Brilliance 2023

The Smith Foundation and Artists for Kids would like to thank the Coast Salish people, specifically the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nation, upon whose unceded traditional territory the Pipe Shop Venue, the Gordon Smith Gallery, and the North Vancouver School District resides. We value the opportunity to learn, share, and grow on this traditional territory.

WELCOME LETTER BRILLIANCE GALA CO-CHAIRS

On behalf of the Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation board and our Gala Committee, welcome to Brilliance. This occasion is above all, a memorial celebration of the life and work of Gordon Smith, who passed away on January 18, 2020, months shy of his 101st birthday and just before the full impact of the global pandemic. Naturally, we wanted to set a date for a celebration of life at the time, but a gathering under the cloud of Covid was not appropriate. Three years later, we are finally able to present Brilliance as our special tribute to a great artist and a wonderful person whose generosity of spirit and support of the aspirations of young artists has added so much to the depth of our culture.

The Foundation continues Gordon’s legacy as an artist and educator by fundraising to support the objectives of Artists for Kids (AFK), which he created alongside Jack Shadbolt and Bill Reid in 1990 and provides schoolage children with a direct experience of the work of contemporary Canadian artists. Brilliance will raise critical funds for AFK by auctioning select works donated by artists, many of whom were Friends of Gordon.

In 2012, The Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art was established. This gallery features a growing collection and a program of curated exhibitions that directly connects young students with original works of art through the guidance of dedicated art instructors.

The Foundation has grown to provide over 5,000 young people a year from around Metro Vancouver with art enrichment opportunities, including community programming, gallery tours, performances, and art workshops, complemented by a strong exhibition program and a collection featuring the work of British Columbia’s contemporary artists. The Foundation also provides annual scholarships for students who want to pursue a career in art. Our fundraising efforts help to ensure that society will have future generations of progressive and productive citizens who have a deep appreciation of culture and free personal expression.

Over 95 percent of the Foundation’s revenue is from non-governmental funding; we rely on the generosity of the community to make this unique programming available to the public. We, therefore, extend our deep gratitude to the artists who have donated works to Brilliance. Your enthusiastic bidding in the auction will give the special recognition to the generosity and commitment of these artists that they deserve.

Your participation in Brilliance is a testimony to the continued affection and respect that we all have for the lifelong work and vision of Gordon Smith: as an artist, as an individual, and as a friend. Thank you for joining with us in the spirit of this very special occasion as we celebrate Gordon and support his continued legacy.

Ian Wallace, Patti Glass, Yoshi Karasawa Brilliance Gala Co-Chairs

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dear Friends of Gordon,

It is my sincere pleasure to welcome you all to the first-ever Brilliance Gala, in tribute to the late artist, and friend of many, Gordon Smith. We are honoured to have been trusted by this community to celebrate the wide-ranging and enduring legacy of this exceptional person and champion of young artists.

As one of Canada’s preeminent artists and advocates for visual art education, Gordon Smith had a significant and enduring influence not only on our artist community, but on everyone he connected with. The Gala is an opportunity for friends and supporters to come together and showcase how Gordon’s brilliance and generosity have inspired and enlightened the creative thinkers, artists, and philanthropists of this region.

By attending this evening, you are helping raise important funds for one of the causes closest to Gordon’s heart: Artists for Kids, a thirty-three-year-old program that continues to thrive and evolve while delivering exceptional art education and enrichment opportunities for young artists. Alongside Jack Shadbolt and Bill Reid, Gordon was a Founding Artist Patron of Artists for Kids. He later advocated for the creation of the Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation for Young Artists, where we work to ensure Artists for Kids is funded in perpetuity. Your support ensures that Artists for Kids will continue to offer high-quality art education programs that are accessible to children throughout the region, as well as through schools in partnership with the North Vancouver School District.

Of the many moments of joy that have struck me while working towards this day, the boundless support of the artists in our community has been the most touching. The Friends of Gordon artwork collection is a testament to the overwhelming love and enthusiasm that Gordon inspired. Many of the artists are inspired directly by his work or time spent with him. From speaking with many of you, I know that everyone who had the privilege of knowing Gordon felt the impact of his warmth, generosity, and creative spark. Ultimately, we hope that by creating this significant tribute event and accompanying catalogue, we will create a lasting archive of what has, up until now, been an ephemeral network of influence and kinship.

In addition to the artists who have built the Friends of Gordon Collection, I want to express my gratitude to the many individuals who have worked towards making this tribute a reality. I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to you, our donors and supporters, both here this evening and to those who are supporting this cause from afar.

And finally, I would like to thank Gordon Smith, without whom this would not have been possible, and to whom I am grateful for bringing so many incredible artists, individuals, and luminaries together to support exceptional art education for all.

With Gratitude,

Meredith Preuss Executive Director, Smith Foundation

Courtesy of Artists for Kids

FROM THE AUDAIN FOUNDATION

The Audain Foundation is pleased to support the Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation and be recognized as this evening’s Brilliance Gala Matching Sponsor. Money raised tonight towards the Artists for Kids Program, up to $50,000, will be matched by the Audain Foundation, doubling the collective impact we can achieve together.

Sometimes in life, if you are lucky, you will run across someone who will enrich your being in ways you may not realize in the moment. Most of us here tonight are fortunate to hold a memory of Gordon Smith, whether through an encounter with him in person or with one of his paintings. Others, like Audain Foundation Founders, Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa, had the privilege of calling Gordon a friend and will remember him as a force who lived his life fully, endlessly inspiring others to do the same.

So, while it is hard to believe that it has been three and a half years since Gordon’s passing and similarly, since we have been able to convene again comfortably and in a meaningful way, let tonight be a long overdue celebration of his life and a tribute to the brilliant marks he left on the people of our province and beyond.

Sincerely,

Chantal Shah Executive Director, Audain Foundation

Gordon Smith

A MYSTERIOUS STRUGGLE WITH CHANCE: GORDON SMITH

Hilary Letwin Administrator/Curator, West Vancouver Art Museum

Before his passing in 2020, I met Gordon Smith a handful of times, seeing him usually at exhibition openings, where he was always surrounded by throngs of well-wishers and friends, with whom he interacted ever graciously. On the single occasion when I visited him at home in West Vancouver, he demonstrated his well-known generosity. I had arrived with a mutual friend, who had arranged the visit. At the time, in 2017, I was preparing an exhibition about Molly Lamb Bobak for the Burnaby Art Gallery and this contact felt that Gordon would have some excellent insights about Molly for my exhibition. Gordon, and his wife, Marion, had known Molly and her husband, Bruno, well, with a friendship that stretched back to the 1950s. Grateful for the chance to meet this venerable artist one on one, I came with a box of chocolates. We spoke for about an hour on the subject of Molly, and then it was suggested that I could write up what he had said and we could include it as part of the publication we were producing. At this prospect, I was, of course, ecstatic! And then, as if this was not gift enough, Gordon had a beautiful, framed print brought out, called North Shore, that he gave to me. Here I was with my box of chocolates (a nice box, but…), leaving not only with a unique contribution for my publication, but also a work of art. My experience of visiting Gordon has been echoed back to me by so many others, who benefited not only from

his wisdom and experience, but also from his unflagging generosity.

A year later, in 2018, I came to work at the West Vancouver Art Museum. Here, it is not I alone who has benefited from Gordon’s gifts, but in fact, our whole community. In 2015 and then again in 2017, under the guidance of my predecessor, Darrin Morrison, Gordon gifted his own personal art collection to the Art Museum. These gifts consisted of 75 works of art in total: a few by him, but many more by friends of his. These came into his collection either as gifts from the artists themselves, or as purchases made by Gordon. These works are incredibly eclectic: paintings, photographs, drawings, and prints. Some are by artists who were Gordon’s predecessors and contemporaries, while others are by artists far younger than he was, but most, almost without exception, had known him personally.

