All four floors were of interest to me. On the top floor a fine collection of NorthWest Coast Art was on display, consciously making amends for the little attention usually paid to Aboriginal Art in Vancouver’s main art gallery. These splendid pieces will now have a permanent home in VAG’s collection. The huge photos by Christos Dikeakos were displayed nearby. These ones specifically referred to the collecting and sale of NorthWest Coast Native Art.

The whole of the third floor was devoted to a huge survey show of Hornby Island sculptor Jerry Pethick’s work. I wrote a paper comparing the work of Canadian sculptors Jerry Pethick and Joe Fafard when I was at art school and at that time it was difficult to find much Pethick work to see. How I wish I could have seen this great show then! This large collection helped me to have a better understanding of his interests, and how where he lived informed his sculptures and large arrays. Unlike any other work I’ve seen his combines all sorts of found materials, and optical devices to make themed assemblages.

On the second floor there was a show of prolific Korean artist Lee Bul. For this travelling show she had arranged one room as a replica of her studio, including many incarnations of her demised dog. Nearby were large constructions intended for us to explore inside. Quite a fun experience!

The other half of this floor featured a show devoted to explaining what performance artists were up to in the sixties and seventies. When I arrived in Vancouver in 1968 there was an avant garde feel to art events here, with zany characters running for political office, ceramic artists making work unrelated to function and outdoor happenings involving knitted video tape.

Among the selected artists in this show I found one whole room devoted to my plate-painting buddy Eric Metcalfe and his partner of the time Kate Craig. In the early seventies they took the personae of Dr Brute and Lady Brute and created Brutopia and in 1973 were part of the group that bought and founded the Western Front Art establishment.

For this show Eric was invited to design and have painted, a mural, this time referring back to his obsession at the time, the collection and creating of leopard spotted items. The whole wall (now painted over) is a striking, fun surprise!

Eric has often used the idea of a huge mural as part of whatever show he’s creating, especially in the various iterations of our ‘Attic’ shows, when I made replicas of Attic Greek vessels which he covered with leopard spot designs. Since then the graphics on pieces I’ve made for him and in the elegant gouache paintings he makes has moved a long way from orange, yellow and black spots.

Other artists in this show are Gathie Falk, here represented by one of her signature piles of ceramic fruit, in this case grapefruits, Carole Itter, whose work was never intended to be sold or exhibited, just experienced in the moment, and Evelyn Roth, who crocheted or knitted huge environments intended to be explored. I’ve also included a photo of a partial room constructed by Gary Lee Nova, of Imperial rulers to commemorate Canada’s switch to Metric measure.

On the main/1st floor I explored the large show ‘Embracing Canada: Landscapes from Krieghoff to the Group of Seven’. These are mainly well-known and loved paintings from roughly 1840 to 1940. It was good to see the real paintings again but in fact I spent much more time on the other three floors on this occasion.

Afterwards I walked in a Vancouver Winter afternoon dusk down to Waterfront Station and took the West Coast Express back home, a 25 minute ride and the first stop is Port Moody.

Another floor of the gallery houses large work by Ken Lum and the top floor deals with photographic work including Eadward Muybridge’s distinctive work on movement. The third floor is taken up with “Unreal”; work from the permanent collection. Much of it we have seen before but there were some nice surprises. It’s good to be reminded of our own art history. This little arrangement of pieces under plexiglass by Gathie Falk caught my attention. It dates from the seventies, she is still using the wheel and temmoku glaze. Knowing how different her work became it’s fun to see this piece. Sadly I noted that it was donated to VAG by the estate of Letia Richardson. Letia was the editor of the BC Potters Guild newsletter for several years in the nineties and I had the privilege of acting as a proof reader for her. She died just last year and I miss her professional approach to editing and her knowledge of Vancouver’s art world. She had a good collection of work by her favourite artists.

Just near this piece are some works by Leach apprentice and Vancouver artist, Glenn Lewis. And following the ‘unreal’ theme there is Eric Metcalfe’s leopard-spotted wooden saxophone with its leopard-velvet-lined case.

In no time it was five o’clock and we emerged to an unusual Vancouver sunny day! Just across the public plaza in front of VAG is the new and beautifully restored Georgia Hotel so we popped in to see what all the buzz is about. The owners have spared no expense in their restoration, with elegant panelling and furnishings and lo and behold! Art! In the entrances are wall pieces by local sculptor David Robinson – my photos don’t do them justice.

Inside we were delighted to see a ‘painting’ by British artist, Patrick Hughes. We’ve come across his work in the Winsor Gallery on South Granville. I do enjoy work that is a surprise and his is the use of a 3D trick, placing some parts of his image on protruding panels. My photos show two views so that you can perhaps get an idea of how the disturbing image happens. Perhaps it’s Venice, perhaps its outside, or not.