Showing 587 results

• March - April, 1994. Placed on permanent display September, 1994.
• Five life-sized figures of coloured fragments of ceramic tiles and mirrors will go on permanent display in MOA’s lower lobby. Michener says, “I have used ceramic and glass fragments or shards to piece together some ideas and images about living.”

• June - July, 1995
• This monumental cedar sculpture stands over 15 feet high and features male and female figures standing upon a giant frog. The sculpture symbolizes a Haida origin story of the Frog crest, one of four crests which Jim Hart has the right to use. The male figure captures the moment of transformation between from and human form. The sculpture was commissioned by Westminister Management Corporation and Bentall Corporation and is generously on loan to the Museum.

• April 12 - May 31, 1996
• Student exhibition: This exhibit features ceramic works by students from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. Using the museum’s collection as a resource, they examined the social, technical and artistic history of ceramics, and each produced for this exhibit a ceramic piece that echoes a past technology, form, decorative technique or iconographic message. The exhibit is the result of a collaboration between the museum and the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.

• April 28, 1998 - February 21, 1999
• This exhibit comprises eleven photo-based artworks depicting contemporary Haida hereditary chiefs. Accompanied by voice and text layering, this series by artist Todd Tyarm explores the idea of heredity as a virtual link between present and past, as well as to the future. The chiefs depicted in this exhibit are individuals who represent a crucial conduit for their communities to regain the traditional values, practices, languages, and ways of thinking that have shaped their cultural identities from the beginning. The “Heredity” exhibit offers insight into both the heritage of the Haida, and the thoughts, names, and stories of the people who represent its living legacy.

• April 7 - September 6, 1999
• Student exhibition: An exhibit of recently donated prints and drawings by ten Inuit artists organized by the students of Anthropology 432 (The Anthropology of Public Representation) to reflect ideas about community history and identity.

• March 15, 2000 - January 14, 2001 (throughout the galleries)
• This exhibition presents fourteen site-specific works in diverse media (sculpture, mixed media, photography, painting, and textiles) by five contemporary Northwest Coast artists: Mary Anne Barkhouse (Kwakwaka’wakw) Connie ‘Bear’ (Sterritt) Watts, (Nuu-chah-nulth, Gitxsan, Kwakwaka’wakw), Winidi/John Powell (Kwakwaka’wakw), Larry McNeil (Nisga’a), and Marianne Nicolson (Kwakwaka’wakw).

• October 20, 2001 - May 12, 2002 (Galleries 8, 9, 10)
• . Through the art and understanding of calligraphy, the exhibit introduces visitors to the aesthetics, spirituality, and principles of education related to the world of Islam. This project was developed in collaboration with members of the Lower Mainland Muslim community and presents a selection of outstanding examples of Islamic art and calligraphy from different historical periods. This is the first major exhibition organizes by an Canadian institution to address the arts and beliefs of Islam. A website was created as part of the exhibition: http://www.moa.ubc.ca/spiritofislam/index2.html. This comprehensive online resource approaches the study of Islam through calligraphy. The Spirit of Islam features examples of Islamic calligraphy, historical timelines, cultural connections, calligraphy writing lessons, and interactive elements including sound and visual aids. Discover the diverse voices of Islam by listening to community interviews. The resource section is designed for teachers and includes notable dates, a glossary, and lesson plans surrounding issues of stereotyping and diversity. Funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage.

• October 13, 2003 - October 31, 2004.
• MOA Curator of Ethnology Pam Brown (Heiltsuk), guest curator Tanya Bob (Tahltan), and members of the Tahltan community create the first ever museum exhibit of Tahltan First Nations art and culture. The Tahltan live in the villages of Iskut and Dease Lake on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, and Telegraph Creek, below the Grand Canyon of the Stikine River. This exhibit has been developed collaboratively to highlight the profound and continuing links between the Tahltan and their land, culture, and heritage.

• February 22, 2004, remained open through 2004 (Corridor Case – opposite the Rotunda)
• In 1995, UBC graduate student Michelle Willard spent four months in West Africa as a volunteer with Canada World Youth. During a return trip in 2001, Willard, with the support and advice of Ghanaian people both there and in Vancouver, developed a collection of printed cloths that the Ghanaians consider to be highly significant. Her exhibit, opening during Black History Month, shows how these cloths are worn in Ghana to proclaim political loyalties and commemorate important events.