Gordon used to say regularly that he was “100 artists deep,” referencing the people who inspired him at various points in his life. These include many of his contemporaries, including Bruno and Molly Lamb Bobak, Alistair Bell, Jack Shadbolt, Don Jarvis, and B.C. Binning, among many others. However, this should also include successive generations of younger artists. One of my favourite works in Gordon’s donation to the West Vancouver Art Museum is a painting by him, which dates from around 2010. It is characteristic of this period and features a tangle of lines, almost knotted. Around the edge, he has collaged type and, in some instances, handwritten the names of people who formed his circle of friends. Some of the names are easily recognized artists, while others are curators and gallerists, and still more are his caretakers, such as Dallie Laurente, her name handwritten at the bottom. I love this work because he has

created for us a visual network: the many strings of connection and community that comprised his long life.

I believe that his personal art collection, some of which we have been lucky to care for at the West Vancouver Art Museum, is an excellent window into this circle. I would like to end with the quote from Gordon that inspired my title. In his 2014 interview with Daina Augaitis for the publication, Don’t Look Back, Gordon observed that for him: “It’s all really a dialogue between me and the paint, me and the paint, me and the paint.

What happens when you put paint on and you scrape it, when you put paint on and let it dry and then paint over it and then scrape it again? It’s a mysterious struggle with chance. In the process of painting, you finally discover something you like, if you’re lucky.” But, I wonder here if Gordon is not entirely correct. Without a doubt, chance in his art and his life certainly was a factor, but he also worked very hard to surround himself with inspiration from his environs and his friends, which led to a perpetual willingness to learn more, paint more, and be more.

Gordon Smith

Gordon Smith, Untitled (Names), 2008-2010, Acrylic on canvas, 59 x 59 in Collection of West Vancouver Art Museum

Gift of the Artist

Gordon Smith

THAT ORANGE CHAIR

Douglas Coupland

On the south patio of Smith House II sits what appears to be a slightly cartoonish-looking sofa constructed of… orange squiggly lines? Upon closer inspection, one can see that it is made of pencil-thick stainless-steel rods painted with industrial, rust-proof orange. This chair/ sofa, known as 'Corallo,' is also extraordinarily uncomfortable to sit in; most people only ever try it once and thereafter simply enjoy looking at it. It's essentially a sculpture. Manufactured by an Italian company, Edra, in 2003/2004, it was designed by two brothers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Humberto and Fernando Campana, who are universally known in the design world as the Campana Brothers.

In 2007, I came across the chair online and immediately saw that it resembled one of Gordon Smith's ink drawings come to life in three dimensions. I knew I had to give one to Gordon and Marion as a gesture of gratitude for their extraordinary kindness towards me. After all, receiving a gift for no particular reason is one of life's great joys. So, I got one for them.

I remember delivering it to them on a fall afternoon, catching them by surprise. The expression on their faces was priceless. The Corallo is a remarkable object by any measure, and when you're carrying it around, it's like you're holding an orange cloud that only becomes a 'chair' once it's set down. Poor Gordon and Marion had no idea what was happening, especially when I first brought it into the house, where it dwarfed everything else. That was the fun part. Eventually, after half an hour, we

placed it on the south patio, where it appeared almost radioactively orange, as if from some other parallel time stream. It took years for everyone to finally get used to it. I know it was a big imposition on Gordon and Marion, but it… had to happen. It's hard to describe.

In 2015, I was installing a show in Sao Paulo and reached out to the Campana Brothers. They invited me to their studio in a quieter suburban neighborhood. It was a three-story glass box filled with an astonishing number of dazzling past and present projects—both hits and misses—as well as busy staff working on complex industrial material samples. The brothers were constantly receiving boxes of new materials, which manufacturers hoped they could magically transform. It was heaven, and I wasn't even halfway through the studio when I realized that this was how I wanted my own house and studio to feel. Basically, I decided to live inside my own head. I told Fernando I had bought one of the orange Corallo chairs, and he said, "Oh, so that was you." I didn't understand, and he told me that they had only ever sold two of the chairs. So, there you go: big press doesn't necessarily mean big sales.

Gordon passed away in 2020, and Fernando died in 2022. Each of them, in different ways, caused me to rethink my creative universe in profound ways. How many people do that? I think about that crazy orange chair, and I'm glad I got it for the Smiths for no reason. Life is so short, and when creative people go, they leave an especially large hole in your inner world. I miss Gordon and Marion. They were gifts in my life.

COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS

Yoshi Karasawa

Ian Wallace

Patti Glass

BRILLIANCE GALA COMMITTEE

Adriana Alvarez-Nichol

Meagan Conn

Allison Kerr

Paul Killeen

Hilary Letwin

Daylen Luchsinger

Paul Larocque

Bruce Munro Wright OBC

Justine Nichol

Richard Savage

Jessica Sturdy

Ed Tsumura

Dr. Anne Watt

Jackie Wong

Naomi Yamamoto

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Paul Killeen, Chair

Richard Savage Vice-Chair

Patti Glass, Director

Allison Kerr, Director

Daylen Luchsigner, Director

Ed Tsumura, Director

Ian Wallace, Director

Anne Watt, Director

ENLIGHTEN GUESTS

Daniel Anderson

Michael Audain

Kyra Audain

Alison Brown

Eric H. Carlson

Christos Dikeakos

Sophie Dikeakos

Georges Dordor

Michael Ferreira

Cyndi Gerlach

Emily Howard

Melissa Howey

Yoshi Karasawa

Marla Kiess

Elva Kim

Sonia Kolper

Randy Leong

Cynthia MacLean

Kulvir Mann

Jim Moodie

Doria Moodie

Linda Munro

Jonathan O’Connor

Janelle O’Connor

Jean Redpath

Al Reid

Cindy Richmond

Pius Ryan

George Seslija

Chantal Shah

Don Shumka

Jane Shumka

Jacqui Stewart

Grace To

Lailani Tumaneng

Ian Wallace

Vanessa Watson

Joel Watson

Krista Whitelock

Our Sponsors

MATCHING SPONSOR

LIVE AUCTION SPONSOR

GIVERGY SILENT AUCTION SPONSOR

SILVER SPONSORS

WINE SPONSOR

COMMUNICATIONS SPONSOR

APPRAISAL SPONSOR

FRAMING SPONSOR

PRINT SPONSOR

PHOTOGRAPHY SPONSOR

VENUE SPONSOR

THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 2023

The Pipe Shop Venue at the Shipyards

EVENING HOSTS

Fred Lee & Vicki Gabereau

AUCTIONEER

Fred Lee

DINNER & ENTERTAINMENT

6 to 7 pm Cocktail Reception & Artwork Exhibition

+ Friends of Gordon Collection Exhibition

+ Live Auction Preview

+ Sparkling wine, signature cocktails, and canapés

+ Music, Cory Weeds Quartet

+ Photography, When They Find Us

7 to 10 pm Dinner, Entertainment, Paddle Raise & Live Auction

+ Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation Welcome, Xwalacktun

+ Meredith Preuss, Executive Director, The Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation for Young Artists

+ Yoshi Karasawa, Ian Wallace, & Patti Glass, Brilliance Gala Co-Chairs

+ Dance Performance, Arts Umbrella

+ Douglas Coupland, artist and writer

+ Hilary Letwin, Administrator/Curator, West Vancouver Art Museum

+ Michael Audain OC OBC, The Audain Foundation

+ Tribute to Gordon Smith Film

+ Live Auction

+ Paddle Raise

10 to 11 pm Brilliance After Party

How to Bid

HOW TO BID

Register to bid – brilliancegala.com

To register a bid, the bidder will be required to provide their name, contact details, and credit card information.

