Brian Jungen

ART21, The Cinematheque and Contemporary Art Gallery partner to premiere ART21’s new season, Season 8 of *Art in the Twenty-First Century* includes a one hour film on four, Vancouver based, celebrated Canadian artists: Stan Douglas, Brian Jungen, Liz Magor, and Jeff Wall.

“In small and tightly-knit Vancouver, artists reframe the world through a series of sophisticated illusions. By recreating historical moments, staging photos of vernacular scenes, and crafting intricate sculptures that trick the eye, artists reveal how everyday images and moments from the past are not always what they seem. Liz Magor (b.1948, Winnipeg, MB, Canada) makes uncannily realistic casts of humble objects—gloves, cardboard boxes, cigarettes—that speak to mortality and local histories. Through complex video installations, photos, theatrical productions, and virtual reality simulations, Stan Douglas (b.1960, Vancouver, BC, Canada) reenacts historical moments of tension that connect the history of Vancouver to broader social movements of struggle and utopian aspiration. Brian Jungen (b.1970, Fort St. John, BC, Canada) draws from his family’s ranching and hunting background, as well as his Dane-zaa heritage, when disassembling and recombining consumer goods into whimsical sculptures. Attentive to the accidental encounters that can inspire an image, photographer Jeff Wall (b.1946, Vancouver, BC, Canada) recreates flashes of inspiration by building sets and repeatedly photographing gestures until they coalesce into a picture that’s printed on a grand scale.” (ART21)

ART21 is a celebrated global leader in presenting thought-provoking and sophisticated content about contemporary art, and the go-to place to learn first-hand from the artists of our time. A non-profit organization, ART21’s mission is to inspire a more creative world through the works and words of contemporary artists. Season 8 of *Art in the Twenty-First Century* premieres fall 2016 on PBS with stories on artists who live and work in four North American cities: *Chicago, Los Angeles, Mexico City*, and *Vancouve*r. For more information on ART21’s films and educational programs visit [art21.org](https://art21.org/)


Image of a house foregrounded by the title, "art in the twenty-first century" in all capital letters. 

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Art in the Twenty-First Century

Screening

Brian Jungen is a Vancouver artist who is quickly gaining a strong national reputation as one of Canada's most promising younger artists. He has been invited to exhibit across the coun­try and the National Gallery of Canada recently purchased a major piece for their permanent collection. Jungen is noted for using common everyday objects as source material for remarkably inventive works of art. Examples include disassembling Nike Air Jordan training shoes and reconfiguring them into startling simulations of Northwest Coast Indian masks, and constructing an enormous, suspended whale skeleton from cut-up plastic deck chairs. 

For the Contemporary Art Gallery, Jungen will be presenting a sculptural installation in the Alvin Balkind Gallery. It will con­sist of an arrangement of pallets, the kind used for moving and storing warehouse materials. Such pallets are usually made of cheap materials, designed for purely utilitarian functions, and considered disposable, often ending up as firewood. Jungen's pallets, however, are constructed from the finest quality cedar, their surfaces sanded to a smooth finish, and then carefully pegged together rather than nailed. These sculptures retain the visual imprint of industrial pallets, yet are simultaneously transformed into highly aesthetic objects that recall the clean economy of Minimalist art from the 1960s. This work, while visually different from his previous projects, is consistent with Jungen's practice of exploring the edge between objects whose -purpose is utilitarian and objects whose purpose is for display.

This exhibition is sponsored by Astro Graphic Industries Ltd. and Benjamin Moore Paints (Dunbar, Kerrisdale, and Richmond). 

Essay: "Shapeshifter," Scott Watson

A stack of wood pieces, which look like large duckboards, is installed in a gallery space. They are identical in shape and size. This close-up photograph shows only the top five boards on this stack. 

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An unpainted wooden tunnel is built in front of CAG’s window spaces. It resembles construction hoardings. The title of this work is “Unlimited Growth Increases The Divide.”

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This is a close-up view of Brian Jungen’s installation resembling construction hoardings. Many posters are attached to the surface. A flier about a concert and a photograph is visible in this image. 

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This is Brian Jungen’s installation resembling construction hoardings. Wood tiles with some small windows cover the tunnel. Some trees are planted in front of this installation.

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A stack of ten wood pieces, which look like large duckboards, is installed in the middle of a gallery space. They are identical in shape and size. None of them are painted. 

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This image depicts the inside view of Brian Jungen’s installation that resembles construction hoardings. Fliers, many of them are duplicates, cover the unpainted wood surface of the tunnel.

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This exhibition catalogue was published in 2001 by the Contemporary Art Gallery on the occasion of Brian Jungen's exhibition at the Contemporary Art Gallery, July 28 – September 23, 2001. The catalogue includes essays by Scott Watson and Lindsay Brown with a foreword by Keith Wallace.

Brian Jungen

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