BOMBHEAD
to
Vancouver Art Gallery 750 Hornby St, Vancouver, British Columbia V6Z 2H7
Drawn primarily from the Vancouver Art Gallery’s permanent collection, the exhibition is guest curated by John O’Brian, Professor Emeritus of Art History, Visual Art & Theory at the University of British Columbia. BOMBHEAD is a thematic exhibition that explores the emergence and ongoing impact of the nuclear age as represented by artists and their art. Strongly associated with obliteration and destruction, nuclear technologies have made a profound cultural and ecological impact since their emergence and proliferation beginning in the mid-20th century.
Guest curated by John O’Brian, Professor Emeritus of Art History, Visual Art & Theory at the University of British Columbia, BOMBHEAD combines atomic ephemera with artworks drawn primarily from the Vancouver Art Gallery’s collection. Encompassing the pre- and postwar period from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi in 2011, the exhibition brings together paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, photographs, film and video that deal with this often dark subject matter, strongly associated with obliteration and destruction.
“We are very pleased to present BOMBHEAD, which explores the profound cultural and ecological impact of nuclear technologies through the art and visual culture of the nuclear era,” says Kathleen S. Bartels, Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery. “In a time marked by ongoing nuclear proliferation this timely exhibition compels us to observe and reflect on the major role Canada has played in nuclear events since their emergence in the mid-twentieth century.”
Artists in the exhibition include: Carl Beam, Henry Busse, Blaine Campbell, Bruce Conner, Gregory Coyes, Robert Del Tredici, Wang Du, Harold Edgerton, Gathie Falk, Robert Filliou, Richard Finnie, Betty Goodwin, Adolph Gottlieb, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Robert Keziere, Roy Kiyooka, Bob Light and John Houston, Ishiuchi Miyako, Carel Moiseiwitsch, Bruce Nauman, Andrea Pineiro, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Mark Ruwedel, John Scott, Erin Siddall, Nancy Spero and Barbara Todd.