LIVE AUCTION

Advance bids can be made at brilliancegala.com until Thursday, June 15 at 12pm PDT (noon).

Live Auction artworks will be auctioned in the lot order which they appear in this catalogue on Thursday, June 15, 2023.

For at-home bidding, Brilliance would be pleased to provide a dedicated telephone bidder. To make arrangements for telephone bidding, please contact coordinator@smithfoundation.ca before 12pm PDT (noon) on Tuesday, June 13, 2023.

Absentee Bidding is also available. The auctioneer will execute bids on your behalf during the Live Auction. To place a confidential Absentee Bid prior to the event, please contact coordinator@smithfoundation.ca

FRIENDS OF GORDON COLLECTION

Bids can be made at brilliancegala.com

Friends of Gordon Collection bidding closes on Friday, June 16 at 4pm PDT.

Artists for Kids brings together educators, artists, and the community to provide inspiring, highly relevant educational experiences and enrichment for thousands of young people annually, while encouraging students to pursue and share their own artistic voice and narrative. Through the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art, established as Canada’s first public art gallery for young audiences, Artists for Kids has created a space for our community to experience the narrative of Canadian art through a significant collection of visual art.

The continued growth and development of this acclaimed program in North Vancouver during the past three decades provides substantial

documentation that intentional art education in schools led by art specialists can significantly transform young lives, inform programming in schools, and ultimately shape a community in ways once thought unimaginable. It has become clear what can be accomplished and made possible in education with intentional commitment, understanding, and engagement.

Artists for Kids

Courtesy of Artists for Kids

Fund A Need

FUND A NEED

During his lifetime, Gordon Smith was passionate about supporting arts for all. In such, the Foundation intentionally brings initiatives allowing art to reach all communities, supporting children and youth, Canadian artists, and art educators.

For Brilliance 2023, the Smith Foundation is asking for your support to ensure the continued success of Artists for Kids and its ongoing impact on the lives of children and youth, educators, and artists. Gordon was a Founding Artist Patron of Artists for Kids, which has provided educational experiences through the lens of visual art in our community for over three decades. Your funds will directly support access for all to exceptional visual art programming through the Artists for Kids Gallery Program, outreach, After School Art Program, spring and summer camps, virtual learning resources, and annual scholarships.

Pledges at the Brilliance Gala will be matched up to $50,000 by the Audain Foundation. One hundred percent of funds raised goes directly to the Smith Foundation Endowment, ensuring Artists for Kids’ continued success and ongoing impact on the lives of young artists. Your donation is one hundred percent tax receiptable.

THE IMPACT OF ARTISTS FOR KIDS

Artists For Kids was established in 1989 and provides over 5,000 young people each year with art enrichment program opportunities. The Smith Foundation proudly supports AFK with an annual grant, offers scholarships to young aspiring artists, and provides AFK with the volunteers needed to support The Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art.

THE SMITH FOUNDATION ENDOWMENT FUND

The Smith Foundation established an Endowment Fund in 2010, and has since contributed over 3 million dollars to Artists for Kids, supporting over 55,000 young artists in pursuit of their passion for the arts. The interest from this fund provides much needed revenue to support programming, exhibitions, and general operations in perpetuity.

GORDON SMITH PRINT

From print donor and Artists for Kids supporter:

"I have always respected Gordon’s appreciation of all the arts, including the ceramic art that he collected and featured in his home. Gordon was a dear friend and also a great supporter of anyone involved in the visual arts. His influence and support nurtured my interest in ceramics as an art form." — Joan Tuey

TICKETS $100 AND ONLY 200 AVAILABLE.

TICKETS ON SALE UNTIL FRIDAY JUNE 16 AT 4PM.

Gordon Smith

Zürich

serigraph

26 3/4 x 29 in Framed Edition 8/26

Donated by Joan Tuey

Value: $1,250

Live Auction

Thanks to the exceptional inspiration of our Founding Patron Artists Gordon Smith, Jack Shadbolt, and Bill Reid, AFK’s educational programs have developed some of Canada’s most significant art curriculums. We are fortunate to be able to highlight artworks from each of the Founding Patrons in the exclusive Brilliance Gala Live Auction. Select experience packages have been curated with Gordon Smith's love of art and the natural world in mind. We are delighted to offer these once-in-a-lifetime experiences as part of both our Live Auction and Friends of Gordon Collection.

SPONSORED BY POLYGON HOMES

Bill Reid

Bill Reid (1920–1998) was an acclaimed master goldsmith, carver, sculptor, writer, broadcaster, mentor, and community activist. Reid was born in Victoria, BC to a Haida mother and an American father with Scottish German roots, and only began exploring his Haida roots at the age of 23. This journey of discovery lasted a lifetime and shaped Reid’s artistic career.

The Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art was created in 2008 to honour his legacy and celebrate the diverse Indigenous cultures of the Northwest Coast. Bill Reid infused Haida traditions with his own modernist aesthetic to create both exquisitely small as well as monumental work that captured the public’s imagination, and introduced a timeless vocabulary to the modern world.

Reid became a pivotal force in building bridges between Indigenous people and other peoples. Through his mother, he was a member of the Raven clan from T’aanuu with the wolf as one of his family crests. Raven is known as a mischievous trickster, who also plays an important part in transforming the world. Many of these traits matched Bill Reid’s personality. In 1986, Reid was presented with the Haida name Yaahl Sgwansung, meaning The Only Raven.

In 1988 Bill Reid designed Xhuwaji / Haida Grizzly on a ceremonial drum which is part of the Artists for Kids Permanent Teaching Collection. In 1990 he created an edition of serigraph prints (with printmaker Terra Bonnieman) to be sold through the AFK limited edition print program. Xhuwaji / Haida Grizzly was one of the first AFK prints to be sold, marking the beginning of a great partnership between Canadian artists and the North Vancouver School District. Bill Reid’s work and generosity was the first of many great relationships for Artists for Kids.

Images from top: Bill Reid signing Xhuwaji / Haida Grizzly; Terra Bonnieman printing Xhuwaji / Haida Grizzly

Jack Shadbolt

Jack Shadbolt (1909–1998) was born in England and came to Canada with his parents in 1912. From 1928 to 1937, he taught in high schools in Duncan and Vancouver, BC while attending night classes under Frederick Varley at the Vancouver School of Art (V.S.A.). Shadbolt wrote and published three books: In Search of Form, Mind’s I, and Act of Art. In 1988, with Doris Shadbolt, he established VIVA, a foundation granting awards to visual artists in British Columbia. He received the Guggenheim Award in 1957, the Molson Prize in 1977, and Gershon Iskowitz Award in 1990. He was awarded Honorary Degrees from four universities, and the Order of Canada in 1972. In 1989, he was made Freeman of the City of Vancouver. His works are represented in all major galleries across Canada, including the National Gallery of Canada, and in many private and corporate collections. BauXi Gallery represented Shadbolt, with 44 solo exhibitions in its Vancouver and Toronto locations since 1970.

Jack Shadbolt was one of the Founding Artist Patrons of Artists for Kids. He created four separate print series in support of Artists for Kids in 1993, 1994, 1997, and 1998, which helped ensure the financial stability of what was, at the time, a fledgling and revolutionary educational art program. His impact on the art community was widespread, with several of the artists in the Friends of Gordon Collection citing him and his wife Doris as influences.

Jack Shadbolt

Landscape

1967

Acrylic and ink on paper

30 3/4 x 32 1/4 in

Framed

Donated by Bruce Munro Wright OBC

Value: $6,300

Lot #02

Gordon Smith

Gordon Smith (1919–2020) was born in England and moved to Winnipeg with his family in 1933. He came to Vancouver in 1940, married Marion Fleming, and joined the Canadian Army. Returning from service overseas in 1945, he continued his art education at the Vancouver School of Art, then taught at the school for a decade. He joined the Faculty of Education at UBC and taught art until his retirement in 1982. The last 30 years of his artistic career were his most prolific. As a master of colour, he explores the BC landscape in a fresh, expressive, and aggressive style that is unparalleled by other artists. He was awarded the Order of Canada for his significant contribution to Canadian culture in 1996.

