Family day at the Victoria gallery Nov 15

Join the gallery for a day of hands-on art making for children and their families inspired by the current exhibition West Coast Modernism exploring abstraction, cubism, modern architecture, and more.

Urbanite: October 23, 2009 | 8:00pm – 11:00pm

The most recent Urbanite was inspired by the gallery’s current exhibition Vision Into Reality: West Coast Modernism. There was a very good turnout and the crowd seems to be getting younger. (About half of the attendees were in their 20s). There was music by DJ Longshanks (regular at the Lucky Bar), 1950s inspired cocktails and drinks and informative tours of the Vision in Reality exhibition. Unfortunately there was no interactive art making this time. I really loved the collage table at the World Upside Down Urbanite in August. The great little brown bags marked “Home,” “Love” and “Fear” that were filled with little trinkets including fake fur, hearts and stars were imaginative and fun.

Urbanites are held three times a year. If you are interested in art and have not got along to one yet I would thoroughly recommend checking one out. Admission to an Urbanite is $12 non-members or $10 for gallery members. Drinks are usually $7-8.

Details on the gallery website or check them out on Facebook

 

Antimatter Film Festival Oct 9 to 17

Antimatter Film Festival starts tomorrow night!

Antimatter Film festival

The Antimatter Film Festival kicked off with Small World on Friday, Oct 9 at Open Space (510 Fort Street). The excellent opening feature was a multi-media excursion through disney. Artists and local musicians interpreted Disney classics with assistance of shopping carts, painted acoustic guitars, accordions, smoke machines, quirky costumes, tinfoil, and pretty lights. A very fun night to kick off Thanks Giving weekend!

Antimatter continues through Oct 17 with screenings, performances and video installations. Short features are organized into themes including “warming trend: environmentalism alarm bells pealing out for hope; “O’er the land”; “Ju suis une bombe: aesthetic actions promulgate gender confusion/diffusion…”

Full schedule and info at http://www.antimatter.ws or pick up a program guide at any south island Serious Coffee location.

Opening & exhibition: Monday’s ninth annual Photo Contest

Monday mag has recently announced the winners of their amateur photo contest. You can see the pics here: http://mondaymag.com/articles/entry/arresting-images/ The opening receiption is tonight. Details of the opening reception and exhibition:

Monday’s Annual Photo Contest
Opening reception 6-9 p.m.
Friday, September 11
Show runs to Wednesday, September 23
10 am-5 pm Monday-Friday
Community Arts Council Gallery,
G6-1001 Douglas (at Fort)
381-2787 • info@cacgv.ca

Victoria Arts & Culture Fair

This Sunday at the Victoria conference centre you can find out about many of the arts and cultures organizations in our fair city for FREE. You can find out more about their schedules for the upcoming season and find about about entrance or ticket costs. Sounds like a great way to learn more about the variety of arts and culture on in this city.

http://www.vicacf.ca/index.html

AAGGV – World upside down until Aug 30

We saw this exhibition at the recent Urbanite at the AGGV. I was a little disappointed at how small the exhition was but nevertheless I would say it is definitely worth a visit. There are a number of high quality work that are very interesting. One that I keep coming back to in my mind is Planet of the Apes. Currently many of friends are travelling around the world on  holidays and seeking an authentic [insert name of country’ experience. Planet of the apes questions what it might mean to experience authentic national dress, or costume or custom.

