Us Ones In Between
Fiona Macdonald, Index Project: renovated
12 Making Objects: 12 indigenous interventions a.k.a. First Nations DADA
Saturday May 16 to Thursday June 25, 2009
Peter Morin
Illegally Yours!
Vertical Gallery, Shandy Bearman and Alexandra Demasson
Martine Dolbec, Terres rouges: Red Earths
Lao Oi, Lao A… (O Ancient One…)
Nhan Duc Nguyen (Vancouver )
Ritual Calling for Civic Harmony
Saturday November 8, 4pm
Nguyen will close his major project in Victoria by performing a special ritual calling for civic harmony on Saturday, November 8 at 4:00 pm. Everyone is welcome and admission is free.
The Deceleration Chamber
July 12 - August 16, 2008
Opening Friday July 11, 8pm
Artist Talk, July 12, 12pm
The Deceleration Chamber is concerned with two entangled ideas: the elasticity of time— especially slow time—and how time is specifically experienced when one is away from familiar surroundings: on tour, traveling or on vacation. Encountering the unfamiliar, being lost or disorientated affects how time is perceived, how data is recorded and recollected, and how all of us choose the mode by which we measure, mark or experience the passage of time.
Off The Grid: Art [Space] Crawl
we are not alone
May 17 - June 18
Opening: Saturday May 17, 8pm
Artists Talk: Sunday May 18, 2pm
we are not alone is a multi-disciplinary, collaborative approach to installation that is evocative rather than instructive. Six artists, Emily Goodden, Susan Hawkins, leannej, Wesley Mulvin, my name is scot, and Frances Zorn will create a space to accommodate shifting relationships between diverse works where the non-linear, non-unified nature of experience is acknowledged. Whether as a fragment or a fully-formed story, narrative is inherent in the configuration of sculpture, music, text, and still and moving images the artists will present.
Cumulus
Marcy Adzich
March 15 — April 19
Opening: Friday, March 14 at 8:00pm
Artist’s talk: Saturday, March 15 at 2:00pm
Residency Exhibition
Residency Exhibition
February 9 - March 6, 2008
Opening, Friday, February 8, 8:00 pm
Marlene Bouchard, Troi Donnelly, Sandra Doore, Rachel Evans, Pete Gazendam,
Emily Gooden, Roy Green, Miles Hunter, Rebekah Johnson, Ingrid Klasen, Devon
Knowles, Thomas Koivukangas, Judah Kong, Daniel Laskarin, James Lindsay,
Miles Lowry, John Luna, Kathie Lyle, Brian MacDonald, Mike McLean, Rob
McTavish, Marketa, Peter Morin, d. bradley muir, Brenda Petays, Shelley
Penfold, Judy Price, Shawn Shepherd, Cathleen Thom, Elizabeth Thomson,
Joanne Thomson, Rhonda Usipiuk and Dallas V. Duobaitis
Curated by Sally McKay
An Evening With Kitty Scott
As a curator of contemporary art, Scott has worked at the National Gallery in Ottawa (2000 - 2006) and as chief curator at the Serpentine Gallery in London, one of London’s foremost contemporary arts spaces which attracts over 750,000 visitors per year. In 2006 Kitty was appointed director of Visual Arts at the Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre where she also oversees the Banff International Curatorial Institute (BICI).
Quantal Strife
Quantal Strife
January 26 to March 6
Opening January 25, 8pm
Artist talk January 26, noon
Quantal Strife is an invitation to consider contemporary artworks as “signposts to a thought process, a body of knowledge, or a frame of reference.” The exhibition, curated by artist/critic/writer Sally McKay, samples the work of three artists: Scott Carruthers, Crystal Mowry and Marc Ngui.
Curator in residence Sally McKay
Curator in residence Sally McKay
January 19 to February 8
Introductory talk January 19, 7pm
Office hours for drop in visits: January 23 and 24, February 1 and 5, 12:00 noon to 5:00pm
Appointments: call Open Space at 383-8833
Sally McKay is excited to meet Victoria artists of all stripes. As a visitor to the city, she will have eyes and ears open, and is looking forward to a dialogue. Sally will be curating an ad-hoc exhibition for Open Space during her stay in Victoria, including works of artists she meets during her residency. Sally hopes that anyone and everyone who is interested in having a discussion about their work will come to see her while she is in town.
Pulp
James Carl (Toronto), Michael Doerksen (Montreal), Kelly Jazvac (Toronto)
Opening Friday December 7, 8pm
Runs until December 15, 2007, Jan 8-18, 2008
We all have a relationship with paper. We write on it, read from it, and of course create with it. As children it was our primary medium for creativity; anything could be cut, folded and pasted out of paper. For adults, paper brings good and bad news; it facilitates communication and is in front of us with our morning coffee. Recently, paper has become an affordable medium to fabricate digital information into physical objects.
