Current Exhibitions

• Emily Carr and her Contemporaries
• Sacred Arts of Tibet
• Vision into Reality: The Birth of the Collection
• Vision into Reality: Colin Graham and West Coast Modernism
• Vision into Reality: The Asian Collection Begins
• LAB 9.2: Mary-Anne McTrowe, Crocheting the Database

Emily Carr and her Contemporaries

November 6, 2008 to

Sponsored by the Volunteer Committee
of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

Emily Carr (1871-1945) achieved the status of
one of Canada’s most beloved and original artists due to her hard work, artistic and spiritual passion, dedication to life-long learning, and exposure to different influences and experiences.

From the permanent collection of the Art Gallery
of Greater Victoria, Carr’s paintings are set in context with the work of artists who inspired her and were inspired by her. This exhibition illustrates the shift in Carr’s painting style from her early roots in 19th century British watercolour tradition alongside other artists like Josephine Crease and Sophie Pemberton, to where she ended up with a unique and modern expression that spoke of her love of Western Canada. On display will also be a selection of works by artist who influenced her including members of the Group of Seven- Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, and Arthur Lismer- and American modernist Mark Tobey. The exhibition also recognizes Carr’s legacy, including younger artists of her circle who were encouraged by her dedication and vision such as Jack Shadbolt, Myfanwy Pavelic, and Statira Frame.

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Sacred Arts of Tibet

August 14, 2009 to December 6, 2009

The art of Tibet is almost exclusively devoted to the service of Buddhism and is almost never practiced for art’s sake. Tibetan art is representative of the existential character of Mahayana Buddhism known as Tantrayana or Vajrayana (the diamond path or vehicle), which considers its art to be very sacred. Although Tibetan art is religious in nature, it is also rich in artistic or aesthetic value. Tibetan art is evocative and the portraiture, although often rigidly stereotyped, shows a great variety of styles rendered in a powerful and realistic manner, particularly in the treatment of facial features, costumes, appendages and backgrounds.

The making of religious art in Tibet serves several functions. Its actual commission and production are acts for which one received merit, the more images made, the greater the merit. The painted or sculpted image serves to inspire the faithful to reach a higher level of consciousness. This exhibition will feature the Gallery’s extensive collection of painted thankas, sculpted images and sacred or ritual objects. As part of the exhibition, the Gallery is looking to host a group of Tibetan monks to construct a sand mandala. A mandala, which is considered a magical and sacred realm, is a visual prayer and a means of representing the entire sacred universe. It is an all-inclusive symbol and is thought to represent both the mind and body of the Buddha. The basic configuration of a mandala, which is deceptively simple in appearance, is a ring or circle enclosing a symmetrical walled palace with a gateway in each wall facing one of the four cardinal points of the compass. Each detail of its construction has symbolic meaning.

Over the course of several weeks in October, a group of Ganden Jangtse Monks from Northern India will create a Tibetan sand mandala at the Gallery and will chant each morning before they begin. Click here for more information.

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Vision into Reality: The Birth of the Collection

September 25, 2009 to March 28, 2010

Today, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria holds the largest public collection of art in the province. Working with a nearly blank slate, Colin Graham, the AGGV's founding Director, imagined a collection culled from every corner of the world. He wanted to “give Victoria the whole gamut of ethnic cultures.” Building relationships with Victorians who had art in their homes, Graham appealed to them to help establish a collection that could be held in public trust for the citizens of British Columbia.

The Birth of the Collection explores the various strengths of the collection including examples from local, Canadian, and international artists working in fine and decorative art media. Highlights include a significant collection of old master prints by Rembrandt, Dürer, and Goya as well as works by other international artists such as Turner, Daumier, Rodin, and Whistler. Graham also developed a fine survey of important historical Canadian art including paintings by Emily Carr, David Milne, Fred Varley, and Arthur Lismer. Alongside these traditional works he introduced international modernism through prints by Wassily Kandinsky, Henry Moore, Odilon Redon, and Georges Rouault. Perhaps most significantly he represented the art of his time though modernist paintings by Mark Tobey, Jack Shadbolt, Roy Kiyooka, Jock Macdonald, and Jack Bush, among many others.

