CURRENT EXHIBITION
While we Wait: Records of Solitude
Sarah Delaney | Annie Briard | Jessica Bushey | Kriss Munsya
MARCH 8 - extended until MAY 1, 2021
We are pleased to announce the exhibition “While we Wait: Records of Solitude”. This group show brings together the works of four artists, Annie Briard, Sarah Delaney, Jessica Bushey and Kriss Munsya, living and working in Vancouver, BC. The works have been produced in the past year while under lockdown during the pandemic, while we are all waiting. Waiting for this pandemic to be over, waiting for borders to reopen, waiting for a vaccine, waiting to see what model or ways of living will manifest themselves once this pandemic is over.
Each artist is working with and exploring a different medium. Annie Briard’s LED light boxes showcase her explorations into light and color. Over time the color shifting light boxes present the full spectrum of light investigating parallels of natural and artificial light, time and perception. Briard’s immersive light-based works call on the subjectivity of perception. The horizon of the light-boxes is slowly shifting in color, stimulating the viewer to question the process of color-generation and –recognition, hinting to the ambiguity of reality. An indulging and appeasing display of color evoking arrays of memories and dispositions. This feature of her work at the gallery coincides with her solo exhibition “Within the Eclipse” at the Burrard Arts Foundation.
“By encouraging us to look longer, more deeply, and from a different stance, Briard’s work creates fertile dissonance, where the concreteness of reality begins to melt away.” (Burrard Arts Foundation)
Sarah Delaney’s work is made of acrylic and graphite on canvasses that are torn and sown together. Her seemingly spontaneous brushstrokes and abstract forms, color and materials reference the landscape of her home British Columbia. This brand new work marks an evolution in her painterly research as an artist and although we can recognize some of her signature marks, there are some more gestural marks and more loose brushstrokes that can only come from a more confident and mature place.
Responding to the pandemic, Jessica Bushey chose to work on plexi glass and with the “disposable-mask blue”, recalling the most prominent artifacts of this period. Her Google-Oracle 2020 series presents a chronological progression of our global experience of COVID-19 through captures of the most popular google searches from around the world. The text-based works on plexi glass plaques are imitating signage often used for orientation and identification in public buildings speak to the inevitable role of the internet manifested through this pandemic.
This time during the pandemic seems to be marked by the meaning of waiting, however political activism and calls for more equality in face of affirmed disadvantages in our societal structure are more pertinent than ever. As one of those calls, Black Lives Matter is more than a movement and a call to action we all need to answer. In his photographic series “The Eraser”, Kriss Munsya explores race, gender and identity; creating powerful and meticulously composed photographs informed by stories questioning his own identity and memory, childhood trauma and discrimination he was and is confronted with. We will be presenting two photographs from this body of work.
“The Eraser juxtaposes experiences of the past with desires of the future. It is a story of change and transformation that centres a Black man revisiting experiences that have been normalized in critical reflection of internalized supremacy. Things that at the time he thought were normal now have new meaning and he wants to share the lessons within.” (Kriss Munsya)
Each artist is working with and exploring a different medium. Annie Briard’s LED light boxes showcase her explorations into light and color. Over time the color shifting light boxes present the full spectrum of light investigating parallels of natural and artificial light, time and perception. Briard’s immersive light-based works call on the subjectivity of perception. The horizon of the light-boxes is slowly shifting in color, stimulating the viewer to question the process of color-generation and –recognition, hinting to the ambiguity of reality. An indulging and appeasing display of color evoking arrays of memories and dispositions. This feature of her work at the gallery coincides with her solo exhibition “Within the Eclipse” at the Burrard Arts Foundation.
“By encouraging us to look longer, more deeply, and from a different stance, Briard’s work creates fertile dissonance, where the concreteness of reality begins to melt away.” (Burrard Arts Foundation)
Sarah Delaney’s work is made of acrylic and graphite on canvasses that are torn and sown together. Her seemingly spontaneous brushstrokes and abstract forms, color and materials reference the landscape of her home British Columbia. This brand new work marks an evolution in her painterly research as an artist and although we can recognize some of her signature marks, there are some more gestural marks and more loose brushstrokes that can only come from a more confident and mature place.