Woven Room
Brenda Christine St. Pierre (Victoria), Jason Hunt (Victoria)
October 26 — November 3
Open Space is pleased to host Woven Room, an installation by Brenda Christine St. Pierre and Jason Hunt. Woven Room is part of the Healing and Transforming in a Contemporary World: Aboriginal Underground Art Crawl to commence on Saturday Nov 3rd at 7PM.
Brenda Christine St. Pierre employs traditional Native weaving both as a practice and symbolic gesture that connects her to her Cree-Sarcee-Metis heritage. Jason Hunt incorporates the carving style of the Kwakwaka ‘waku Nation, as taught to him by his father, Stan Hunt.
Squirm
Squirm: Larissa Fassler and Bettina Hoffman Screenings
October 5 to November 10, 2007
Opening: Friday, October 5 8pm
Artists’ talks: Saturday, October 6 12 noon
Visual artists Larissa Fassler and Bettina Hoffmann create fictionalized social conditions, which they then photograph and / or videotape. The resulting work opens disconcerting insight into the habits of interaction among friends, families and communities.
Venice Biennale and Documenta Talk
Friday, August 24, 4:30pm
2007 has been a summer of art fairs. Join us for cocktails at 4:30 on
Friday, August 24 as artist, critic, and VISA Director Wendy Welch and Helen
Marzolf discuss adventures at the Venice Biennale and Documenta. The
atmosphere is casual, brunch is by donation. Everyone is welcome.
The Index. David Altmejd
workbench
workbench
July 13 - August 11, 2007
Opening Art Crawl
Friday July 13
6:00 The Ministry of Casual Living - 1442 Haultain St.
7:30 the fifty fifty arts collective - 2516 Douglas St.
9:00 Open Space - 510 Fort St.
Summer Camp
Monday evening activities
Monday July 23, 5pm
Walking & Birding
Beacon Hill Park Petting Zoo
Monday July 30, 9pm
Capture the Flag
Mile “0” sign, Dallas Rd. & Douglas St.
Monday August 6, 9pm
Video Screening by Caleb Beyers
The Ministry of Casual Living, 1442 Haultain St.
workbench presents the work and lifestyles of six emerging Victoria artists, Jordan Beggs, Caleb Beyers, Marlene Bouchard, Charlotte Campbell, Rachel Evans and Emily Goodden. Curators Zoë Kreye and Ross Macaulay have assembled this exhibition to consider the diverse artistic practices currently taking shape in the city. Looking at accessible art venues and communities that support artists on the cusps of their careers and the strategies they adapt to make a living, workbench surveys these trends and acts as a laboratory for public exchange.
OPEN SPACE-OPEN FRAME
OPEN SPACE-OPEN FRAME
Painting / Assemblage by Miles Hunter
Gallery Scale installation of Open Space - Open Frame
June 15 - July 7, 2007
Visual artist Miles Hunter engages the Canadian landscape tradition from diverse points of view. His painterly assemblage OPEN SPACE-OPEN FRAME is shaped by the history of landscape and by the changing elements of the architectural and urban environment. The installation has two parts, Subdivision and Truss, and “uses the organic and utilitarian aspects of timber as a catalyst and subject matter.” Hunter's project compresses construction, painting and site, and draws attention to an ever-changing urban landscape.
Video Art Therapy: 14 Videos by Brian MacDonald
Video Art Therapy: 14 Videos by Brian MacDonald
Friday May 18 2007. 8PM
Award winning Victoria videomaker Brian MacDonald will premiere Video Art Therapy #1: journey to a distant planet at Open Space on Friday evening, May 18 at 8pm.
Video Art Therapy #1: journey to a distant planet is the first in a series of videos that aspires to make video art a useful commodity by providing therapeutic benefits for the viewer. A reassuring voice will help those who wish to escape depression or anxiety by guiding them on a fantastic virtual journey to an unexplored planet. Images of pretty lights, magic tricks, and ingenious sculptures are set to soothing music to facilitate relaxation and enable a temporary escape from a stressful world. Featuring sculptures by Aston Coles, Scott Evans, Emi Honda and Jordan McKenzie. Video art by Tor Jørgen van Eijk with music by Bryce Janssens and voice by Kate Lackey.
Kika Thorne - State Of Emergency
State Of Emergency
Opening Wednesday April 11 at 8pm
Kika Thorne’s new installation, State of Emergency, is an astonishing balancing act. It hovers in both physical and interpretive spaces, suggesting the delicacies of negotiating the impending crisis of global warming.
Unpacked and Reheated
Unpacked and Reheated
works by Steven Rayner and Brendan Fernandes
Opening Friday, March 2 at 8pm
Artists Talks Saturday, March 3 at Noon
Dowsing for Failure
Dowsing for Failure
Curated Installation
Opening Friday, November 24, 8 pm
Until January 27
Dowsing for Failure is the latest in decades of Open Space programming intended to complicate the traditions of curatorship and presentation. Failure – as something that cannot be willfully coveted but must, in many ways, be "happened" upon accidentally and in most instances unintentionally – holds innovative and intriguing artistic and theoretical possibilities.
