Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
30 July 2019 Vol 4 No 16 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2019
From the Editor
Portia Priegert
It’s no secret that art galleries need to find new ways to engage diverse audiences.
But figuring out how to do that can be challenging, as this issue’s special two-part series, Connecting with Community, makes clear.
Guest speakers are one tried-and-true form of public outreach. But some gallery talks pull you in more than others.
Take the one I went to recently on the psychology of selfies and self-portraits by Jim Tanaka, a psychology professor at the University of Victoria. The university's downtown Legacy gallery hosted the talk to promote an exhibition that includes self-portraits by the late Myfanwy Pavelic.
It was a popular event – I arrived a few minutes late and snagged one of the last chairs.
Tanaka offered interesting tidbits about selfies and asked provocative questions about how we represent ourselves. Who knew humans collectively take some 93 million selfies every day?
Bonus points if you can guess Canada’s selfie capital. Toronto? Vancouver? On a per capita basis, it’s actually Victoria. My guess is it's due to the tsunami of tourists who disembark daily from cruise ships.
Tanaka also showed us a “manly” app that instantly buffs up shoulders and pecs. No surprise, then to learn that scientists have found correlations between selfies and narcissism. I don't know if that also applies to self-portraits, but it would certainly make for interesting debate at the dinner table.
This issue of Galleries West includes a story about an emerging portrait artist, Lauren Crazybull. As Alberta’s first provincial artist in residence, Crazybull, a finalist for the next Kingston Prize in Canadian portraiture, is trying to reverse the colonial gaze by painting Indigenous people.
We also look at Vikky Alexander’s retrospective at the Vancouver Art Gallery, which considers advertising imagery and includes a series featuring former supermodel Christie Brinkley. And in Calgary, Hand Pic’d, a show by three emerging artists, includes historical portraits woven by Jessie Fraser.
Finally, we cover Too Far, So Close, a Vancouver show by artists from crisis-torn regions who live in the West.
Looking ahead, expect an amusing story about an exhibition of photographs featuring dogs at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver. You can even take your dog in for a portrait. That community outreach is certainly pulling the leash.
As far as I know, dogs do not take selfies. But, go ahead, prove me wrong. I double-dog dare you! Send the selfie your dog took to editor@gallerieswest.ca and I’ll share it on our Instagram feed, @gallerieswest.
On a more serious note, please drop us a comment if you have any thoughts about how art galleries engage with you and your community. Do you feel connected? What more could galleries do to reach out? We'd love to hear your take.
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Beverly Cramp, Paul Gessell, Agnieszka Matejko, Lissa Robinson, John Thomson, Richard White