Responding to the pandemic, Jessica Bushey chose to work on plexi glass and with the “disposable-mask blue”, recalling the most prominent artifacts of this period. Her Google-Oracle 2020 series presents a chronological progression of our global experience of COVID-19 through captures of the most popular google searches from around the world. The text-based works on plexi glass plaques are imitating signage often used for orientation and identification in public buildings speak to the inevitable role of the internet manifested through this pandemic.
This time during the pandemic seems to be marked by the meaning of waiting, however political activism and calls for more equality in face of affirmed disadvantages in our societal structure are more pertinent than ever. As one of those calls, Black Lives Matter is more than a movement and a call to action we all need to answer. In his photographic series “The Eraser”, Kriss Munsya explores race, gender and identity; creating powerful and meticulously composed photographs informed by stories questioning his own identity and memory, childhood trauma and discrimination he was and is confronted with. We will be presenting two photographs from this body of work.
“The Eraser juxtaposes experiences of the past with desires of the future. It is a story of change and transformation that centres a Black man revisiting experiences that have been normalized in critical reflection of internalized supremacy. Things that at the time he thought were normal now have new meaning and he wants to share the lessons within.” (Kriss Munsya)
IN THE NEWS:
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“'I had all these memories, and I thought, ‘What would happen if I was able to erase them? What if I had a machine that could erase all this trauma?' Inspired by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – a 2004 film about a couple who use new technology to erase one another from their memories – Munsya imagined a world in which these traumatic experiences could be retracted."
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UPCOMING FUNDRAISERS
WE ARE PROUD TO SUPPORT
PALS Armchair Gala
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Audain Art Museum Fundraiser
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THE BILLBOARD PROJECT
Past Billboard featuring Jessica Bushey | Google Oracle Series #4
1000 Block East Hastings Overpass near Glen Drive
February - March 2021
The first Billboard of 2021 is featuring the striking new body of work by Jessica Bushey.
The Google-Oracle 2020 series presents a chronological progression of our global experience of COVID-19 through captures of the most popular searches from around the world. Plexiglass and "disposable-mask blue" ink recall the prominent artifacts of the period. For our Billboard Project we chose 4 out of the series of 9 unique works, as a reminder you are not alone in this pandemic.
The billboard is located in Strathcona, the same neighborhood where the gallery operates from.
The Billboard Project extends the public’s access to local artists and treats viewers to approachable, yet thought-provoking contemporary art on the billboard.
To continue reading about our Billboard Porject click HERE.
The Google-Oracle 2020 series presents a chronological progression of our global experience of COVID-19 through captures of the most popular searches from around the world. Plexiglass and "disposable-mask blue" ink recall the prominent artifacts of the period. For our Billboard Project we chose 4 out of the series of 9 unique works, as a reminder you are not alone in this pandemic.
The billboard is located in Strathcona, the same neighborhood where the gallery operates from.
The Billboard Project extends the public’s access to local artists and treats viewers to approachable, yet thought-provoking contemporary art on the billboard.
To continue reading about our Billboard Porject click HERE.
IN THE NEWS
Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany
KATHY SLADE
Nov. 7, 2020 - Extended until June 2021
Interview with Kathy Slade | Kunstverein Braunschweig | Film by Stark & Shakupa Kunstverein Braunschweig
The exhibition at Kunstverein Braunschweig brings together works by three artists from different parts of Canada: Nadia Belerique explores the relationship between object and (photographic) representation, while Jeneen Frei Njootli’s interdisciplinary practice is shaped by her cultural background as a member of the Vuntut Gwitchin Nation, and Kathy Slade focuses in her artistic practice on reading and publishing, offering meditations on the role of the artist as maker, publisher, and teacher.
