Judy Williams

Liz Magor

Judith Lodge

Robert Young

Richard Prince

Marian Penner Bancroft

Al McWilliams

*Ten Years Later*, an exhibition marking the 10th anniversary of the Contemporary Art Gallery, opens at the gallery on November 25 and runs through December 20. The exhibition contains work by Marian Penner Bancroft, Judith Lodge, Liz Magor, Al McWilliams, Richard Prince, Judy Williams, and Robert Young. A special 10th Anniversary celebration for CAG and a reception for the artists will take place at the gallery on December 8 at 8pm.

The Contemporary Art Gallery began life as the Artist’s Gallery and was initially funded by a Local Initiatives Project Grant under which artists were hired to produce artwork. The seven artists represented in *Ten Years Later* were among the artists on the gallery’s payroll in those early days. The LIP Program was co-sponsored by the City of Vancouver and the artworks produced were exhibited in public buildings throughout the city and became part of the city's collection. This public exhibition policy is still in place and is administered by CAG.

While *Ten Years Later* focuses on current work by the seven artists, the catalogue not only documents the exhibition but also reproduces representative works from the City's collection. The catalogue also contains interviews with the artists by Avis Lang and a historical essay by founding CAG board member Rosemary Poll and Christine Elving, the gallery's current Director.




Publication: Ten Years Later

A close view of a sculpture in a gallery. The sculpture is made of a flat metal disk sitting upright in a black stand.

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Several artworks visible in the hallway of a gallery. The works include large abstract paintings on canvas and paper, large framed photos of a group of people with text overlay, and small sculptures. 

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Several artworks on the wall of a gallery. At the centre there is a large abstract painting made of rough black and gold marks on canvas. On the sides, there are sets of black and white photos.

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3 artworks in a gallery. One work is made of 2 portraits facing each other, and text between them reads "Appearances are important. Appear important." The other 2 works are a sculpture and a painting. 

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Two artworks in a corner. One of the works is a set of photos of toy soldiers in tall grass. The other is a small metal stand with a round form at the top, and a maquette of the same form on the wall.

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Marian Penner Bancroft, Judith Lodge, Al McWilliams, Liz Magor, Richard Prince, Judy Williams, Robert Young

Ten Years Later

Randy Anderson

Randall Anderson

This exhibition of paintings “by” Randy Anderson are paintings “of” Randy Anderson. These paintings, however, do not contain a portrait of the artist but only the artist's signature.

Randy Anderson is best-known for his wallpaper pieces that have been exhibited extensively over the past two years, most notably in Vancouver, at the 1984 Warehouse Show, at the Western Front in 1985 and at the Surrey Art Gallery in *Art about Issues* in1986. The wallpaper, designed and silk-screened by Anderson, was made up of commodity items such as cars, electric kettles, televisions, toilets and telephones. Brightly coloured, this wallpaper had the same seductive quality that these items have within a consumer society and yet the consumption of this wallpaper as an object was denied as it was glued directly to the gallery wall.

In this exhibition of paintings Anderson continues to deny the consumption of the art object, yet, now through the creation of the object. The traditional picture/subject matter of the painting is absent and only his signature appears on the surface. Visually sparse, the works focus on the	isolation of the authoritative elements in a work of art: the concept of the "original," the artist's signature which denotes an "original," and the consumption of the "original" as a commodity.

Essay: "The Double Signature of Randy Anderson," Arni Rúnar Haraldsson

A close-up of 31 small paintings on narrow white shelves on a wall. The paintings are colourful and textured, reading "Randy Anderson" in various styles of cursive.

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Two artworks made of plaques reading "Randy Anderson” hang on a gallery wall. One  is arranged in a wheel with colourful plaques, the other has plaques in a column going from black to white.

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Rows of nearly identical paintings across the walls of a gallery. They are black with white outlined text reading "Randy Anderson" and a white grid on top.

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Margaret Chronister

The impact that buildings have on our lives has always been of prime importance to Margaret Chronister. Specifically the architectural detail and reverence for classical creations. Her works are anti-modernist, as she portrays organic detailing in architecture, not found in the modernist vocabulary.

The impact of the twenty-one painting and pastel works *In Detail*, is seen in her sensitive and dramatic renderings juxtaposed with the additions of neon lighting inter-woven into canvas pieces with paint and in some cases plaster surfaces. These sculptural reliefs reflect not only the magnificence of the architectural detail in Vancouver, but the need for social interaction and preservation. The exhibition is an artistic assemblage which individualizes the beauty and mystery of public buildings.

The specific historical content of the Vancouver buildings and roots reflected in Chronister's works will be addressed by Marc Pessin, an art and architectural historian and member of the UBC faculty.


A thin horizontal image which contains blue text that says “Margaret Chronister” on a stark white background. 

