What kind of year was it in the art world?
Not bad. Things took a tumble back in 2008 and, since then, artists have been clawing their way back to where they used to be. We’re not there yet, but we seem to be heading for sunny days.
There aren’t as many galleries as there used to be. Winchester Modern on Humboldt vanished, as did Couch Art gallery on View Street and Atelier 546 on Yates Street. In the new year, Red Art Gallery on Oak Bay Avenue will carry only the paintings of its proprietor, Marion Evamy. Meanwhile, the “alternative” galleries carry on — Open Space, XChanges, Deluge, Fifty/Fifty continue to rack up big anniversaries.
Perhaps people don’t need art galleries so much these days. A lot of what is now called “art” doesn’t hang on the wall. Everyone has a camera of amazing ability, and can have their images printed on large canvases. And the field of amateur artists is overflowing — consider the hundreds who try their luck at the Sidney annual show, the Look annual show in Greater Victoria, the Sooke Fine Arts Show and the Salt Spring National Art Prize (new this year).
These days, it can be so easy to deck the halls with art, without the investment of purchasing the stuff. Art Rental (and Sales, as they remind you) is a longstanding fundraiser of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, and as well as private clients, it takes care of the airport and the Victoria Conference Centre. The Community Arts Council operates two galleries at Cedar Hill Rec Centre and has a satellite in the Bay Centre downtown (by the Fort Street entrance), as well as hangings in libraries and other public spaces.
An extraordinary effort toward inclusion of art in the life of the city is made by Artishow, a private (and virtually volunteer) effort by Barb Adams and Kerry Liggins. In the past four years they have “inserted” artists-in-residence into all the major hotels in the region, generally for a month at a time during the tourist season.
This has been highly encouraging for artists, hotels and visitors. It’s a gift to the tourism industry, to have active, articulate and creative Victorians on hand when visitors show up. And during 2015, Artishow provided inspiration for patrons of the Union Club’s dining room, with six solo shows.
Adams is also the Arts Laureate for Oak Bay, and first became notorious when she brought in painted pianos and sculptures in the summer of 2014. In 2015, she brought more pianos to Oak Bay sites, and also lined the avenue with original sculptures, and put paintings in every shop window in Estevan Village. For 2016, she’s planning an open-air sculpture show (and competition) for Oak Bay, with a purchase prize. The municipality is behind this initiative 100 per cent.
This year, Oak Bay bought one of the sculptures displayed during that first summer, in 2014. Called Salish Sea, it is a steel plate cut with Coast Salish design elements. Created by Chris Paul, it is at Turkey Head (by the Marina Restaurant) — and on Facebook pages around the world.
Another art contribution to Oak Bay was the successful raising of (and fundraising for) a Coast Salish pole by Butch Dick and his son Clarence, installed in front of the new Oak Bay High School. May it help bring a needed rapprochement between First Nations and non-aboriginals at the high school level.
On now at the AGGV is a show of recent acquisitions of the Asian art collection (until April 3). Included are some Yixing ware teapots, “the perfect teapot,” which the Chinese sent to Europe with the first shipment of tea. These are just a few representatives of an astounding collection, some 400 Yixing teapots about to be given to the gallery.
Another donor, Judy Patt of Metchosin, follows in the footsteps of the legendary Isabel Pollard, by purchasing things that would complement the gallery’s collection, and then donating them. Patt is building “her” collection within our gallery. In this show are four Japanese ink paintings of Daruma, the patriarch of Zen Buddhism, chosen and donated by Patt, as well as some woodcut prints.
The gallery is packed with intricate Tibetan thangkas of great age, ivory carvings, cloisonné vases, blue and white ceramics, and each of these is the tip of an iceberg of what is stored below for our enjoyment.
Meanwhile, the rest of the gallery’s collection is in good hands with the constant attention of chief curator Michelle Jacques. Her current “case studies” have filled a gallery of display cases with stimulating elements of the gallery’s extensive decorative-arts collections (until June 5). A blue-and-white pattern migrates from China to Japan and Holland and England. Modern silversmiths create vessels inspired by antiques. Each meeting of objects is a study on its own.
Ingrid Mary Percy of Memorial University in Newfoundland spends her summers in Victoria, and has in the past arranged a tour of Emily Carr experts to spread the word in Newfoundland. This February, she has arranged an Emily Carr conference in Victoria. Three days of talks, shows, tours, readings and much else will take place at locations around town on Feb. 19, 20 and 21.
For information, please go to symposiumemilycarr.blogspot.ca.
