Art Galleries & Showcases You Must See In Vancouver This Year.
January 14 2025,
Take advantage of winter’s darker days and turn to indoor activities with fresh sources of daily inspiration. Look no further than these five Lower Mainland art gallery exhibitions.
Vancouver Art Gallery’s Firelei Báez Exhibition
November 3, 2024-March 16, 2025
Expect a colourful and politically charged range of work from Dominican Republic-born, New York-based artist Firelei Báez’s very first North American solo exhibition. With over two dozen paintings, drawings and sculptural installations exploring the complicated historical narratives surrounding the Atlantic Basin and the legacies of colonial rule in the Americas and the Caribbean, there is a lot to digest and take in. (While you’re at the VAG, do not miss Indigenous multimedia artist Shelley Niro’s 500 Year Itch, the first major retrospective of her work.)
Images courtesy of Phoebe d’Heurle and Oriol Tarridas for the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Audain Art Museum’s Curve! Women Carvers on the Northwest Coast
November 23, 2024 – May 5, 2025
Here’s one for your next Whistler road trip. Curve! Women Carvers on the Northwest Coast co-curated by one of Canada’s most distinguished curators and artists, Dana Claxton. By gathering a range of sculptural formats by Indigenous women, this show aims to expand the discourse of carving on the Northwest Coast. The Audain also has a not-to-be-missed permanent collection of nearly 200 artworks by leading artists of coastal BC. (And, after you leave, visit the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre (SLCC) to experience this exceptional Indigenous gallery, cafe and shop of handcrafted Indigenous artwork.)
Images courtesy of AudainArtMuseum.com
Polygon Gallery’s Lind Biennial Memorial Exhibition
November 9, 2024-February 2, 2025
Annually, the $25,000 Philip B. Lind Prize for Emerging Artists gathers together a group of talented young artists and puts on a show of finalists. That exhibit, the Lind Biennial Memorial, is always a varied, visual treat. This year’s finalists include Mena El Shazly, Karice Mitchell, Dion Smith-Dokkie, Parumveer Walia and Casey Wei. The grand prize winner, decided by a jury of artists and art authorities, will be announced January 23.
Images courtesy of thepolygon.ca and Alison Boulier.
Catriona Jeffries Gallery’s Disembody
November 30, 2024-January 25, 2025
Visit this internationally renowned private gallery to get a glimpse of work by Canada’s 2026 Venice Biennale representative, Abbas Akhavan, and contemporary artist Rochelle Goldberg, with Disembody, which opened on November 30.
Images courtesy of catrionajeffries.com
