"Restless: Recent Acquisitions" Exhibit (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

 

"Restless: Recent Acquisitions" Exhibit

The “RESTLESS: Recent Acquisitions” Exhibit, opened last April 15, 2022, comprises nine recent acquisitions from the last decade that build upon the programming and collecting goals of Vancouver Art Gallery’s Institute of Asian Art. 

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Foreground: Calm (Xu Chen, 2013, site-specific media installation)

Curated by Diana Freundl, Restless refers to the underlying sense of movement reverberating through this exhibition’s featured works—whether by changing one’s position geographically through travel and migration or by shifting digitally into the virtual metaverse. The exhibit runs until September 11, 2022.

 

Two of 10 handpainted black and white photographs of
Sunhere Sapne - Golden Dreams (Pushpamala N, 1998)

It also speaks to radically altering perspectives and structural paradigms, a global de-centering. To be restless implies constant activity or motion but also a boredom and sense of anxiety. It is both rousing and unsettling.

 

Windows 97 (Paul Wong, 1997, animated neon mounted
on hand-painted galvanized steel, inkjet print on canvas)

Since the 1980s, the Vancouver Art Gallery has acquired a significant number of important contemporary works by international and local artists of Asian descent in order to provide a better understanding of the multiple art histories of our time. 

 

Tansy Point (Henry Tsang, 2019)

Flanked by giant portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and Mao Tse Tung (which serve as the politically loaded entryway) within the grandeur of the rotunda is Windows 97, three striking neon artworks by Vancouver artist Paul Wong (b. 1954, Canada).  It responds to the shifts in power at the end of the 20th century.

 

As It is Becoming (Jin-me Yoon, 2018)

At the center of it all is Made In Company’s “rumbling” pile of rubble on the floor (also called Restless) and a bold reworking of the 1930s film Charlie Chan and the Yellow Peril by Young-Hae Chung Heavy Industries (United States, South Korea).

 

The Yellow Pages (Ho Tam, inkjet prints on mulberry paper, 2020)

Other featured artists include Gu Xiong (b. 1953, China), Sunil Gupta (b. 1953, India), Ho Tam (Hong Kong), Jin Me Yoon (b. 1960, South Korea), Pushpamala N. (b. 1956, India), Henry Tsang and Xu Zhen (b. 1977, China).

 

Untitled (Sunil Gupta, 2014, archival inkjet print)

 “Restless Recent Acquisitions” Exhibit: 3/F, Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6Z 2H7, Canada.    Open Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 10 AM – 5 PM, Tuesdays and Fridays, 12 noon to 8 PM. Admission: $24.00 (adults), $20.00 (seniors), $18 (students), $6.50 (children, 6 – 12 years old) and free (children 5 years old and under).  Tuesdays, from 5 – 9 PM are “donation nights” (pay whatever you want or can afford). Coordinates: 49.282875°N 123.120464°W.