Donated by MayLin Poon with special thanks to Morris and Kumyuen Saldov

"Kumyuen Saldov was a painting student of Gordon Smith’s at UBC in the late 1960s. One of her special memories was the class trip Gordon took to New York City, the mecca of western art. She also fondly remembers Gordon’s exhibition of umbrellas in Osaka. For many years, Kumyuen’s ceramic slab work, a gift she had given to Gordon and Marion, was displayed in front of their home near Lighthouse Park. Arthur Erickson, a close associate and friend of Gordon’s, was reportedly also fond of Kumyuen’s ceramic piece. Kumyuen and I were happy to have our two Smith paintings kept at the Gordon Smith Gallery in anticipation that they might be shown in a retrospective exhibition of his work. It appears that this wish has finally come to fruition alongside an opportunity for us to support children’s art programs." — Morris

Saldov

Barkley Sound II

1989

Acrylic on canvas

50 1/4 x 67 in

Donated by MayLin Poon

Special thanks to Morris and Kumyuen Saldov

Value: $60,000

Gordon Smith

Lot #03

Lot #04

SMITH HOUSE II: A PRIVATE TOUR OF GORDON AND MARION SMITH’S RESIDENCE FROM 1964 – 2020

Experience the inspiration and legacy of acclaimed artist Gordon Smith in the West Vancouver home he and his wife Marion created. Eight guests will tour the iconic West Coast Modern structure designed in the early 1960s by Arthur Erickson and Geoff Massey. Canadian curator Daina Augaitis will bring the house to life, guiding you through the grounds, home and art collection, followed by a wine reception in the artist’s studio. This unique opportunity includes two monographs signed by Arthur Erickson, one of Canada’s leading architects and the only Canadian winner of a Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects.

Donated by Daina Augaitis and Andy Sylvester. Monographs courtesy of the Arthur Erickson Foundation.

Value: priceless

ARTHUR ERICKSON & GORDON SMITH

Gordon and Marion Smith commissioned Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey to design two houses for them, first in 1953, and then again in 1964. Both houses won top awards, and helped the young architects get established. Arthur commissioned Gordon Smith for two major art installations: a giant mosaic mural for Simon Fraser University, and the monumental spinners artwork that dominated the courtyard of the Canadian Pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka Japan. The pavilion attracted the largest crowds at the fair, and won first prize for Expo’s best pavilion. Arthur’s mother Myrtle helped promote Smith’s work too in her campaign “Do you own a Canadian painting?” In an interview, Smith called Arthur his “best friend.”

The Architecture of Arthur Erickson

Arthur Erickson

1975

Tundra Books

Signed by Arthur Erickson

Donated by the Arthur Erickson Foundation

This is the first book published on Arthur Erickson’s work. The Smith House II, and the monumental Expo ’70 art installation by Gordon Smith are both featured in this book, along with many other projects. It was designed with Simon Scott, who also contributed many of his fine architectural photos, and Arthur’s brother Don edited the text.

Eppich House II: The Story of an Arthur Erickson Masterwork

By Greg Bellerby

Foreword by Michelangelo

Sabatino

Curated by Geoffrey Erickson

2019

Figure 1 Publishing

Donated by the Arthur Erickson Foundation

Eppich House 2 tells the story, through gorgeous images and Arthur Erickson’s own words, of how a unique collaboration with 'dream clients' resulted in his most striking residence, located in West Vancouver.

ART LOVERS PRIVATE DINING EXPERIENCE

An evening of elegance for 16 guests at the home of a personal friend of Gordon Smith, Eric Savics. The Russell Hollingsworth-designed home amongst the exclusive British Properties in West Vancouver features the breathtaking personal art collection of his good friend Eric. The seamless indooroutdoor connection and sweeping views of the mountains, city, and ocean allow guests to dine next to a stunning, large-scale custom Gordon Smith painting. Catered by Chef Dino Renaerts of Bon Vivant Catering & Events and featuring wine from Tantalus Vineyards.

Celebrity Chef Dino Renaerts is among Vancouver’s culinary leaders. The chef & sommelier’s prolific career has seen him cook in many of the city’s finest restaurants, such as Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Diva at the Metropolitan, Hotel Georgia, West, and Bistro Pastis. Renaerts is a partner at Bon Vivant Catering & Events and Bon Vivant Hospitality Group Inc., where he works closely with his clients to bring his own brand of west coast cuisine to their wine dinners, life’s milestones, special events, and media needs. He has successfully launched new restaurant properties and overhauled existing ones to provide contemporary dining experiences that are lauded by business partners, guests, and media alike.

Value: $10,000

This package is courtesy of a personal friend of Gordon Smith, Eric Savics.

Image courtesy of Katie Huisman, Capture Photography Festival

Lot #05

Friends of Gordon Collection

The Friends of Gordon Collection is a remarkable testament to the exchange of creativity that Gordon Smith fostered among his peers, as well as those he met throughout his life. The artists represented have each contributed an artwork that pays homage to Gordon Smith in some form, whether it be through direct creative kinship and mentorship, or by having worked closely with the Smith Foundation and Artists for Kids.

We are offering collectors the opportunity to acquire pieces from this curated collection in two ways; collectors can opt to "Buy It Now", securing the artwork for its full estimated value, or bids can be placed in increments online via Givergy.

Gordon Smith valued the work of artists above all. Through this unique bidding format, we hope to honour that spirit, retain the value of the works that were so generously donated to the Smith Foundation, and ensure that each artwork is showcased with utmost care.

Sara-Jeanne Bourget

In 2019, I did a residency at Griffin Art Projects in North Vancouver. During that time, I had the chance to be a mentor and guest artist for Artists for Kids’ Studio Art Academy, which led to an exhibition by the students titled Burnt Dust at Griffin Art Projects. Daylen Luchsinger invited me to join students in his classroom, where we made charcoal drawings and discussed the work. Until today, I have kept in contact with Daylen and had the pleasure to collaborate on several projects. I cherish my time in North Vancouver, which has led to many collaborations, but also has instilled a deep respect for the legacy of Gordon Smith and for what Artists for Kids stands for.

Lot #101

Sara-Jeanne Bourget A Concrete Detail

2022

Charcoal on paper

40 x 28 1/2 in Framed

Donated by the Artist

Value: $1,800

Lot #102

Bobbie Burgers

Bobbie Burgers

Cumulus #3

2022

Collage (etching, oil bar, pastel, spray paint on arches oil paper)

51 x 35 in Framed

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Equinox Gallery

Value: $10,500

I first was introduced to Gordons Smith's work in the early 2000's at an exhibition at the original Equinox Gallery on South Granville. Although his work evolved through many styles and subjects through his long career, it was the thread of his masterly ability to handle paint that fascinated me. I joined Equinox Gallery later in my career, and slowly started a very gentle relationship with Gordon. Although I was at first too tentative to ask directly for mentorship, he would visit my exhibitions and I would be thrilled with his excited feedback. His few comments sprinkled energy into my studio, like a sort of fatherly fairy dust. We eventually became friends in his last years, and his encouragement and engagement with my practice resulted in one of the most treasured relationships I have had with any other artist.

I have taught courses within Artists for Kids, and donated to several of the Auctions for the Smith Foundation. As Gordon showed us all, imagination is our greatest resource, and working with younger generations is as rewarding as it is nourishing.