• July 10, 2007 - April 28, 2008
• Haida artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas mixes it up at MOA with three site-specific installations inspired by the Museum’s current Renewal Project. Michael’s works incorporate media as diverse as car hoods and copper leaf (“Coppers from the Hood”), argillite dust and an entire canoe-bearing Pontiac Firefly (“Pedal to the Meddle”), and archaeology storage trays and Haida manga (“Bone Box”). In the process, he brings his own brand of humour, narrative, and social commentary to jumpstart new debates in the Museum’s changing spaces. Installations curated by Karen Duffek, Curator, Contemporary Visual Arts. Thanks to Canada Council for the Arts for their support of this project.

• March 8 - September 30, 2009
• The contemporary significance of Samoan tattoo traditions is the focus of an insightful and provocative exhibit entitled “TATAU: Samoan Tattooing and Global Culture,” is now on display in Gallery 3 (adjacent to the Great Hall) in March. Curated by Peter Brunt, Senior Lecturer in Art History at Victoria University of Wellington, the show features over 40 photographs by distinguished New Zealand artist Mark Adams. Thanks to the Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington, and Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, for organizing this touring exhibition.

• May 2 - November 2, 2014 (The Audain Gallery)
• This exhibition features over 80 Afro-Cuban artworks collected by Chris and Marina von Christierson. Curated by Cuban poet, art critic and curator Orlando Hernández, the exhibition was first shown at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. It explores the ties that link the histories and cultures of Cuba and Africa, and includes works that reflect controversial and conflicting aspects of the Cuban national reality that continue to affect Cuban society today, including problems related to race, stereotypes and religion. MOA opens a window into the lives and struggles of Cubans of African descent in its new exhibition Without Masks: Contemporary Afro-Cuban Art. This remarkable exhibition has assembled a diverse group of 31 Cuban contemporary artists devoted to two fascinating themes: on the one hand an insight into contemporary Afro-Cuban cultural and religious traditions and, on the other, an intense dialogue on the complex racial issues affecting the country today. “MOA is a place of both historic and contemporary world arts and culture; an institution where Vancouver’s residents and visitors can develop an understanding and appreciation of the complexities of our global community,” says Nuno Porto, Curatorial Liaison for Without Masks. “Without Masks gives us opportunities to broaden our understanding of issues of global concern, such as racism today. The Afro-Cuban struggle for recognition and social equity in contemporary Cuba resonate with challenges faced by communities all over the world, including here.” Orlando Hernández, formerly of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana, curated Without Masks following his own rigorous criteria. Focusing beyond aesthetic, the exhibit favours originality and the profoundness of the works’ sociological, historical, anthropological, religious, ethical and political messages. “There is a very strong African tradition in Cuba. We inherited many religious practices from Africa — Palo Monte, Santeria, Ifá, Abakuá — and there are a lot of Cubans of direct or mixed African descent,” says Curator Orlando Hernández. “InWithout Masks we seek to make new and deeper studies of those cultural, aesthetic, symbolic, and religious legacies that we share and take for granted, without forgetting that we have received them from black sub-Saharan Africa.” For Without Masks, Hernández has curated a powerful collection of artworks representing a cross-section of Afro-Cuban artists – from the internationally renowned to street and folk artists. The exhibition features 31 artists showing a total of 85 works (from the 146 which at present comprise the whole collection) spanning a range of media including painting on canvas and wood, watercolour, drawing, printing (xylography, silk-screen, calligraphy), collage, patchwork, installation, soft-sculpture, photography, video-installation and video art. All the works in the exhibition are drawn from the von Christierson Collection. Chris and Marina von Christierson, themselves South African, first visited Cuba in 2007 and were drawn to the country and its art. During this visit they met Orlando Hernández and established a collaboration with him to develop a collection of Afro-Cuban art that would show the multiple imprints of Africa in Cuba’s artistic culture. The collection was first exhibited at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2010 during the FIFA World Cup. A major catalogue featuring the collection is available in the MOA Shop. The collection is held by the family’s Watch Hill Foundation, a not-for-profit charitable organization.

