Last Hurrah at the Rennie

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Real estate marketer Bob Rennie has almost 3,000 works in his collection of contemporary art. (photo by Rachel Topham)

Since 2009, the Rennie Museum, housed in the historic Wing Sang building in Vancouver’s Chinatown, has provided public access to some of the most exciting and relevant contemporary international art to be shown in this city – possibly ever. The museum’s final show, 51@51: Collected Works, runs until Nov. 12 and is a thrilling finale for the Wing Sang, which will become the permanent home of the Chinese Canadian Museum.

Popular enthusiasm for Rennie’s collection is tempered by his status as a developer in a city embattled by housing inequality, along with the stark juxtaposition of his crisply modern headquarters in the low-income Downtown Eastside. Yet, despite these misgivings, the beautiful, complex works on view, significantly from Black artists, highlight the role of private collectors in the art system and demonstrate a deft curatorial awareness of the spirit of these times.

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“51@51” installation view at the Rennie Museum, Vancouver, 2022

showing four works with Black swimmers and (right) American artist Nick Cave’s “Soundsuit,” a 2015 mixed-media work that includes vintage beaded flowers and beaded and sequined garments on a mannequin. (photo by Rachel Topham)

51@51 includes 51 works – the title is also a reference to the museum’s location at 51 East Pender St. – by 36 leading artists, many of them American. The museum’s second floor displays a 2015 Soundsuit by Chicago artist Nick Cave, an installation of found signage from South Central Los Angeles by Lauren Halsey, works in light by Chicago’s Cauleen Smith, and paintings by American artists Titus Kaphar, Derek Fordjour and Deborah Roberts, as well as British painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. The political heft of these famous works compounds their aesthetic impact. 

A moving piece by Hank Willis Thomas, 19,281 (2020), is a flag made in 2021 that studs one embroidered star for each person killed by gun violence in 2020 in the United States. The flag spools out the stars from its height on the wall, spilling into an enormous bundle on the floor. Opposite, New York artist Glenn Ligon’s Warm Broad Glow (Dark) is neon signage that has been painted black, allowing light to break through where chips have worn away through time. 

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“51@51” installation view at the Rennie Museum, Vancouver, 2022

showing found signage by Lauren Halsey (left) and American artist Glenn Ligon’s “Warm Broad Glow (Dark),” a 2007 neon work. (photo by Rachel Topham)

Adjacent rooms hold sculpture by Chicago artist Theaster Gates and an astounding installation of Everything #21(2010-2013) by New York artist Adrian Piper. Here, four vintage blackboards in lacquered wood frames are inscribed in chalk with the repeated phrase, “everything will be taken away.” Echoing a form of classroom punishment, Piper instructs the work’s owner to write this phrase until the boards are full, thus implicating Rennie in her critique of the racism and sexism she has experienced throughout her career. 

The show is sealed by the beautiful rooftop garden where sculptures by Berlin-based Jumana Manna and Ahmet Ogut, a Turkish artist based in Europe, are installed next to British artist Martin Creed’s white neon light installation, Work #851: EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT, an absurdist counter-call to Piper’s Everything. At the entrance, do not miss Gordon Park’s At Segregated Drinking Fountain, Mobile, Alabama, a 1956 benchmark of the photographer’s celebration of Black life in the face of intense social limitations.

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“51@51,” installation view at the Rennie Museum, Vancouver, 2022

showing Connecticut painter Titus Kaphar’s “Conclusive,” which recreates a 17th-century painting and then removes its central figure as a comment on problematic historical representations. (photo by Rachel Topham)

It’s almost impossible to describe this show’s immensity. Downstairs, sculptures and videos by New York-based Hannah Levy, are similar to her offerings this year at the Venice Biennale. Los Angeles artist Richard Jackson’s Rennie 101, painted on a wall in the museum in 2009 and then hidden behind a false facade, remerges for this show. 

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The Wing Sang Building

at 51 East Pender St. in Vancouver, was built in 1889. It houses the Rennie Museum. (photo by Martin Tessler)

Rennie acquired the Wing Sang, the oldest building in Chinatown, in 2004 and undertook a $22-million renovation before it opened in 2009 with a show by Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum. He has no current plans to launch a new museum, but it’s clear his collection, as shaped by director Wendy Chang, is a significant and timely reflection of contemporary art that’s unmatched in Vancouver. The museum’s closure, even if only for the time being, is a loss to the arts community. ■

 51@51: Collected Works at the Rennie Museum in Vancouver from Aug. 13 to Nov. 12, 2022.

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