Amelia Butcher

Lot #103

Rose Clock Pitcher

2022

Reduction-fired stoneware, shino glaze

12 1/5 x 7 9/10 x 6 3/10

Value: $350

Rose Clock Pitcher is a piece directly connected to the Grade 7 enrichment program I taught at Artists for Kids. We talked about time’s passing and how to crystallize multiple stages of time into a single artwork. Gordon Smith’s legacy of being in dialogue with students, of being permeable to the world through teaching, is a lesson I feel very keenly. The student artwork in our workshop informed my own thinking and I was particularly moved by how students instinctively wove personal narratives into their artwork. This piece documents the recovery of a loved one from a serious illness - each week she was home she gave us roses clipped from her garden. The roses accumulated around the house in many states between decay and fresh, becoming a clock representing all the time that had elapsed since the scary days. Working with students, noticing their noticing, valuing their vulnerability, has sharpened my eye to the everyday landscapes and their meanings.

Amelia Butcher

While Gordon was kayaking between islands on the coast of British Columbia, this beautiful burl found its way alongside his boat. He pulled it aboard, brought it home, and decided to cast it in bronze. He later brought the piece to my shop with the idea of making a custom pedestal that it could be paired with and donated to the West Vancouver Rec Center, where it remains on display to this day! After the casts were finished, Gordon generously gave this special piece of wood to my shop to be scorch finished and transformed into its own unique piece that honours both the land from which it came and the person who made it possible.

Brent Comber

Lot #104

Brent Comber Voyages

2022

Cedar

30 x 20 x 15 in Donated by the Artist

Value: $2,300

Gordon is, and was, not only an exemplar of generosity and humility, but also an inspiration to artists across the spectrum in the Vancouver art community. His commitment to his practice – working every day in the studio – set a standard we couldn’t ignore, and inspired us to get in there and work. He embodied that exceptional combination: the artist/teacher who loved to transmit his love for the discipline. To get to know Gordon in his home for dinners and visits to his studio was always a pleasure: he would praise your work lavishly: “you’re so good!” And he meant it. And you would leave, after several hits of good scotch and a lovely meal, with a framed print to add to your collection. I’d like to think Gordon would enjoy this piece, Stanza 45, for the playfulness we also find in his impromptu collages, for the brushwork he might find almost as vigorous as his own, and for the confounding of figure/ground relationships we both enjoy engaging in. Upon learning of his death from Ian Wallace, I did a large, sombre oil on paper quadriptych titled A Requiem for Gordon, in many ways the antithesis to this piece. Pace.

2018

Oil and collage on Arches Huil 32 x 39 in Framed

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Gallery Jones

Value: $7,000

Lot #105

Pierre Coupey Stanza 45

Douglas Coupland

Harris Holofoil Mountain

2022

Offset PrizmaFoil print 28 x 36 in Framed Edition 20/40

Donated by the Artist Courtesy of Daniel Faria Gallery

Value: $2,200

Coupland

The donated print is done in a printing process that uses holographic foil and spot varnishes over top offset lithography to achieve a dynamic look found in no other process. It is difficult to photograph and must be experienced in real life for full effect.

Lot #106

Christos Dikeakos

I was a student curator at the UBC Student Union Art Gallery from 1968 to 1971. In 1969 I was asked by Doris Shadbolt and Lucy Lippard to participate as an artist in the 995,000 exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery curated by Lucy Lippard and to further contribute to finding a suitable location for an outdoor installation by Robert Smithson for his project The Glue Pour With the final work of drawings and photographs to be installed and produced by Smithson at the Student Union Building (SUB), UBC Art Gallery. This radical 'earth art sculpture' pour would vanish and be absorbed within 24 hours by the fresh soil at the new Chancellor Road cut at UBC. At the time, Smithson was reading geology books on Earth's continuous geomorphic changes via erosion with ideas of entropy. Smithson is well

Lot #107

Christos Dikeakos

Glue Pour 5, 1970

Archival inkjet print

25 x 19 in Framed

Edition AP 1/6 2022

Donated by Christos Dikeakos

Value: $1,500

known for producing sculptures using natural materials outside the traditional studio and institutional art practices. The 50 gallons of organic glue were poured down slowly and circulated along the wet soil road cut. Because of the glue's dyed purple colour it had the appearance of a science fiction purple ooze on that wet cloudy Vancouver day. The Glue Pour of 1970 is perhaps one of the best examples of the radical avant-garde art of the time.

Gordon was always interested and liked the company of a younger generation of artists and especially with UBC connections. This donation is a tribute to Gordon for his bigheartedness and friendship.

The photograph by Christos Dikeakos documents the work of multidisciplinary artist Robert Smithson.

Lot #108

Katie Kozak & Lucien

Durey

Dog Beach

2023

Inkjet print

37 1/2 x 31 in

Donated by the Artists

Value: $1,750

In 2019, Katie Kozak and Lucien Durey completed a month-long artist residency at the Sointula Art Shed, where they spent long hours gathering manmade ocean debris along the shorelines of Malcolm Island, in the unceded Kwakwakw'akw Territory of the 'Namgis, Kwakiutl, and Mamalilikulla Nations. The residency continued a longstanding collaborative practice of collecting discarded materials to be reassembled in unexpected ways. Works derived from the residency are currently on display in Endless Summer at the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art. A scanner bed photograph created for the exhibition, Dog Beach (2023) is the result of beachcombing sessions along the shores of Ambleside Park in West Vancouver, on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Katie Kozak & Lucien Durey

Wayne Eastcott

Gordon's influence is obvious in this work in considering the contemporary landscape. However, his influence goes much deeper than that. My wife and I were friends with Gordon and Marion beginning in the late 60s. During those years he went from being a mentor and co-educator to becoming a lifelong friend. Many enjoyable hours were spent working together in various educational/ artistic venues, classrooms, studios, or the outdoors. However, the most enjoyable and inspirational for me was just to "hang out" and talk about the art scene in general. He was so knowledgeable about art personalities and history, especially of course, Canadian art. Then, of course, there were the Artists for Kids classes and camps. They were introduced to me by Bill MacDonald, who founded and organized them, along with many others, but they were energized by Gordon! He was such a humble person. He was genuinely excited by the possibilities of everyone, regardless of where they were in life, especially students and children with their never-ending curiosity of all things visual. This, of course, reflected Gordon's own amazing attitude, not only to art but to life in general. His generosity, excitement, and energy was contagious and affected everyone he came into contact with and, perhaps even, changed their life.

Synchronicity 3 (for D.S.)

2019

Silkscreen, stencil (enamel), pigment, and digital on paper

62 x 33 in Framed Edition 3/3

Lot #109

Donated by the Artist Courtesy of 1010 Art Gallery

Value: $3,000

Wayne Eastcott

Lot #110

Leonhard Epp

Untitled Ceramic

27 x 10 x 10 in

Donated by Ann Kipling

Value: $500

The Gordon Smith Gallery hosted an exhibition of Leonhard's work in 2019. Leonhard was well known as an educator of ceramics at the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr). His whimsical vessels explore how structures and figures affect and alter each other.

Artists for Kids is a proud collector of Epp's ceramics and have programmed artist-led activities for children and families, inspired by his work.

Leonhard Epp

Enn Erisalu

Canadian modernist painter Enn Erisalu (1943–2005), spent the early parts of his career creating abstractions such as Floating Forms, which have gained critical acclaim. Around the 1990s, Erisalu’s work took a conceptualist turn when he began working with text, numbers, and symbols. Several of these works are part of the Artists for Kids permanent teaching collection, which provides inspiring and enriching educational experiences at the Gordon Smith Gallery for thousands of young people annually.

