Article content

Thanks to a robust and always changing visual arts scene you can easily fill a weekend with visits to any number of small, medium and large galleries.

Article content

Advice on what to see is a bit of a fool’s errand as the breadth of the offerings is as big as the empty lot where the new VAG is supposed to go.

Article content

That in mind, here are a handful of shows that may pique your interest:

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Sculptures & Paintings
Macaulay & Co. Fine Arts

On until March 25

This is a chance to see one of the most exciting local artists working today. Coast Salish contemporary artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun’s paintings and sculptures are wonderful combinations of explosive, vibrant colour, Coast Salish imagery and storytelling.

Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun’s work is as breathtaking as it is thoughtful as it explores issues over land ownership, residential schools — which he is a survivor of — and the destruction of the environment.

Article content

Article content

Alanis Obomsawin: The Children Have to Hear Another Story

Vancouver Art Gallery

April 7 to Aug. 7

Celebrated around the globe, Abenaki filmmaker and activist Alanis Obomsawin has notched 50 films in the past 50 years. Her body of work includes the documentaries Incident at Restigouche (1984) and Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993). Over her half-century career, Obomsawin has pushed to gain social and political agency and has used public platforms to tell Indigenous stories.

This show is a survey of Obomsawin’s work from the 1960s to the present, and demonstrates her remarkable achievements in education, music, documentary cinema and activism.

The Collectors’ Cosmos: The Meakins-McClaran Print Collection

Article content

Audain Art Museum (Whistler)

On until May 15

The Collectors’ Cosmos: The Meakins-McClaran Print Collection provides a look at the building of one of the foremost private collections of European prints in Canada. Amassed over four decades, the heart of the collection is a wealth of 16th and 17th century Dutch and Flemish prints.

Doctors Jonathan Meakins and Jacqueline McClaran recently donated a significant portion of these works to the National Gallery of Canada, doubling the NGC’s collection of early Dutch and Flemish prints.

Now the touring version of The Collectors’ Cosmosis is at the Audain Art Museum in Whistler and features over 170 works, including prints by European masters such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Hendrick Goltzius and Jacob van Ruisdael.

Article content

The Show

Emily Carr University of Art & Design

May 11 to 21

The Show is the annual unveiling of works from across all disciplines represented at ECUAD at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. So basically, every discipline in art and design will be on display in the always popular — it’s been running for decades — show.

If you need another reason to attend, this glimpse at potential greatness keeps in mind that many, many successful artists count ECUAD as an alma mater with the likes of Brian Jungen, Karin Bubaš, Sonny Assu, Geoffrey Farmer, Attila Richard Lukacs and Ola Volo showing in their graduating year.

As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic

The Polygon Gallery

On until May 14

The international touring exhibition As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic is curated by Elliot Ramsay and features more than 100 images selected from Aperture’s recently published book by the same name, and features photographs from the Wedge Collection — Canada’s largest privately owned collection committed to championing Black artists.

Bold type works include images by iconic civil rights photographer Gordon Parks, Hasselblad Award-winner Malick Sidibé, influential portraitist Carrie Mae Weems, contemporary photographer Texas Isaiah (the first trans photographer to shoot a Vogue cover), among others.

More news, fewer ads: Our in-depth journalism is possible thanks to the support of our subscribers. For just $3.50 per week, you can get unlimited, ad-lite access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun | The Provinces.