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In Detail

Judy Davis

From the moment of entering the gallery space the viewer is engaged in a very physical interaction with Davis' work; their movement is directed, by a structure of steps and ramp, into a sculptural environment. “Totemic” forms are manipulated within the space to create an atmosphere of tension and imbalance which spark a relationship between these upright forms and the viewer's own physicality and perceptions. Within this environment of uncertainty Davis alludes to the experience of placement/displacement and the effects of dramatic changes in environment and culture.

Cast of Ciment Fondu, these large-scale sculptures demonstrate Davis' careful attention to her materials which result in rich surface textures and forms which appear to be caught in time, between creation and decay.

Drawing and sculpture have a parallel and overlapping role in this exhibition of Davis’ work; the sculptures are drawn on with oil stick, denying an aspect of their three-dimensional state, and the series of drawings on paper inform the development of the sculptural molds while also suggesting alternative perceptual approaches to the installation.


Essay: “Judy Davis: Being Placed,” Christine Elving

A close up view of a sculpture made of cast metal. The edge of the sculpture is coloured gestural strokes of blue and purple pastel. 

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In a gallery space with a dark ceiling, there is a small set of steps leading to a white platform. On the platform, there are several planks of metal-cement with one straight edge and one jagged edge.

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A gallery space divided into two visible sections. One section is an elevated platform with vertical cement fondu planks. The other section has a black floor and abstract paintings on the white walls. 

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Several vertical structures made of cast metal-cement and wire stand on a white surface in a gallery, close to the ceiling. A set of steps leading to the works is partially visible.

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Several flat planks of cement fondu on wire stand vertically in a gallery space. They are glossy and well-lit, and have streaks of blue and purple along their flat edge.

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Being Placed

Chris Harris

Chris Harris' earlier work dealt with his environment, paintings of a symbiotic and non-destructive relationship, man being part of, and not antagonistic to nature, the blending of Eastern and Western philosophies. In his current works, Harris is a diarist placing his art/life in the context of contemporary and classical mythologies as applied to modern society. This has led to the visual consolidation of inner personal struggle and outer landscape, and the dance in between.

In *The Bird Cage*, Harris' blending of Eastern and Western philosophies is most evident. The bird, literally symbolizing freedom, and the cage, reflecting repression, concerns the modern post-war generation's infatuation with freedom and its inherent boundaries of choice. Freedom is portrayed as a fetish object, never quite realized but much desired, even above its intrinsic value. The sky is the sky of a whole day, constantly changing. It represents the real freedom outside the central cage icon. It is an Eastern way of looking at life, that is, life as a paradox. Harris' work reflects his obsession with self-realization. His paintings reveal personal struggles and a very observant look at humanity.

Chris Harris expresses the need for spirituality in modern Western society. His devotion is readily observed in his paintings. They are genuinely unique due to their intensely philosophical and spiritual direction.


Essay: "The Art of Chris Harris," Robert Linsley

Several large, colourful paintings are pinned onto the walls of a gallery. The paintings show complex patterns and abstracted images, some resembling hands, flowers, and insects. 

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The Consolations of Lost Illusions

Margaret Naylor

Margaret Naylor's five sculptural pieces will remain on view through July 19,1986. The work combines architectural references and painting with installation sculpture. Specifically, modernist architectural formal elements are combined to communicate the dilemma between the relationship of the natural world and man-made forms. Architecture is interpreted in her installation pieces in the component use of solids and voids or the yin and yang dealt with in modernist painting, architecture and nature.

The examination of contradictions in the historical content in her work speaks of art and architecture in a Modernist era. This topic will be addressed by Trevor Boddy, in a lecture entitled: *MOD-PoMo-NeoMod: Stylistic Cycles in Recent Art and Architecture* Tuesday, July 8, 1986 at 8.00 pm at the Contemporary Art Gallery.

A view of an artwork through a dark tube-like structure. 

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Several sculptures and small paintings in a gallery space. The sculptures are black and concrete, and are on several different white surfaces including a plinth, a side table, and a scissor lift.

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A closeup of a sculpture in a gallery. It is made of 3 narrow black pyramids stacked together on a scissor lift, placed on white wood planks. Behind the sculpture, there is a black divider wall.

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Several artworks in a gallery space. Most of the works are black sculptures on white surfaces. At the entrance, a partial view of a clear plastic sheets with black letters reading "Margaret Naylor." 

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Robert Linsley

These oil paintings by Robert Linsley at first glance appear to be just another representation of the British Columbia landscape which has influenced the life and work of artists in this region for decades. However, Linsley does not lead the viewer into a pastoral or idyllic setting but into a familiar and yet vaguely disturbing environment. Several of the large canvases portray ominous and foreboding mountains in heavy browns and ochres against a bleak grey sky which invite and yet threaten a human presence. Other canvases depict scenes of a pale grey river laden with log booms and barges winding through a landscape of farmland and sawmills characteristic of BC's Fraser Valley. This rather bleak but realistic picture does not end here. The mountain scenes are warmed by a symbol which represents the presence and persistence of human existence, fire, and the river scenes are the backdrop for, in one, a portrait of a man and child and in another a young woman. In this exhibition Linsley invites the viewer to address the current economic, political and social conditions that contribute to an apparent alienation of humankind within nature.