The exhibition is part of the culture program related to Canada’s Guest of Honour presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair and is supported by Canada Council for the Arts and the Government of Canada.
SECOND SIGHT | Annie Briard
Queen's University - Union Gallery (Kingston)
March 2 - April 30, 2021
Imagine you’re driving through the hot desert passing by the same landscape of trees. The sun is glaring through the window and your mind wanders off as your surroundings become more and more hazy. How do you know you’re seeing trees? Is it light that reflected off the trees, entered your eyes, and created the image in your brain? Could it be your psychological desire that materialized the trees? We depend so much on our visual perception to interpret our surroundings, and yet our visual perception is fallible and deceptive. As much as we gain knowledge about the world from the visual, our knowledge of vision remains puzzling.
Annie Briard’s solo exhibition Second Sight reflects on the problematics of perception by taking the viewer on a road trip through the high desert, where the seen eventually breaks apart and the limits between physical reality, head trips and visions from beyond become blurred. Joshua Tree is seen through disused military optics or prisms, responding to an ancient theory claiming that we see the world as a result of minuscule crystals within our eyes. As military optics frame perspectives towards specific ends, so too might the eye and its crystalline components. The exhibition presents a video installation alongside sculptural holograms and sound.
Curatorial Assistant: Jung-Ah Kim
Installation Team: Cory Benn and Carina Magazzeni
Annie Briard’s solo exhibition Second Sight reflects on the problematics of perception by taking the viewer on a road trip through the high desert, where the seen eventually breaks apart and the limits between physical reality, head trips and visions from beyond become blurred. Joshua Tree is seen through disused military optics or prisms, responding to an ancient theory claiming that we see the world as a result of minuscule crystals within our eyes. As military optics frame perspectives towards specific ends, so too might the eye and its crystalline components. The exhibition presents a video installation alongside sculptural holograms and sound.
Curatorial Assistant: Jung-Ah Kim
Installation Team: Cory Benn and Carina Magazzeni
new works by
MATTHEW BALLANTYNE
Matthew Ballantyne is an artist, poet and lapsed ironist. His work is preoccupied with birds despite their disinterest in him. His bird-focused works - from photographs to taxidermy, haiku emblazoned on flags to pieces made using found materials - reveal a search for empathy in an enchanted but tragic world.
His study elevates birds to a place in our consciousness that's greater than fluttering, chirping adornments of nature - and more than "merely ornamental objects for humans to exploit," as the artist notes. Like the birdwatcher, the artist has the capacity to see birds as feeling creatures with lives unto themselves, worthy of sustained attention. Birds may thrive for a season but the suffer, oftentimes by the hand of human negligence or cruelty. These artworks transcribe the artist's experience of seeing birds, both the quick and the dead, in urban and rural spaces, through history and culture, in image and metaphor.
His study elevates birds to a place in our consciousness that's greater than fluttering, chirping adornments of nature - and more than "merely ornamental objects for humans to exploit," as the artist notes. Like the birdwatcher, the artist has the capacity to see birds as feeling creatures with lives unto themselves, worthy of sustained attention. Birds may thrive for a season but the suffer, oftentimes by the hand of human negligence or cruelty. These artworks transcribe the artist's experience of seeing birds, both the quick and the dead, in urban and rural spaces, through history and culture, in image and metaphor.
UPCOMING
May 22 - 30, 2021
COMBINE: an art fair
CONVERSATION | COMMUNITY | CONVIVIALITY
A collaboration between Franc Gallery – Griffin Art Projects - Monica Reyes Gallery - Unit 17 – Wil Aballe Art Projects
Hosted by Griffin Art Projects Residency
in North Vancouver
The closure of national and international art fairs globally due to Covid-19, provides an opportunity to reconsider art economies and solidarities. This project features four young Vancouver galleries and finds within a collaborative model, ways to think together to imagine how such impacts can result in exploring the fissures and sites of opportunity that this unprecedented moment represents, to ask: How are we now working? What do proximities mean at this time? How do we express and experiment with the idea of collaboration as opposed to being in ‘competition’?
