Group Exhibition: By Sea, Land & Air, We Prosper

Showing some of the brightest lights of the Vancouver art scene for the first time in China, this exhibition gathers together work in a variety of media by artists based in and around one of the world’s most vaunted cities for livability, and also known as a base for many of the more influential artists of the late 20^th Century, Jeff Wall, Rodney Graham et al.

Though working on diverse themes, what these artists have in common is a use of form to think about the character of particular places or the contemporary conditions around us — where we are. They examine or invent forms that help us consider our surroundings at a time when everything is in flux. If there is any way in which these artists can be said to be shaped by working and living around Vancouver – a teenage city that is acutely self-consciousness of being formed equally by global trade and a sublime environment — it may be in a tendency to make work that is grounded in changing places and shifting times.

There is a nod to futurism or utopianism in some of the work, and in others a coarse formalism, both of which are appropriate to the rustically modern place in which these artists live. Brendan Tang makes hybrid ceramics that mash classical and technological forms. Arabella Campbell’s apparently formalist work is slyly based on a sensitive observation of the proportions and character of local buildings and systems. Douglas Coupland’s writing and his artwork both reveal a concern with understanding where our culture is headed, and the kinds of objects and habits that have shaped us. Germaine Koh makes interventions that focus on the often-overlooked potential of social situations and spaces, while Kevin Schmidt is known for lyrically absurd media-based works conveying human attempts to represent the epic landscape.