts a free event to launch a new season of exhibitions on Friday, (Jan. 16) from 5 to 9 p.m.
Visit aggv.ca for a full list of events ‘by donation’ or otherwise.
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Email: christine.vanreeuwyk@blackpress.ca