Art in Victoria: 1960-1986

Ellen Pilon is a library assistant in the Patrick Power Library at Saint
Mary’s University in Halifax.

In honor of Expo ‘86, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria mounted a major art exhibition to show the accomplishments of Victoria artists and their contributions to contemporary art. Art in Victoria is the catalogue of this exhibition.

According to the gallery director, Victoria has a very active artistic community. Of the 250 artists whose work was submitted to the exhibition, 75from various media are featured in the catalogue. The work is presented in 34 color plates and 41 black-and-white. Although the authors have tried to recreate the exhibition in this book, sometimes they have been successful and other times they have not. For example, itis mainly the color plates which appear to be interesting works of art. And there is no apparent reason for the order of the plates; they are not organized alphabetically, or by media, size, or date. Another flaw is the omission of any system to relocate a plate; it is necessary to thumb through all the plates each time — there are no page or plate numbers.

A short introduction offers a useful history of the art gallery as well as brief comments on other institutions’ contributions to the development of local art, including those of the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Fine Arts, Open Space gallery, and the Victoria College of Art. And further, there are tidbits of information on a handful of artists. Liane Davison’s biographical notes on each artist list relevant facts (date, place of birth, education, awards, art experience), exhibitions, collections, and a short statement by the artist. They are a goldmine of obscure data for future art historians.