You are invited to join us, if you wish, for any of the following three art trips planned by VanU’s Intercultural Team during May. Please RSVP if you plan to come to gmoray[at]uoguelph[dot]ca
Friday May 22, 11:00 AM, Vancouver Art Gallery: That Green Ideal: Emily Carr and the Idea of Nature – tour with Gerta Moray.
Emily Carr transformed landscape painting in BC and created an imaginative imagery through which successive generations have experienced the landscape ever since. This new, wonderful exhibition of her work takes up the VAG’s entire ground floor. Curator Richard Hill has staged a thoughtful argument, revealing how Carr’s painting developed from her own inner drives, her diligent search for modern teachers, and her attention to the Indigenous peoples of the coast and their art forms. I consider this a show to be visited many times during its long run until November 8. It’s not a quick walk through but
one for slow absorption and reflection. Richard Hill’s excellent text panels can guide you to make close observations and fresh discoveries. What can I, Gerta, add to this? I’ll be delighted if you’ve already had a visit to the show and/or have some familiarity with her work. I look forward to exploring the curator’s intentions with you, and since I have “lived with” Emily Carr for over 40 years we may find yet further insights together.
Meet in the Gallery entrance at 11:00 AM. Lunch break at 1:00 PM (I suggest a croissant and coffee or a bigger snack at Bistro 31 in the Gallery) followed at 2:00 PM by my return to the exhibition for those that have the time and stamina for more. (There are portable stools that can be used to save your legs.) Or browse other shows in the gallery on your own.
Cost: The VAG is horribly expensive (BC residents admission $29) so, if you can, makesure you get a year-long unlimited access pass for $58.
Saturday May 23, 10:00 AM, Vancouver Art Gallery – That Green Ideal: Emily Carr and the Idea of Nature – tour with Gerta Moray (description above) then a break for lunch.
2:30 PM, Vancouver Art Gallery –Future Geographies: Art in the Century of
Climate Change (come for one or both shows – we will end at 5:00PM)
The show opens on May 14 and is “the first major exhibition in Canada to examine the intersection of the climate crisis and contemporary art on a global scale. … More than 35 works across a range of media—from large-scale video installations to living sculptures—invite viewers to confront pressing questions about our shared future on this planet.” The show is presented in collaboration with the UBC Climate Action Lab and the National Observer who have a wonderful website dedicated to the show and to related issues at https://futuregeographies.nationalobserver.com/.
Friday May 29, 10:00 AM, Vancouver Art Gallery – Future Geographies: Art in the Century of Climate Change (description above) – followed by a break for lunch. Feel free to stay for one or both parts of the day.
2:30 PM Vancouver Art Gallery – Highlights from the Collection
This revealing show lays out a history of Vancouver art from the vaults of the VAG’s collection. As the curator writes: “From historical paintings to contemporary installations, artworks are presented in groupings that reflect the cultural and aesthetic contexts in which they were originally shown, including the formal arrangements of a salon-style installation, the domestic space of a modernist home, the experimental spaces of artist-run centres and the white cube galleries of the twenty-first-century museum.”