Jayce Salloum
Jayce Salloum
Artist Talk and Screening
Sunday, October 29, 9 pm
Jayce Salloum's video work exists within and between the very personal, local and the trans-national. It aligns itself with social and political struggles through an intimate subjectivity and discursive challenge. He has worked in installation, photography, drawing, performance, text, and video since 1975, as well as curating exhibitions, conducting workshops and coordinating cultural projects. A media arts philosopher and cultural activist, his work critically engages the perception of social manifestations and political realities. Salloum has lectured worldwide and has exhibited at the widest range of local and international venues possible, from the smallest unnamed storefronts and community centres to institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada; Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Rotterdam International Film Festival; CaixaForum, Barcelona; 8th Havana Biennial and the 7th Sharjah Biennial. His texts have appeared in many journals including Third Text, Documents, Framework, Fuse, Felix, Mix, Public, Pubic Culture, and Semiotext(e). His most recent essay, sans titre /untitled: the video installation as an active archive is forthcoming in: Projecting Migration: Transcultural Documentary Practice (Wallflower Press: London, 2007, dist. Series, Whitechapel Gallery, London). In 2006 his work was featured in the 15th Biennale Of Sydney and in a solo installation at the Museum Villa Stuck, Munich.
Vulnerable Light
Curators: Tamsin Clark, Ted Hiebert
Artists talks 7:30pm
Opening Friday, October 13, 8 pm with a reading by Michael Turner
Until November 14
Vulnerable Light invokes the vulnerability and ineffability of photographic representation in the works of two nationally recognized photo-based artists: Isabelle Hayeur (Montreal) and Jennifer Long (Toronto). Both examine how contemporary photography plays with truth and fiction, intimacy and distance. Hayeur’s large-scale seamlessly composite landscape images mimic the sweeping tradition of the “natural” landscape. Long’s intimate studio portraiture delicately evades the sitter’s exact identity and her relationship to the photographer. Minimal in concept, the poignancy of the exhibition will rely on the ability of these two artists to create meditative spaces where the boundaries between fictions and truths are blurred and teased.
external links:
Isabelle Hayeur
www.isabelle-hayeur.com
Jennifer Long
www.jenniferlong.ca
Domestic Bliss
Domestic Bliss
Martin Golland (Guelph ON), Karina Kalvitis (Victoria), Robert Randall (Victoria), Curated by Roy Green (Victoria)
Opening Friday, June 2, 8pm until July 22, 2006
Artists’ Talk: Saturday, June 3, Noon
Spurred by the retreat into the privacy of the domestic space, this exhibit deliberates ideas of the home: as status symbol, architecture, shelter/security exterior and interior decor, investment/commodity, and as a site of personal expression and identity. This exhibit is curated by Roy Green (artist, poet), and features recent work by Martin Golland (Guelph ON), Karina Kalvaitis (Victoria) and Robert Randall (Victoria).
Martin Golland's new series of circular shaped oil paintings are studies in the perception and the depiction of interior spaces. Golland's canvases are anything but sedate: his interiors are as dizzying as a clothes dryer tornado. Arches, doorways staircases, windows and rooms bend, morph and merge in a painterly balance between order and chaos.
Karina Kalvaitis creates sculptural tableaux, which accentuate "the fine line between homes and cages." Kalvaitis combines elements of one-of-a-kind
designer furniture, 1950s interior design motifs with brilliant color schemes, and exotic fabric accoutrements. Her sculpture is reminiscent of both the circus and the nursery, and is enlivened by a similar whimsicality.
Robert Randall's small "portraits" of suburban dream homes are appropriated from vintage British Columbian real estate advertisements. These intimately scaled oil paintings on recycled pieces of lumber explore the relationship between the natural landscape and the man-made alterations to it. In addition to small paintings, Randall will be paint one of his images directly on the walls of Open Space. His enigmatic images provoke questions about the apartments, homes and businesses we inhabit.
SuperModels
SuperModels
Duncan MacKenzie (Chicago), Tim Van Wijk (Victoria), Toni Hafkenscheid (Toronto), Chris Gillespie (Victoria)
Curators: Tamsin Clark (Victoria), Ted Hiebert (Victoria)
Dates: April 7 - May 6, 2006
Opening: Friday, April 7, 8pm
Artists’ Talk: Saturday, April 8, Noon
Event Horizon
Jamie Drouin , Lance Olsen, Jeroen Witvliet (Victoria)
October 8 - 30, 2004
Opening: Friday, October 8, 8pm
Event Horizon is an exhibition that brings together three Victoria artists examining issues of memory, loss, landscape, the manipulation of natural forms, and the documentation of performative rituals. The artists in this exhibit stretch the boundaries of the minimalist and monochromatic idioms using large scale DVD projection, paintings and video.