"Special Collection": Acquisitions and Archives

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"Peanut, Leopard, Sharks"

Ron Tran, "Peanut, Leopard, Sharks," 2011, Papier mache, paint, fleece, foam core and neoprene.

Special Collection features works from the permanent collection and archive of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery that highlight some of the collecting streams that have evolved since the Belkin began to actively collect in 1995 following the transference of the University Art Collection to the Gallery. Now the third largest public collection of visual art in British Columbia, the collecting streams offer a series of potential narratives—thematic, historical or even technical—that serve to tell the story of contemporary art in this part of the world. There is an emphasis on avant-garde movements from the 1960s to the present, although the collection also holds other areas of interest such as early Canadian modernist works—David Milne, Emily Carr, Arthur Lismer, Takao Tanabe—some of which have been acquired recently and will be on display for the first time, and that provide an important context for the evolution of contemporary Canadian art. The collection also includes twenty-five historical and contemporary works in its outdoor art collection.