Vancouver

Filmpreview

The Japanese photographer who turned an empathetic eye on rural communities of the Pacific Northwest in the early 20th century

A new documentary about Frank Matsura captures the incredible journey of an immigrant photographer who created indelible images and served as a bridge across cultures

Vancouver Art Gallery makes its interim leaders permanent co-chief executives

Eva Respini and Sirish Rao will share chief executive duties, with the former also serving as chief curator while the later takes on the role of executive director

Prizesnews

Steven Shearer wins Audain Prize, one of Canada’s top art awards

The Vancouver-based painter and photoconceptualist will receive $71,000

From ailing cooling systems to toxic chemicals, a museum tour shines a light on the effects of austerity

To drive home the impact of stagnant support for arts and culture, the Museum of Vancouver is offering “austerity tours” of its aging campus

Amid affordability crisis for artists, Vancouver’s city council establishes cultural land trust

The model—already deployed in San Francisco, Helsinki and London—aims to protect creative communities from rampant real estate speculation and development

Police and firefighters break into gallery after sculpture is mistaken for a person in distress

The sculpture, of an art preparator whose torso is concealed in a crate with their legs sticking out, prompted a late-night rescue mission at Vancouver’s Access Gallery

Trove of art by Basquiat, Javier Calleja and others at play in mammoth Vancouver real estate lawsuit

A lawsuit related to the collapse of the developer Coromandel Properties includes an art collection purchased for $4.9m that was used as collateral for a loan

Theatrereview

In new play, Norval Morrisseau forgery scandal prompts questions about authenticity and Indigenous identity

Drew Hayden Taylor’s “The Undeniable Accusations of Red Cadmium Light”, which recently debuted in Vancouver, interrogates fraud in several forms

Vancouver Biennale names senior curator for 2027-29 edition

This marks a return to Vancouver for the Brazilian curator Marcello Dantas, who organised a Vik Muniz project in the city as part of the biennale’s 2013-15 edition

Obituariesfeature

Remembering Gathie Falk, Canadian artist whose singular practice sparked comparisons to Surrealism and Pop art

Shaped by the austerity of her Mennonite upbringing and the bustling Vancouver art scene of the 1960s and 70s, she developed a playful, poignant and exacting visual language

Storied media arts centre launches emergency fundraising appeal to avoid closure

Vivo Media Arts Centre has been a cornerstone of the new media community in Vancouver, throughout Canada and internationally since 1973

Filmpreview

New documentary gives E.J. Hughes, painter of lyrical Canadian landscapes, his due

“The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes” is premiering in Vancouver as interest in Hughes’s life and work grows among Canadian collectors and institutions

Relocation of popular public sculpture called off after Vancouver residents claim it would block their views

The dispute over the future location of “Trans Am Rapture” has prompted duelling petitions, with the municipal government calling off the reinstallation to find a new site

New Canadian art museum seeks to connect disparate disciplines and a university campus

Simon Fraser University near Vancouver will open its new Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum in September

Vancouver Art Gallery gifted collection of 122 Modern and contemporary works

The gifted works, collectively valued at C$10m ($7m), come from Vancouver collectors Brigitte and Henning Freybe and include pieces by Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Julie Mehretu and more

Vancouver Art Gallery scraps plan for new, $444m Herzog and de Meuron-designed building

The institution ended its partnership with the Swiss firm, begun nearly a decade ago, as it reassesses its plans

Vancouver’s floating artist residency finds safe harbour in new location

The Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency, based in the refurbished former home and studio of Carole Itter and Al Neil, is now moored near Vancouver’s Maritime Museum

Awardsnews

Anishinaabe artist Rebecca Belmore wins the Audain Prize, one of Canada’s top art awards

The annual prize, which honours an artist based in British Columbia, comes with C$100,000 cash

Artist who created Queen Elizabeth II portrait on Canadian coins sues dealer over stolen and damaged works

Susanna Blunt alleges the dealer Benjamin Lumb promised to compensate her for a stolen piece and knocked over several works in a “domino effect”

Vancouver artists donate works to fundraiser for social housing in hardscrabble neighbourhood

Stan Douglas, Ken Lum, Douglas Coupland and others are helping efforts to raise C$8m for housing for Vancouver’s homeless

Vancouver Art Gallery launches construction of new $295m building with ceremony, donation and new acquisitions

The celebratory event marked a major milestone in a process begun in 2004; the new building is expected to be complete in 2028

Chinese Canadian Museum opens with timely reflection on national identity

Marking the centennial of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the museum’s inaugural exhibition is “the story of the Chinese community’s darkest period in Canada”

The forthcoming Chinese Canadian Museum names its first chief executive

The institution is scheduled to open in summer 2023 inside the oldest building in Vancouver’s Chinatown

Rodney Graham, influential Canadian conceptual artist with a wry sense of humour, has died, aged 73

After coming up among the Vancouver School’s photo-conceptualists, Graham struck out on his own singular, irreverent pursuits

Vancouver Art Gallery gets $29m in federal funding toward future Herzog & de Meuron home

The fresh funding means the gallery has raised C$270m toward the project’s overall cost of C$400m

In new performance, artist Janice Kerbel choreographs a fight for one

Kerbel’s new solo exhibition at Catriona Jeffries gallery in Vancouver, the artist is debuting two new performance works

Nearly 20 years after the invasion of Iraq, an artist revisits the looting of the national museum in Baghdad

The Iranian-born artist Abbas Akhavan’s installation at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver re-stages a scene captured at the Iraq Museum in 2003

Rare Shakespeare First Folio acquired by Canadian university to go on view at Vancouver Art Gallery

The University of British Columbia has acquired a copy of the ‘First Folio’ that helped preserve some of the bard’s most famous plays, including ‘Macbeth’ and ‘The Tempest’

Vancouver Art Gallery will put largest-ever cash donation to a Canadian art museum toward new building

New gallery by Herzog & de Meuron to be built in Vancouver’s Larwill Park after consultation with artists from Indigenous groups

Vancouver Biennale seeks donor to purchase $2m headless sculptures for the city

Only five of Magdalena Abakanowicz’s Headless Walking Figures remain outside City Hall, as demand for the artist’s work has grown