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Vision into Reality: Colin Graham and West Coast Modernism

September 18, 2009 to January 10, 2010

For Canada in the 21st century it is pertinent for us to examine the evolution of Canadian art in the context of modernity. The postwar era 1945-1970 marked the expectancy of the modern as a universality. In 1951 Colin Graham became the first director of the AGGV and over the next thirty years he shaped the institution and its collection as a legacy for all. Victoria as well as the entire country is fortunate to have Colin Graham, with his knowledge, commitment, vision, and leadership. Graham recognised and embraced the generation of artists and thinkers coming out of the war. The postwar era was shaped by idealism. The arts, architecture, crafts and design contributed generously to inspire and shape an optimistic society.

Colin Graham and West Coast Modernism transports us to the post-war period when the Gallery was establishing its roots under Colin Graham. Through the exhibition, education, and collecting programs Graham took on the challenge of introducing modern cultural sensibilities to the community that in the decades previous had rejected Emily Carr’s pioneering attempts with modern art. The exhibition explores the period after Carr’s death when Graham built upon her efforts to enliven Victoria’s cultural scene by involving the province’s most forward-thinking artists. These include Jack Shadbolt, Gordon Smith, B.C. Binning, and E.J. Hughes who emerged from the Vancouver School of Art, as well as European artists Herbert Siebner, Richard Ciccimarra, and American artist Margaret Peterson, all of whom settled in Victoria in the mid-fifties. Others arrived from different provinces including sculptors Robert De Castro and Elza Mayhew, Maxwell Bates, and the young innovator Pat Martin Bates. Vision into Reality also includes furniture by local modernist designer Peter Cotton and the work of architect John Di Castri who built the Graham’s own modernist home. This exhibition features works from the AGGV’s collection as well as pieces from private and public collections bringing the modern period to life.

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Vision into Reality: The Asian Collection Begins

August 14, 2009 to March 14, 2010

Colin Graham, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s Founding Director, had remarkable insight in starting the Asian art collection, now one of the most important in Canada. Among the very first works of art accepted into the Gallery’s collection in 1950 were two Japanese woodblock prints by the well-known artist, Utamaro (1753-1806). These were given by important early benefactor, Miss Katherine McEwen. Following her lead, Miss Kathleen Agnew and Mrs. Massy Goolden generously supplied funds to purchase early Chinese ceramics and bronzes as well as Japanese lacquerware.

In the summer of 1960 the collection got its first major boost. Colin Graham met Mrs. Isabel Pollard of San Francisco and was able to persuade her to begin collecting Asian art for the Gallery. With astute Japanese antique dealer, Bunzo Nakanishi, and well-known Japanese scholar, Dr. Toru Mori, she built an extraordinary collection of nearly 1,000 works, mostly Japanese. In the 1970s, a retired Graham encouraged donation of works from esteemed collectors Mr. and Mrs. R.W. Finalyson & Family of Toronto and Brian S. McElney of Hong Kong. Their support of the Gallery is ongoing. Colin Graham also remains an enthusiast, having created a home at the AGGV for what is now a world renowned Asian art collection.

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LAB 9.2: Mary-Anne McTrowe, Crocheting the Database

October 9, 2009 to November 22, 2009

Presented in conjunction with the Vision Into Reality exhibition, Mary-Anne McTrowe has produced a crocheted history of the Art Gallery’s entire collection derived from her interest in symbolic representation, taxonomy and systems of organization: “My ‘portraits’ portray the Gallery’s collection as it is described through the filter of the database, and can be seen as metadata; information about information.” McTrowe emphasizes artifacts from Colin Graham’s era, culminating in a work comprised of approximately 17,000 stitches; additional “portraits” focus on database categorizations, each taking the form of a crocheted chain approximately 400 feet long.

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