Essay: "Reactionary Form, Revolutionary Content," Mark Harris

Canvas paintings line the walls of a gallery. The paintings are large and depict landscapes and portraits.

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A closeup of a painting on a wall. The painting shows a d person with shoulder-length dark hair standing in front of a river with land masses and buildings in the background. 

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Cornelia Wyngaarden

*Luminous Sites* is an exhibition of video installations taking place in nine Vancouver galleries and city spaces beginning at the end of February and continuing until April 1986. Canadian artists including Kate Craig, Paul Wong and Cornelia Wyngaarden from Vancouver; Ian Carr-Harris, Vera Frenkel and Randy & Berenuccu from Toronto; Barbara Steinman and David Thomas from Montreal; Max Dean from Ottawa; and Tomiyo Sasaki from New York have been invited to present site-specific works involving video medium. The works represent a range of personal styles and approaches to the use of video in an arts context, linking an aesthetic history with contemporary communications technology. Artistic priorities  in the various works encompass the areas of painterly use of colour and light, the sculptural designation of form and space, the social discussion of contect, theatrical references to cultural motifs, the contemplation of place and time, and the realities of technical presence. 

In these installations the viewer enters into a site-specific construct in which the audio and video elements project into the space and affect it in distinct ways. The sculptural parameters are defined by these non-material forms as much as by the physical elements of the installation which act as landmarks within the electronic presence, defining its context. The installation is experienced on the multiple levels of sensual and didactic, connotative and evocative information in which the viewer is encompassed. The dynamic presence of the video installation, with its convergence of the physical and the electronic, focuses the aesthetic discussion on developing a language which includes technical media in the tradition of art.

*Luminous Sites* invites Vancouver audiences to participate in this dialogue which has been centered primarily in the Eastern cities of Toronto and Montreal. This selection of works is derived from a pan-Canadian context and is representative of the current range of the genre, the video installation. *Luminous Sites* is a Video Inn/Western Front presentation curated by Diana Augaitis and Karen Henry.

Curated by Diana Augaitis and Karen Henry
Co-presented by Video Inn and Western Front


A blue-toned video still of a person sitting in a chair outside with tall grass and trees around them. They are wearing a denim shirt and a cowboy hat. 

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In a dark gallery space, 3 bales of hay on the floor hold a tube TV atop them. The TVs are playing the same video synchronously, showing a group of people at a barn.

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In a dimly lit gallery, there are 6 bales of hay with 6 TV's playing the same video. The entrance is painted yellow-orange, and black text on the walls reads "As A Wife Has A Cow: A Video Love Story."

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As A Wife Has A Cow from Luminous Sites

Lorna Mulligan

These mixed media works on paper, together with an installation, represent scenarios of daily life through the depiction of the interrupted social activities of work/leisure all occurring within the confines of the generic suburban house. These private situations of the single-family-dwelling reflect the mediated experiences of public or social lifestyles.

Essay: “Inhabit,” Lorna Mulligan

A gestural painting depicting a shelf with colourful piles of folded clothes and an unplugged iron. To the right a broom leans against a wall. 

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Several paintings on paper line the walls of a gallery. They depict different scenes and landscapes including a clothesline, an entryway with the view of a hill, a stairway, and a supply closet.

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A closeup of an installation in a gallery. The installation resembles a living space with sculptures of various items including a TV, a stove, chairs, an ironing board, a rug, and a lamp.

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A gallery with paintings on the wall, and a large installation. The paintings show a pool table, a closet, and a clothesline in a basement. The installation is in a wooden frame with a white door.

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Hinda Avery

The works of Hinda Avery are a journey through huge landscapes comprised of four large series of nine to twelve panels each. The work is reminiscent of Paterson Ewen's "phenomena-scapes." Avery's are landscapes within a plywood surface that have been gouged by a wire brush with the addition of almost impressionistic dabs of muted but colourful paint. As well, twelve structures, three feet high represent houses and each are rendered with their own landscapes. The houses are integrated into the exhibition as the artist hopes they will be integrated within the environment they represent. Avery's concerns are environmental and the work exemplifies her respect for the environment and for individual's experience within the natural setting.

A close up view of wooden sculptures resembling houses are lined up in a gallery. The sculptures are painted with small colourful brush strokes.

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In a gallery space with white walls, 12 wooden sculptures resembling houses rest on low carts with wheels. The sculptures are painted with small colourful brushstrokes.

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A large painting takes up most of the two walls in the corner of a gallery. It is made of 12 different square plywood panels and painted with small colourful brushstrokes, reminiscent of a landscape.