Ian Wallace
dal 26/10/2012 al 23/2/2013
Segnalato da
26/10/2012
Ian Wallace
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
At the Intersection of Painting and Photography. A major survey exhibition of the work of one of Canada's most significant contemporary artists. Wallace has played a critical role in the development of contemporary art since the late 1960s. His early experiments with monochromatic painting, his production of large-scale photographic tableaux and his juxtapositions of photography with painting stand as the basis for a distinct body of work.
Ian Wallace: At the Intersection of Painting and Photography is a major survey exhibition of the work of one of Canada's most significant contemporary artists. Based in Vancouver, Wallace has played a critical role in the development of contemporary art since the late 1960s. His early experiments with monochromatic painting, his production of large–scale photographic tableaux and his juxtapositions of photography with painting stand as the basis for a distinct body of work for which Wallace has become internationally recognized.
Ian Wallace was among the first to use large–format photography in the 1970s, equating photography with the scale of cinema, advertising and history painting. This has been significant in elevating photography to the status the medium represents today. For Wallace, pairing fundamentally contrasting media—the visual emptiness of the painted monochrome against the visually dense, documentary nature of the photographic image—demonstrates a thorough and sustained reflection on the nature of representation as a method to construct meaning in the world.
Beginning in the late 1960s, Wallace was immersed in the formal language of minimalism in both painting and sculpture, and he produced works that were often positioned in relationship to surrounding architecture. Parallel to these concerns were his photographic investigations of the street, which became increasingly directed towards issues of urban development and the relationship of the individual to the modern city, an engagement that continues to this day. Wallace has also been keenly interested in the cinematic, and produced several monumental, staged works in the 1970s and 1980s that evoke the serial quality of film. He has often incorporated his ongoing interest in literature and poetry into his work over the course of his career, exploring the visual, semiotic and poetic qualities of language. Other important subjects of Wallace's work include the studio as a site of reflection and production, and the museum as an institutional framework for viewing art. The exhibition, which spans two floors of the Gallery, is accompanied by the most comprehensive publication on Wallace's practice to date. This fully–illustrated, 352–page volume, co–published with Black Dog publishing, is organized in concise sections that mirror the motifs present throughout the artist's work.
Ian Wallace's influence is lasting and broad. He has made an outstanding impact on both his contemporaries and subsequent generations through his important work as an art historian, critic and educator, and through an art practice that has consistently demonstrated conceptual rigor and aesthetic innovation.
Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Daina Augaitis, chief curator / associate director.
Co–Presenting Sponsors:
Rogers BMO Financial Group
The Gallery is pleased to present a series of talks and lectures alongside this landmark exhibition. Composed of 2 distinct parts, the series will engage voices both local and international in an ongoing discussion of Wallace’s work.
Part 1: Reading the exhibition
Curators’ Tour
Saturday, November 10th, 2pm
In the Gallery
Chief Curator and Associate Director Daina Augaitis and Associate Curator Kathleen Ritter tour the exhibition.
Artists Respond:
Dana Claxton and Michael Turner
Tuesday, November 20th, 7pm
In the Gallery
Focussing on the 1st floor of the exhibition, artist Dana Claxton and writer/ critic Michael Turner will look at the Cinematic and Text-based aspects of Wallace’s work.
Artists Respond:
Tim Lee and Clint Burnham
Tuesday, December 4th, 7pm
In the Gallery
Looking at the Studio and the Street with reference to their own practices, Tim Lee and Clint Burnham expand on the influence of Wallace’s work on the larger arena of contemporary practice.
Part 2: An International Perspective
This series of talks, scheduled between mid-January and the end of February, will feature a selection of international voices, in conversation with Ian Wallace himself.
Image: Study for Poverty Image with Raw Canvas II, 1987. Collage on paper 38.1 x 55.9 cm. Collection of Rick Erickson, Vancouver. Photo: Trevor Mills, Vancouver Art Gallery
Press contact:
Carolyn Jack, Communications Manager, cell: 604-671-2358 cjack@vanartgallery.bc.ca
Dana Sullivant, Director of Marketing and Communications, 604-662-4721 dsullivant@vanartgallery.bc.ca
Vancouver Art Gallery
750 Hornby Street, Vancouver BC V6Z 2H7
Gallery Hours
Daily 10 am to 5 pm
Tuesdays until 9 pm
Admission:
Adult $17.50
Senior (65+) $12.50
Student* (with valid ID) $12.50
Children (age 5 and older) $6.25
Children under 5 Free