• World Upside Down June 5, 2009 to August 30, 2009 The World Upside Down is one in which the symbolic order is turned on its head. It is a world visualized by artists where killer rabbits hunt humans and Superman is a hero of the Soviet Union. It is the Planet of the Apes and a planet where British aristocrats lose their heads when they find themselves dressed in “African” fabrics. In each symbolic inversion an artist turns a hierarchical dichotomy on its head illuminating and challenging the visual conventions that maintain social order. In most cases the dichotomy itself breaks down under the strain of its own absurdity and we are liberated through this particular form of satire. When power relations are suddenly turned on their head, we have the opportunity to recognize that some behaviours that we take to be natural and necessary are merely conventional. For this reason, contemporary artists using inversion tend to seek out existing hierarchy, often satirizing the most venerated works in the Western canon. This exhibition also extends out into public spaces to include a commissioned billboard by Terrance Houle (with Jarusha Brown) who use photography and video to parody the complexities of contemporary Aboriginal identity. In his Urban Indian Series, Houle depicts himself going about the tasks of daily life – shopping for groceries, working at the office – while dressed in his powwow regalia, highlighting the perceived but far from actual schism between traditional Indigenous identity and contemporary life. World Upside Down is curated by Richard William Hill, organized by the Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre and produced in collaboration with the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, and the Musée d’art de Joliette. This exhibition is presented with the support of the Museums Assistance Program of the Canadian Department of Heritage, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. CASTING CALL Presented as part of the exhibition, Terrance Houle’s public performance, Casting Call, involves Aboriginal collaborators “auditioning” for roles in famous Hollywood westerns. Responding to the Hollywood practice of casting white actors in “Indian” roles, Houle’s performance undergoes this convention, humorously destroying the credibility of Hollywood stereotypes in the process.
  See http://aggv.bc.ca/current+exhibitions.aspx#2129 for more details.

Victoria Gallery public tours this summer

Until August the Gallery of Victoria is offering public tours of their current exhibition.
Dates and exhibition tours as followed:

April 25 – Assume Nothing: New Social Practice

May 2 – Emily Carr and her Contemporaries
May 9 – Assume Nothing: New Social Practice
May 16 – Edo: Arts of Japan’s Last Shogun Age
May 23 – Assume Nothing: New Social Practice
May 30 – Edo: Arts of Japan’s Last Shogun Age

June 3 – Emily Carr and her Contemporaries
June 13 – Giant Landscapes: BC Landscapes from the AGGV Collection
June 20 – Edo: Arts of Japan’s Last Shogun Age
June 27 – World Upside Down

July 4 – Emily Carr and her Contemporaries
July 11 – Giant Landscapes: BC Landscapes from the AGGV Collection
July 18 – Edo: Arts of Japan’s Last Shogun Age
July 25 – World Upside Down

August 1 – Edo: Arts of Japan’s Last Shogun Age
August 8 – World Upside Down
August 15 – Giant Landscapes: BC Landscapes from the AGGV Collection
August 22 – Emily Carr and her Contemporaries
August 29 – World Upside Down

Tours are approximately one hour and start at 2PM.

Assume nothing: new social practice exhibition

The Art Gallery of Victoria exhibition Assume Nothing: new social practice is heading into its last month. This exhibition includes sculpture, video, filmes, and sound works that explore socially engaged art. The quality of the works in this exhibition varies greatly. Some works are original and provoke thought while others are rather dull. However the exhibition as a whole is well worth a look. Check it out before May 24. For a full list of artist bios, events and projects see www.aggv.bc.ca

Earth day film festival 21-22 April

Tomorrow is earth day. Open cinema, VIDEA and the Sierra Club of BC
are presenting the Annual EARTH DAY FILM FESTIVAL FRIEND & FUNDRAISER. Entry is free. For more details see:

http://www.harbourliving.ca/event/open-cinema-presents-2nd-annual-earth-day-film-festival

Oak Bay artist’s studios walk

Free art walks at Okay Bay this weekend. The website tells us:

Recreation Oak Bay is proud to announce the 10th semi-annual show of fine arts in Oak Bay this April 18 and 19. Many of Oak Bay’s established and emerging artists will use their homes and studios as backdrops to display the products of their creativity in a variety of original watercolour, acrylic, oil, fibre, photographic, woodcut, glass and pottery creations. This juried tour, which is produced by Recreation Oak Bay, will take place on Saturday and Sunday, April 18 and 19, from noon to 4:30 p.m. The two-day special event is free to the public. Brochures with artist descriptions and a tour map are available at www.recreation.oakbay.ca in early April. Brochures are also available at the Oak Bay Recreation Centres, the Oak Bay Municipal Hall and the Oak Bay Library as well as at local businesses on Estevan and Oak Bay Avenue and through participating artists prior to the show. For more information call Recreation Oak Bay at 250-370-7129.

My favorite was the weaving at Jean Betts (no. 13 on the art walk). She has a range of scarves and bags from the quirky, to bright and contemporary to simple and classic.