Enn Erisalu

Floating Forms

1988

Mixed media on paper 31 x 39 in Framed

Donated by the Estate of Enn Erisalu

Courtesy of Gallery Jones

Value: $2,500

Lot #111

Lot #112

Jamie Evrard

The Ten Thousand Things LII

1991

Watercolour on paper

26 1/2 x 34 in Framed

Donated by Howard and Coleen Nemtin

Value: $1,000

What most intrigues me as subject matter for my paintings are the most ordinary things: still life objects that I see around the house day after day but that resonate for me in their familiarity and rather unremarkable landscapes in which I can find a particular quiet, understated beauty and mystery. I paint in order to see what it is I am looking at. Making art is a way of taking possession, a way of finding out how things really are, or perhaps of making them as I would like them to be. If a few days go by without my having drawn or painted, I become completely impossible.

Lot #113

2023

Paper, wire, found bottle from the 1940s

24 x 15 x 10 in

Donated by the Artist Courtesy of Catriona Jeffries Gallery

Value: $11,000

I will always regret not telling Gordon in person how much his Black Paintings affected me after I saw them at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2017. At the time, I was caught up in something; I think I was in the process of moving my studio and had a meeting at the VAG. Afterwards, I went through the galleries and found myself standing in front of these immense dark works: collaged black paintings of his experience of being in WWII. An experience that took him 60 years to be able to begin to translate into artwork. What a great thing Gordon taught me that day with those works. They floored me, flooded me, moved me, and transformed me in a moment, a blink, a gunshot. His wounding and the works, those paintings, transmuted to me the power and bravery of vulnerability and expression. In Gordon's case, and in many of his works, because of this, his ability to express the absolute wonder and bittersweet joy of being alive.

Geoffrey Farmer Bouquet

Lot #114

John Fulker

14 x 11 in

Framed

Donated by the Arthur Erickson Foundation

Value: $150

Arthur Erickson customarily hired the top architectural photographers to document his work. For Smith House II, Arthur hired one of America’s top architectural photographers, Ezra Stoller, and one of Canada’s top photographers, John Fulker. Their photographs of Erickson’s work were seen in publications around the world.

John Fulker Smith Residence Photographic print

The first time I saw one of Gordon’s paintings was at my neighbour’s house in West Vancouver in the early 80s. I was in my first year at Emily Carr College of Art and Design, , studying among other things, Abstract Expressionism. This connection revealed to me how paintings can be both representational and abstract at once. In the lower corner of Gordon’s winter landscape, a single leaf clung to a branch, as though refusing to fall off. Perhaps Gordon was that leaf. Or maybe it was just a perfect brush stroke.

Why I Write Such Good Novels

2023

Acrylic on paper

33 x 25 in Framed

Donated by the Artist Courtesy of Monte Clark Gallery

Value: $8,800

Lot #115

Graham Gillmore

Lot #116

Angela Grossmann

Painted Woman

2023

Acrylic on paper 24 x 20 in Framed

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Equinox Gallery

Value: $4,900

Angela Grossmann

Myself, Attila Richard Lukacs, Derek Root, and Graham Gillmore are honoured to contribute works to this fundraiser in the name of Gordon Smith. Gordon was our friend and mentor. The impact he had on us as artists and persons is profound. His life and actions inspired us to come together as friends and form our 85-5 Visual Arts Foundation/Portfolio Prize, with the objective “Artists for Artists”. With this sentiment, we aim to carry on the spirit of Gordon Smith by continuing a similar generosity towards young and emerging artists and our artistic community.

Jeremy Herndl

Lot #117

Jeremy Herndl Teck II

2021

Oil on canvas

38 x 30 in Donated by the Artist

Value: $4,400

I knew about Gordon’s work long before I met him. It had a big impact on me because I could see over the years how it changed, he was always experimenting and growing as an artist and this was encouraging for me to see because I was always told my work changed too much over time. When I was doing the MAA Program at Emily Carr University in 2009, Gordon came to give a talk and although I was a bit nervous to meet him, I stayed behind and introduced myself as the only painter in the program that year. Gordon was very kind and hospitable and he invited me to come to his house to visit and there would be many visits from then on. I would come over and show him some paintings, sometimes on my iPad, sometimes actual paintings. Gordon was effusive with his feedback and encouragement and it meant a great deal to me. I felt pretty alienated from the art world, academia, the market, and such, but Gordon’s approval mattered more to me and it put those other things into context. I remember telling him some feedback I had gotten from the BC Arts Council that there was too much detail in my work and Gordons' response was, "That's baloney, you should put more in, do more!" My friendship with Gordon centred around painting, which is a mutual understanding of the material and personal challenges and rewards of painting as a way of life. Gordon was a generous man and a gentleman which is so rare. He was and remains a mentor in this life of painting.

A man in a wheelchair with paint splatters and smudges all over his clothing and thick layers of paint on his shoes and wheelchair; that was my first encounter with Gordon Smith. As a young artist, I was influenced by Gordon Smith's masterful artworks. My artwork I Spy...when invisibility held you No.21 (Victoria, BC) echoes Smith's minimal landscape renditions like his Seawall series, where compositional structures were reduced to bands of colour. Here, using a disposable camera and handmade watercolour filters, I created an 'intentional blur,' incorporating elements of landscape and abstraction.

Additionally, I am proud to say that I am one of the privileged young artists to have benefitted from Artists for Kids, which he co-founded with other esteemed Canadian artists. Furthermore, the same organization mentored and trained me during my curatorial internship while completing my bachelor's degree. This fantastic opportunity was made possible through the support of the Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation. These invisible threads that connect me to Gordon Smith are clear evidence of what he had hoped for as an artist and an educator. This only proves how his legacy continues to be passed on to today's generation.

Karl Hipol

Lot #118

Karl Hipol

I Spy...when invisibility held you No.21 (Victoria, BC)

2022

Archival inkjet print

12 x 15 in Framed

Edition 2/10

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Federation Gallery

Value: $300

Khim Hipol

Lot #119

Khim Hipol makati ang kamay

2020

Archival inkjet print

15 x 12 in Framed Edition 1/8

Donated by the Artist Value: $320

I did not have the chance to work with Gordon Smith directly. However, I am honoured to have been a part of Artists for Kids and the Gordon Smith Gallery since 2016, where I started as a volunteer in the After School Art Program. I interned with the Smith Foundation in 2020, which deepened my professional development, and I learned about his commitment to arts education and the creative field. I have carried forward such care and passion and it has ignited me to strive for greatness with my work and passion for the arts. Nothing is more rewarding than working alongside Gordon's artwork daily.

Like Gordon Smith, who used his hand to paint, play, and experiment with materials, my artwork makati ang kamay (itchy hands) plays to the idea of the hand as one of the creative practice tools. The glitter shimmers from the hand reflect Gordon's expressive colour.

Lot #120

John David James

Reflection Study with Gordon Smith

2023

C-Print on Dibond

32 x 24 in

Donated by the Artist

Value: $4,300

I’ve known Gordon Smith all of my life. As a friend of my father's, we would visit and I would get a peek into his artist world. Later on in my life Gordon and I became friends and I would visit regularly. We would work on art projects, debate the art of the day, and have a drink. I helped document his work for a few years and filmed a documentary for Artists for Kids and the Smith Foundation in 2008. Gordon was always looking to see what was new in art but also had a great critical eye of what he liked and didn’t. When Marion was still alive, the two of them would debate back and forth about the merit of different pieces. You could see that she was Gordon's greatest critic and he always looked to her for guidance. These conversations have always stuck with me. I also have to thank Gordon for telling me to keep my head down and stay on the path I was on. I think about the 2 of them often and they are greatly missed.