• November 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019
• CURATORS: Carol Mayer curated MOA’s installation of this exhibit. The exhibit originated at the Nevada Museum of Art and was organized by William Fox, Director of the Centre for Art and Environment, and scholar Henry Skerritt. The exhibition was drawn form the collection of Debra and Dennis Scholl.
• Aboriginal women have been redrawing the boundaries of the contemporary Aboriginal art scene in Australia since the late 1980s, redefining a movement that continues today. Their work resonates with vitality and relevance, their Indigenous ways of knowing the world captured in each brush stroke and woven thread. The strength of their vision is immediately evident in the works, asserting their authority like lightning bolts in the night sky. From the vast to the minute, the subjects of the works range from distant celestial bodies to the tiny flowers of the native bush plum. They also encompass the day-to-day acts of their lives, from venerable craft traditions to women’s ceremonies. And though the subjects are drawn from the visible and natural world, they are not bound by it. The works invoke the infinite, challenging the very constraints and constructs of time and space. Marking the Infinite features the work of nine Aboriginal women—Nonggirrnga Marawili, Wintjiya Napaltjarri, Yukultji Napangati, Angelina Pwerle, Carlene West, Regina Pilawuk Wilson, Lena Yarinkura, Gulumbu Yunupingu and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu—each from different remote regions of Australia. They are revered matriarchs and celebrated artists who are represented in the collections of the Australian National Gallery. Most of them make their Canadian debut at MOA with this breathtaking exhibition. The artists bring their ancient cultural knowledge into their contemporary artistic practice, and continue to create art to ensure their languages, land and knowledge survive in an increasingly digital world. Their works are steeped in the traditions of their communities and yet speak to the universal themes of our shared existence, revealing the continued relevance of Indigenous knowledge in understanding our time and place in this world.

• May 11 – October 9, 2017
• CURATOR: Fuyubi Nakamura
• Words and their physical manifestations are explored in this insightful exhibition, which will honour the special significance that written forms, especially calligraphy, hold across the many unique cultures of Asia – a vast geographical area boasting the greatest diversity of languages in the world. Traces of Words: Art and Calligraphy from Asia will showcase the varied forms of expression associated with writing throughout Asia over the span of different time periods: from Sumerian cuneiform inscriptions, Qu’ranic manuscripts, Southeast Asian palm leaf manuscripts and Chinese calligraphy from MOA’s Asian collection to graffiti art from Afghanistan and contemporary artworks using Japanese calligraphy, and Tibetan and Thai scripts. Curated by Fuyubi Nakamura (MOA Curator, Asia), the multimedia exhibition will meditate on the physical traces of words — both spoken and recorded — unique to humans. Embodying both the ephemeral and eternal elements innate to the human experience, the cultural significance of words and their artistic representation through calligraphy, painting, digital works and mixed media are examined. Traces of Words will feature works from six international artists — Shamsia Hassani, Kimura Tsubasa, Nortse, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Yugami Hisao and teamLab.

• March 7 - June 11, 1978

• November 19, 2017 – April 15, 2018
• CURATOR: Sue Rowley
• For generations Salish peoples have been harvesting the resources of their territories, transforming them into robes of rare beauty and power. Symbols of identity they acted as legal documents and were visible signifiers of the presence of knowledge holders and respected people. Now mostly stored away in museums these masterworks are rarely seen. They have much knowledge to share and many stories to tell. Musqueam asked the Museum to bring these weavings to inspire weavers and share part of this rich legacy with all of us. Salish weavers selected ten blankets from the 1800s to be part of this unique exhibition. Returning from Finland, Scotland, England and the eastern United States this is the first time that these blankets have been seen in Vancouver. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the unique design of Salish blankets up close and to learn the rich history and significance of weaving in this region. The exhibition takes you on a journey through the past two hundred years of Salish weaving from the early 1800s through to today’s vibrant renaissance. Presented by Musqueam, MOA and a community of Salish weavers.

Use for: Anspayaxw: An Installation For Voice, Image, and Sound

• September 12 – October 26, 2013
• CURATOR: Karen Duffek, Curator of Contemporary Visual Arts & Pacific Northwest Satellite Gallery
• Anspayaxw: an installation for voice, image, and sound is an immersive sound-and-photographic installation for twelve channels of audio diffusion, created in 2010 by Canadian artist John Wynne in collaboration with photographer Denise Hawrysio, linguist Tyler Peterson, and members of the Indigenous Gitxsan community at Anspayaxw (Kispiox, British Columbia).

• March 7 – July 2, 1978

• [ca. 1987-1988]

• November 16 - December 31, 1976
• A colourful display of costumes, textiles and backstrap looms from the Guatemalan Highlands. A related demonstration was presented on November 18 at 1:00 p.m.