THE VIEW FROM VICTORIA
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PHOTO: DEDEDDA STEMLER, TOURISM VICTORIA
PHOTO: DEDEDDA STEMLER, TOURISM VICTORIA
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PHOTO: DEDEDDA STEMLER, TOURISM VICTORIA
PHOTO: DEDEDDA STEMLER, TOURISM VICTORIA
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PHOTO: DEDEDDA STEMLER, TOURISM VICTORIA
PHOTO: DEDEDDA STEMLER, TOURISM VICTORIA
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PHOTO: DEDEDDA STEMLER, TOURISM VICTORIA
PHOTO: DEDEDDA STEMLER, TOURISM VICTORIA
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PHOTO: DEDEDDA STEMLER, TOURISM VICTORIA
PHOTO: DEDEDDA STEMLER, TOURISM VICTORIA
THE VIEW FROM VICTORIA
Contemporary Art Turns Over a New Leaf in the City of Flowers.
BY: Charles Campbell
Shawn Shepherd and Mary Patterson opened the Polychrome Fine Art gallery in Victoria in June 2009. Though the recession was having a heavy impact on art sales worldwide, the entrepreneurial young couple saw an opportunity to realize their long-standing ambition to open a gallery. Benefitting from the large number of vacancies in the city, and from stock-market-wary collectors with a new appreciation for things tangible, the gallery has quickly become an important centre for young contemporary artists and art buyers.
“It was time to take things to another level,” says Shepherd. “There comes a time when your ideas are bigger than your pocketbook. So how do you get to those ideas?” The gallery is an ambitious leap in Shepherd’s own expanding art practice. A multidisciplinary artist, Shepherd’s interests range from painting to printmaking, from sculpture to installation, from a solo studio practice to part-time graphic designer, to artist-book publisher.
Propelled by a vision to create a non-elitist space for contemporary art in Victoria, the gallery is already exceeding Shepherd and Patterson’s expectations. “We were prepared for months of paying out of our own pockets,” Shepherd says. “But the gallery supports itself.” Polychrome’s ability to stay afloat in difficult times is a testament to the maturing of the visual arts in Victoria, and it’s far from an isolated example. Take a snapshot of Victoria in 2011, and you’ll see a city on the threshold of discovering the true potential of contemporary art.
For initiates, Victoria has long been a powerhouse for contemporary Canadian sculpture, the home of artists such as Mowry Baden and Daniel Laskarin, but the majority of the city’s galleries have tended to cater to the tastes of a more conservative audience. “When I arrived in 1989 there was very little going on,” says Robert Youds, professor of Painting at the University of Victoria. Youds has witnessed a slow but steady growth of contemporary art in Victoria, as more artists, often attracted by UVic’s reputation for studio art, have settled in the city.
Victoria’s climate and liveability have also drawn world-class collectors. Jon Tupper, director of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, notes it’s not uncommon to visit households with Riopelles or Jack Bush paintings on the walls. Some of those collectors are now looking at the art of their adopted city with the same discerning eye. Youds warns that for most artists the city presents limited opportunities. For young artists in particular it’s a difficult place to build a reputation. “You have to get out somehow, have gallery representation or be showing elsewhere.”
But for some, Victoria provides an ideal opportunity to make a real impact. A series of exhibitions organized by Luke Ramsey and Harley Smart beginning in 2004 brought a new sense of excitement and possibility to the city, getting artists out of their studios to collaborate and exhibit together. Influenced by Victoria’s 90s punk revival scene, Ramsey and Smart brought a fresh energy and DIY attitude to art-making. They jump-started a loose movement, often called the “Party Art” scene for its exuberant openings.
They emphasized working collectively, and brought together artists from all disciplines — graffiti and installation artists, sculptors, painters, printmakers and teens interested in doodle art. “There’s usually so much ego in art-making,” says Kirsten Wright, director of Gallery Boucherat, a space closely connected to the then-fledgling scene. “What was special here was that artists were willing to give up creative control.”
Those days also gave Ramsey’s own art practice a collaborative boost. He now runs an artists’ residency on Pender Island, where he invites artists to work on joint projects. This success has been accompanied by a growing list of international exhibitions and collaborative projects. The mid-2000’s in Victoria were fundamental to Ramsey’s development. “I feel like that’s when the ball started rolling.”
What spurs artists to go out on a limb and create something larger than themselves is often the very constraints that limit others. The Vancouver Island School of Art began with artist Wendy Welch’s search for a studio that could adequately house her large-scale installations. “I found a really great studio space on John Street and I thought, ‘I can’t afford the rent so I’ll start a school.’” Six years later, VISA is Victoria’s largest independent art school with over a dozen faculty, and courses that range from introductory drawing to curatorial studies.
“The thing about Victoria,” Welch says, “is that there is room for the pioneering spirit.” Looking back on the city when she arrived 16 years ago, she sees tremendous changes, from an art scene that was closed and cliquish with little activity to one enriched by all sorts of artistic endeavours. “It took me five years to meet another artist in the city,” she remembers. Welch now sees the main challenge as converting the often-conservative tastes of Victorians into an appetite for contemporary art. “One of the things I feel we are doing at the school is creating an audience for art.”
The pioneering spirit of Victoria’s artists has been evident since at least the late 60s. Xchanges Gallery and Studios has been incubating local talent since 1967, and Open Space has been a torch-bearer for experimental and multidisciplinary art since 1972. Recent years have seen more artist-run and commercial gallery spaces flourish — Deluge Contemporary Art, The Ministry of Casual Living, Fifty-Fifty Arts Collective, Gallery Boucherat, the Collective Works Gallery, Polychrome Fine Arts, Olio Printmakers and Workers Collective, Luz Gallery. Each brings a different perspective on art-making, and invites new audiences to appreciate the challenges and rewards of contemporary art.
“We didn’t want people to stand at the door and be afraid to come in,” Shepherd says of his gallery. He recalls his first experience with art shortly after his arrival in Victoria 20 years ago, peering into the window of a small gallery run by Luis Merino and his wife Sandra. “It was the middle of winter. It was grey and dreary and dark and I didn’t know anyone and I would just stand there and look in. It was just this beautiful, warm, colourful little room.” Stepping through those doors marked the beginning of a journey that has put art, exploration and creativity at the centre of his life. He hopes to do the same for the city he loves.