Mark Johnsen

Lot #121

Mark Johnsen

Vacant Lot, I

2022

Lithograph, silkscreen, and monotype on Basingwerk paper

43 x 30 in Framed

Donated by the Artist Courtesy of Edition Boutique Value: $1,700

I was first introduced to Gordon’s work by visiting his exhibition, Through the Trees at Equinox Gallery in the fall of 2018. I was moved by the seamless way he combined painting and collage, and his ability to depict an environment by building up and breaking down an image. I found his work inspirational while in the master’s program at Emily Carr University. A few years later when the pandemic hit, my partner Sara-Jeanne Bourget and I started Patio Press, a remote printmaking residency. It was then that I first met Daylen Luchsinger from AFK, as he was one of the first to support our project. In June of 2021, we collaborated and printed linocut editions for the staff and instructors of the Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation and North Vancouver School District 44. Over two days we printed 289 prints, totalling in 17 editions, to connect or reconnect via print. This event has helped foster relationships with many community members and individuals affiliated with the Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation. I am pleased to be an Artist-in-Residence this summer for the Artists for Kids Senior Summer Art Intensive and feel honoured to be involved with such an extraordinary organization.

Lotus Laurie Kang

Guts

2022

Photogram, spherical magnets

28 x 24 in

Framed

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Franz Kaka

Value: $4,200

Lotus Laurie Kang

Meredith Preuss curated Unfixed, a two-person show with Lotus Laurie Kang and Chris Curreri in 2021 at the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art. Lotus' unfixed photograms present the ever-changing interior world of the body in equal measure with the substances that surround us. Spherical magnets punctuate the temporality of her two-dimension surfaces, physically and metaphorically securing the work in fixed space.

Lot #122

Russna Kaur

Lot #123

Russna Kaur

hot and molten, cooled together

2021

Acrylic and spray paint on canvas

48 x 36 in Donated by the Artist Courtesy of W Projects Value: $7,800

Over the past several years, my practice in painting has engaged with the medium as a space of possibility, play, and experimentation, one intimately entangled with the complexities of living—both its pleasures and adversities. My works are developed through rigorous investigations of colour, writing, digital sketches, and experimentation with mixed media, often exploring how a surface can reveal a narrative that addresses complex personal and cultural histories. Through my work I aim to provide the viewer with multiple entry points to engage in a dialogue about painting today—one that places emphasis on the use of texture, line and scale.

Kaur became involved with Artists for Kids in Spring 2022 as an Artist-in-Residence, teaching youth & educator workshops.

Lot #124

Tiko Kerr

Brightness Falls

2021

Acrylic paint, paper collage and polycarbonate gel on 3 ply plexiglass

17 x 17 in

Framed

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Mónica Reyes Gallery

Value: $3,500

Tiko Kerr

The enormous shadow that Gordon has cast as a voracious, creative force has influenced my work and my commitment to our community enormously over the past 40 years. Gordon's kindness, and dedication to his work, to education, and to children is unparalleled.

I am very grateful to have known him.

Ann Kipling

Gordon and I had a long friendship, based on a true fondness for one another as well as a mutual appreciation of each other's work. In the last two decades of his life, my husband Leonhard Epp and I saw him whenever we were in Vancouver. He was an exceedingly generous host, either taking us out to lunch or dinner or entertaining us in his home. And it was hard to visit his home and studio without being inspired. I was not really influenced by his work but by his work habits and also by his ability to make art his life and, at the same time, have another life altogether, one that was social and generous. I admire how supportive he was of other artists, especially young and emerging artists. That is a very rare quality. His generosity extended to us, too: whenever we visited, he would give us a gift of art, usually a print. I felt very privileged to be his friend. I miss him.

Lot #125

Ann Kipling

June 14, 2007

Graphite on paper

31 x 47 in Framed

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Marion Scott Gallery

Value: $3,200

I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity of sharing Sunday evening dinners with my partner and other close friends at Gordon and Marion Smith’s home on numerous occasions.

This diptych is a salute to those lovely and precious evenings. The use of thread, the colour palette, and the thick impasto surface of this pair of paintings, in my mind, brings back not only all of us sitting at the table and the cacophony of words and ideas that sprung from one end of the room to the other, but the house and the studio itself with its collection of paintings, weavings, artefacts, and gifts from everyone and everywhere. So many years of living, so many years of a life together.

There was food, laughter, but especially, always at these evenings, Gordon’s selflessness. His genuine attentiveness to everyone else. Leaning in close, Gordon would say, “But enough of me, YOU, YOU tell me, tell me, what are YOU doing? What are YOU working on?” His interest was insatiable, his curiosity always on high alert. By then, Marion had grown unwell but her aesthetic presence at Smith House also loomed large. Her interest and love for weaving and fabrics was still palpable. This diptych through its colours, gestures, and use of threaded lines is my window into those gentle, bygone days spent with Gordon and our friends at Smith House.

Lot #126

Lyse Lemieux

Sewn in two Parts: Dinner at Gordon’s 2022-23

Flashe, acrylic, and cotton thread on canvas

Diptych, 14 x 11 in each

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Wil Aballe

Art Projects

Value: $2,200

Attila Richard Lukacs

Myself, Angela Grossmann, Derek Root, and Graham Gillmore are honoured to contribute works to this fundraiser in the name of Gordon Smith. Gordon was our friend and mentor. The impact he had on us as artists and persons is profound. His life and actions inspired us to come together as friends and form our 85-5 Visual Arts Foundation/Portfolio Prize, with the objective “Artists for Artists”. With this sentiment, we aim to carry on the spirit of Gordon Smith by continuing a similar generosity towards young and emerging artists and our artistic community.

Untitled

2015 Oil, enamel, polyurethane, and asphaltum on gessoed paper 25 x 34 in Framed

Donated by the Artist

Value: $2,500

Attila Richard Lukacs

Lot #127

Gordon's work has been profoundly influential to me from the moment I first saw it. His uncanny ability to seamlessly move between figuration and abstraction, sometimes within the same piece, opened a door for me. Through his work I began to see the limitless possibilities of painting.

Later on I was lucky enough to spend some time with Gordon. I would pepper him with questions about his work and was always delighted by the spark in his eyes as he would enthusiastically share his thoughts. He almost never answered my questions directly and I would leave incredibly inspired but generally confused. Thinking back to those conversations now I feel I'm beginning to understand why. He was never trying to share his experience as much as he was helping me to try and see my own. I am honoured to be able to donate this piece to such a worthy cause.

Ready Made

2022

Acrylic on canvas

22 x 30 in

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Equinox Gallery

Value: $4,200

Lot #128

Erin McSavaney

Mehran Modarres-Sadeghi

This series explores mark-making and abstraction while referencing Persian Calligraphy, art, and architecture. A pen was used to an extreme, where a particular line or pattern is drawn freehand repeatedly to create a unified drawing without any focal point. This kind of drawing creates a sophisticated visual design which aims to pull the viewer’s imagination into a different world by getting lost in the details of the drawing’s fine lines. The artist had to become deeply involved in that process and that mood which took days or weeks to complete, and by the end, it was impossible to remember where the drawing started and where it ended. The process of looping and overlapping lines recalls Gordon Smith’s tangled paintings and his search to create a dialogue between abstraction and representation.

Lot #129

Mehran Modarres-Sadeghi Lost

2020

Ink on paper

28 x 27 in

Framed

Donated by the Artist

Value: $2,700

Lot #130

Damian Moppet

2019

Inkjet print

25 1/2 x 25 in Framed

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Catriona Jeffries

Value: $9,000

Damian has long been engaged with the processes and materials of painting and sculpture, and their histories, which he uses for the construction of his own vernacular. In his work, Auguste Rodin and Mike Kelley hold court alongside amateur ceramics and humorous interpretations of classical modernist sculpture. In recent years, the eccentric personal and art historical references found in his earlier works remain significant, but much less overt.

