current exhibitions


Challenging Traditions: Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast

Guest Curator, Ian M. Thom

The Great Hall
June 24 - October 3, 2010

Beau Dick, Dzunuk'wa Transformation Mask, 2007, red cedar, abalone shell, horsehair, acrylic, Coastal Peoples Fine Arts Gallery, Vancouver

Organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario, the exhibition features contemporary works of art created by some of the most talented First Nations artists living on the Northwest Coast.

Participating artists: Sonny Assu, Robert Davidson, Beau Dick, Alano Edzerza, Philip Gray, Jim Hart, Chuck Ya' Ya Heit, Philip Janze, Klatle Bhi, Corey Moraes, Peter Morin, Marianne Nicolson, Chester Patrick, Tim Paul, Susan Point, Preston Singletary, Steve Smith, Joe Wilson, Lyle Wilson, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas and Don Yeomans


Organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection

Exhibition Sponsor



Our Communities: Our Stories

The Great Hall
Ongoing


Our Communities: Our Stories uses an amazing video map to show the changes settlement, decades of logging and the impact of Abbotsford's agricultural economy have had on the landscape in which we live. Through photos and artefacts we'll share the colourful stories of the people, communities and industries that make Abbotsford what it is today.

Abbotsford Collects:
Selected Works from Local Collectors

The Great Hall
June 24 - October 3, 2010


Jack Shadbolt, Energy Flux, 1965, oil and lucite on canvas, Private Collection

This exhibition examines a selection of visual art collections from Abbotsford and the Fraser Valley. The show explores the passions and personal tastes that motivate collectors to follow a specific genre of art or the work of a particular artist.











Photography Is...
by the Abbotsford Photo Arts Club

South Gallery
June 24 - October 3, 2010


Going Green by Darryl Hoope

The exhibition features the work of individual members of APAC and shows a variety of photographic styles and subjects in both colour and black-and-white formats.  Included in the show are landscapes, portraits, wildlife and graphic interpretations. For over 35 years, APAC has been helping its members develop their photographic skills. 

The Abbotsford Photo Arts Club grew from the desire of a handful of people to continue to share their experiences and improve their photography. Besides fulfilling a social function, the club's main objective has always been to help amateur photographers develop and improve their proficiency, filling a gap between the knowledge they acquire from a course in basic photography and the experience they need to operate independently as fulfilled amateur photographers.


Essential Information
by Christopher Friesen

The Grotto
June 24 - October 3, 2010


Boy on the Bank, 2005, acrylic on canvas

The pixel is the language of our times. The grid is the logical structure for that language. We have daily encounters with this pairing, from our computer screens, to our televisions, to the newspaper on our doorstep. Essential Information is an exhibition set up to examine the fundamentals about imagery and how we get it to work. George Seurat was an artist that used science to try to answer similar questions about imagery. Formally, Seurat was about the science of painting, essentially creating a style of art that could be theoretically done by anyone. Seurat made extensive notes about how to achieve the right effects, the right colours. He was obsessed with perfecting this pointillist technique. I have revisited the structure of his work to address some of the same concerns but through a contemporary lens. The pixel is an obvious reference to technology and by using Seurat's imagery, we can see a different way to use optical blending to achieve a similar result. My use of the grid also references its historical importance in painting from the organization of imagery on the surface, to a minimalistic reference, to a structure that references the colour chart paintings of Ellsworth Kelly and Gerhard Richter.

Seurat's pointillism is essentially the language of our modern technology, it works the same way the human eye does, through optical blending. "How would he have done it today?" That question began my foray into the investigation of the works of Seurat and solidified my belief that paintings must be experienced to be understood. It is when you let yourself look twice in the same direction that you might see something for the first time.