At this particular moment of COVID-19, within the Vancouver art ecosystem, there are many interdependent parts: artists, collectors, galleries, non-profits and institutions. All of them are relevant. We need each other to thrive to keep the ecosystem healthy. Galleries are important in the nurturing phase for artists, as well as the nurturing of young collectors. The four galleries featured in COMBINE art fair provide an access point for great new art that is being made on the West Coast while keeping the conversation going with the more seasoned collectors who want to continue learning about new voices in the local scene (and beyond).
COMBINE, held at Griffin Art Projects—an important collector-driven institution on the West Coast—is an event where galleries combine in support of collectors of contemporary art by coming together in the same space at the same time. At a moment when traveling to separate spaces to see work may be challenging, we offer a new collaborative experiment and model.
The long-term aim of this initiative and our work as collaborators, is to foster the development of confident collectors in the city, who use their own instincts and insights as they navigate the art works they encounter and acquire, and are aware of the importance of their patronage in supporting artists (and their galleries) in Vancouver. Although all galleries represent artists at every stage of their career, both artists and gallerists also benefit from such support at the early stages in their career. Ultimately, we are all here, collectors and galleries, to support artists who serve our community.
Griffin will host four progressive Vancouver gallerists onsite throughout the residency spaces in May 2021, for a collaborative venture. Wil Aballe Art Projects, Unit 17, Monica Reyes Gallery and Franc Gallery will work with Griffin to create an Art Fair, developed to support younger galleries who have been impacted by Covid-19 through the suspension of art fairs globally. The project also provides a ‘cross-fertilization’ with new audiences for all. Griffin will work with the galleries to promote the event and develop a safe onsite plan that follows COVID-19 protocols. The galleries will be located in the two studio areas while Griffin will curate an exhibition of gallery artists in the ‘bedroom’ space that will be transformed into a small gallery for this occasion. The overall project, which will be held in the residency area, is intended to create an exciting new alternative event that supports our local art community during these challenging times.
We look forward to sharing more information in the coming months leading to this ground braking event we are proud to be leading.
FEATURED ARTWORKS
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ABOUT THE GALLERY
Mónica Reyes Gallery (MRG) has been backing the growth and development of emerging and mid-career artists at its current location since 2013. Serving the local and international art scene, MRG promotes artist initiatives invested in shaping the economies of art and culture. Located in the heart of Strathcona, the gallery is uniquely positioned to create dialogues with the artists and cultural engineers who call the neighbourhood home.
With a commitment to advancing the cultural capital of the city the gallery has since partnered with Pattison Art in Transit to present The Strathcona Billboard Project (2014). Additionally, the gallery served as the catalyst and headquarters for the Vancouver based artist collective A.K.A and hosted its first set of projects, Diffractions of the Local I & II. MRG has built connections both nationally and internationally, reaching new markets and influencing collectors, curators and artists. The gallery will extend its influence by being represented at art fairs in Canada and USA having participated in dozens since its beginning.
Founder and director Mónica Reyes has been a longstanding figure in the Vancouver art scene having served as Vice President of the Contemporary Art Society of Vancouver and the Board of Latincouver. Today she sits on the Board of the Strathcona Board Improvement Assosiation. Reyes is committed to investing in art that gives voice to the cultural diversity of the Pacific Northwest.
MRG's regular exhibition program and special events provide artists with opportunities for artists to show work that includes range of practices from more traditional forms of painting, sculpture and photography to experimental video, durational performance, spatial interventions, installation and poetry.
NEWS FEED
CONTACT US
opening hours: monday, tuesday and saturday 11am-2pm; and by appointment
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602 E Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6A 1R1
T. 604.339.2096
www.monicareyesgallery.com
mr@monicareyesgallery.com