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Vancouver
Summer exhibitions at the VAG | Alex Morrison at CSA Space | Aaron Carpenter at Lawrence Eng Gallery | Corin Sworn and Elspeth Pratt at Blanket Contemporary
posted by Aaron Peck - June 25th, 2009.
Summer is here and, as Bill Callahan once wrote, “when summer comes, it’s almost impossible not to have a good time.” A series of exciting exhibitions opened this month, bucking the trend that summer is supposed to be a fallow season for art.
I could be satisfied to write my entire roundup about the exhibitions currently at the Vancouver Art Gallery, but that would neglect a number of other noteworthy shows found across the city right now. (In fact, as I put the finishing touches on this roundup from out of town, I am missing the opening of Sentimental Journey at the CAG, which includes two of my current favorite Vancouver artists, Gareth Moore and Owen Kydd.) Regardless, at the VAG, all four floors are worth checking out, so I’ll start there.
Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art Masterpieces from The Rijksmuseum on the first floor highlights Dutch painting in the 1700s, including Vermeer’s Love Letter and a portrait of Rembrandt’s son. The exhibition was organized in conjunction with the Rijksmuseum and, for that reason, includes a lot work that doesn’t normally tour. As for the pictures, one is dramatically reminded of what pleasures an image can afford.
Stan Douglas, McLeod’s Books, Vancouver, 2006, chromogenic print (collection of the VAG, gift of the artist)
The second floor is devoted to BC artists Stan Douglas, Emily Carr and Jack Shadbolt. Douglas exhibits two film works, Pursuit, Fear, Catastrophe: Ruskin BC and Klatsassin, along with an installation of photographs. With the exception of Every Building on 100 West Hastings, I have never been drawn to Douglas’s photography, which often felt more like commercial mementos for the films, films that I often like very much. Two Visions: Emily Carr and Jack Shadbolt reminds me what I like about Shadbolt and what I dislike about Carr. (The Belkin is also currently exhibiting Shadbolt with a much better selection of his work.)
Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent, 1999, C-print (© Andreas Gursky/SODRAC, courtesy Sprüth Magers)
The Andreas Gursky retrospective Werke/Work 80-08 is on the third floor. His old work is displayed in small format while the newer photographs are displayed in his familiar large size. Gursky’s decision to exhibit the older images this way does something interesting to his work: it makes the encyclopedic aspect of his project even more evident. I respond, however, with skepticism: to document the world sounds a bit Ahab-like and I doubt Gursky is very rigorous about the implications of such a project or, for that matter, what subjects he chooses to represent “the world.” What, in the end, differentiates this from National Geographic?
Anthony Hernandez, Los Angeles #2, 1970, silver gelatin print (courtesy Anthony Hernandez and Christopher Grimes Gallery)
Finally, on the fourth floor of the VAG is an Anthony Hernandez exhibit co-curated by VAG director Kathleen Bartels and Jeff Wall. The exhibit focuses on Hernandez’s street photography from the 60s to the 80s. As such, it provides a historical look at a particular kind of photography at a particular time. The influence of Garry Winogrand is very much evident. Also, somewhat more interestingly, you can recognize a hint of Hernandez’s work in some of Wall’s recent pictures, such as War Games.
Reece Terris, Ought Apartment, 2009, image of the sixth floor of the installation representing the first decade of the 2000s (photo: Rachel Topham, VAG)
All of these exhibits are connected by a towering installation in the central rotunda by local artist Reece Terris. A salvage project, the installation recreates the interior of a North American home from each decade since the war as it ascends each floor on scaffolding.
Alex Morrison
Alex Morrison’s current show at CSA Space is comprised of a series of graphite renderings of modernist buildings, sketches, and abstract paintings. Morrison’s work considers the idealism of late modernism on the West Coast. One of the things I’ve come to appreciate about his work is the way it considers the problem of style. It rather cynically examines the way a style is taken up as way of living. In other places, Morrison has considered the political implications of taking up politics as style. These pictures implicate this kind of misidentification in a particular moment in West Coast utopian modernism.
Aaron Carpenter
Aaron Carpenter’s new show at Lawrence Eng Gallery concludes a good run for him, having just been included in How Soon Is Now and a group-show at Artspeak. This exhibition includes a few sculptures, some watercolors, and some screen-prints. Carpenter’s work is often scattered and loose, in terms of its conception and execution, but the more of it I see, the more I think it works.
Elspeth Pratt, Plaza, 2009, mixed media
Corin Sworn and Elspeth Pratt currently have a show together at Blanket Contemporary Art. I have been a fan of Pratt since I encountered her work, along with the corresponding catalog essay by Lisa Robertson, at Artspeak in 2002, and I take an opportunity to see her new work anytime I can. A few pieces here, I found, are not as successful as those in her previous show at the Charles H Scott last year, however, some are really worth checking out. Pratt’s juxtaposition and placement of shapes creates a rare kind of spatial tension. I wrote about these drawings of Sworn’s over four years ago, so it was a welcome sight to see them again. Kudos to Blanket for this show: the contrast between Sworn and Pratt was unexpected and, in the end, complimentary.
And lastly, risking conflict of interest (as he is an old friend), go check out Adam Harrison’s exhibit at Monte Clarke. I could look at some of these pictures for a long time. But don’t listen to me: listen to Mark Soo. As the recent VIVA award-winning artist said while giving the thumbs up at the opening, “HOTT DOGGZ!”
Aaron Peck is the author of The Bewilderments of Bernard Willis (Pedlar Press, 2008). His reviews have recently appeared in Canadian Art and Fillip. He lives in Vancouver.
See website for current exhibitions.
CSA Space: http://www.csaspace.ca/
See website for current exhibitions.
Lawrence Eng Gallery: http://www.lawrenceeng.com/
Aaron Carpenter continues until June 27.
Blanket Contemporary Art: http://www.blanketgallery.com/
Corin Sworn and Elspeth Pratt continue until July 3.