Damian Moppet

Over Moore

Emily Neufeld

Lot #131 Emily Neufeld

Polypore with Silver

2021

Resin and silver foil

6 x 8 in Donated by the Artist

Value: $450

I have been the studio technician at Artists for Kids for nearly 8 years and have felt the legacy of Gordon and Marion's generosity in the programming we offer. My son is a student in the North Vancouver School District and I've been grateful for the art enrichment that this school district is able to offer thanks to the Gordon Smith Gallery and AFK. Along with working for Artists for Kids, I've been a visiting artist to the art academy several times, I have exhibited work in an exhibition at the Gordon Smith Gallery and I've made lasting friendships with artists, coworkers and students that have come through our doors. Every school district should be so lucky as to have access to the arts enrichment available in North Vancouver.

Wayne Ngan

Lot #132

Wayne Ngan

Hakeme Vase

2005 Stoneware

11 1/4 x 7 1/2 x 8 1/2 in Donated by Wayne Ngan Studio

Value: $2,500

Wayne Ngan Studio, under the direction of Wayne's daughters Goya and Gailan Ngan, is pleased to join in honouring Gordon Smith’s legacy of supporting young creatives and enriching the opportunities and experiences of the next generation of artists. In addition to his celebrated body of work, Wayne Ngan’s vestige also lies in the inspiration he provided to others through teaching, mentoring, and welcoming visitors to his Hornby Island studio and garden. Known as an avid storyteller, he loved engaging with people, and his ability to make meaningful connections was—along with his lifelong dedication to integrating his life with his art practice—one of his most enduring traits. Throughout his career, Ngan encouraged many young artists with his zest for learning, creativity, and experimentation. This generosity of spirit he shared with the late Gordon Smith.

With Mimesis, I continue my exploration of the self and the human quest for identity.

While the complexity and fleetingness of our self might make it look like a futile task to truly capture the essence of our identity, we create, share, and look at millions of images of ourselves every day, in a tireless attempt to provide tangible proof of our existence. To be reassured, we somehow need to make ourselves more seen – by self and other.

As any look in the mirror, photograph taken, or portrait painted only offers a small glimpse of a being, images merely serve as a representation of the original. But what is the reality of the self?

With Mimesis I create a fictional world of

representation that mediates our relationship to reality. I appropriate, change, and reinterpret the original representations, in an effort to invite the viewer to look beyond the surface.

Here one may discover further embedded layers – the uncanny, the mysterious, the sad, the joyful, the painful – an expanding perceptual experience inviting exploration of the unknown parts of the self.

Thus, Mimesis encourages us to engage with our deep, emotional longing to understand, articulate, and visualize the complexity and universality of the human condition; and to take us beyond our usual, conditioned way of seeing and feeling.

2021 Oil on panel 36 x 36 in Donated by the Artist Value: $5,300

David Pirrie

Living on the edge of a wilderness in North Vancouver has made its mark on many of us artists who live here. It elicits a complex means of looking and experiencing the environment when you have both the influences of a modern metropolis on one side, and the North Shore Mountains looming and brooding above. The art of Gordon Smith and his whole practice defines this balance in a way that I can only hope to emulate.

David Pirrie Wedge Mountain, North Face

Lot #134

Derek Root

Lot #135

Derek Root Reflection

2023

Oil and wax on canvas and wood panel

18 x 14 in Framed

Donated by the Artist

Value: $6,200

Myself, Angela Grossmann, Attila Richard Lukacs, and Graham Gillmore are honoured to contribute works to this fundraiser in the name of Gordon Smith. Gordon was our friend and mentor. The impact he had on us as artists and persons is profound. His life and actions inspired us to come together as friends and form our 85-5 Visual Arts Foundation/Portfolio Prize, with the objective “Artists for Artists”. With this sentiment, we aim to carry on the spirit of Gordon Smith by continuing a similar generosity towards young and emerging artists and our artistic community.

Lot #136

Cindy Richmond Cloud Bowls

2023

Stoneware and glaze

4 x 13 1/2 in, 3 x 10 1/2 in,

5 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 11 1/2 in

Donated by the Artist Value: $300

I have always respected Gordon’s appreciation of all the arts, including the ceramic art that he collected and featured in his home. Gordon was a dear friend and also a great supporter of anyone involved in the visual arts. His influence and support nurtured my interest in ceramics as an art form.

Holly Schmidt

Lot #137

Holly Schmidt

Polygonatum "Many Knees"

2020

Watercolour and pencil crayon

19 x 28 in Framed

Donated by the Artist

Value: $1,000

I was invited by Daylen Luchsinger to be an Artist-inResidence with Artists for Kids in 2021. I led a series of workshops on botanical drawing for high school students. Botanical drawing was an important part of my practice during the pandemic. In the spring of 2020, I spent time walking around my neighbourhood and observing seasonal changes in plants and trees. I started drawing plants as a meditative practice to connect with the natural world and seasonal cycles. I appreciated the opportunity to spend time with students in the natural spaces of North Vancouver attending to plants and considering what we can learn from them.

Lot #138

Figure Study for the Great Refusal (in the city) - Chieh

2020

Oil on archival matte board

21 x 17 in

Framed

Donated by the Artist

Value: $1,400

Although I never had the pleasure of getting to know Gordon personally, being myself a career educator as well as an artist, I appreciate his legacy not only artistically, but also pedagogically.

My influences artistically lay elsewhere; however, I have always admired Gordon’s freedom and looseness of application, as it is something I continually strive towards.

Having had the pleasure of exhibiting at the Gordon Smith Gallery previously, it is an honour to be included in this event and to contribute to such a worthy institution.

Jay Senetchko

Lot #139

Arnold Shives

A Squamish Creek

1975

Linocut

Edition 12/12

30 x 23 in Framed

Donated by the Artist

Value: $5,300

In September 1961 I cycled with my friend to a former army hut on the east side of the UBC campus. It was on that sunny afternoon that I first met Gordon Smith. (I was one of a group from nearby high schools to be part of a special art education program led by Jim McDonald and Gordon Smith). In 1962 I entered UBC and audited courses given by Gordon and other art professors. Over the years I would phone Gordon and ask if I could drop by and show him my latest efforts. Invariably he would answer in the affirmative and was always encouraging.

At the end of January 1975 I visited him with my first puzzle prints. Gordon expressed particular enthusiasm for the work and purchased one of the pieces. In 1976 Gordon and Marion invited me and another former student, Rob Wilson, and his wife Diane Ostoich for dinner. Rob and Diane had just opened Crown Printers and I became one of their earliest clients which resulted in a decade of fruitful collaboration with them. In February of 2008 my wife and I were touring Sicily and visited the small town of Leonforte where the young artist and soldier Gordon Smith had been seriously injured in an enemy ambush. On my return to Vancouver I gave Gordon some of the photos I had taken of that dusty town in the shadow of Mount Etna.

In memory of mentor and friend, the ever-gracious Gordon Smith.

When I first moved to the West Coast to study at Emily Carr University, I was honoured to receive the Gordon and Marion Smith Painting Scholarship. At this early point in my practice I was making dense paintings of layered grids and webbed lines. While I was primarily interested in non-objective abstraction, once introduced to the work of Gordon Smith I found myself thinking about painting in a new way. Within Smith’s paintings of tangled, snow covered trees and spindly branches, I recognized a familiar language of abstraction, yet saw how this language could be teased out from an intimately observed world. This was captivating to me, and informed my approach to observational painting and abstraction during grad school. Throughout the years I lived in Vancouver, Artists for Kids and the Gordon Smith Gallery have provided educational and exhibition opportunities that have greatly impacted my path as an artist and instructor. It has been an honour to explore and learn with the students of AFK and to share my work with the community of the Gordon Smith Gallery and Smith Foundation.

M.E. Sparks

Lot #140 M.E. Sparks Transformation

2021

Oil on canvas

36 x 42 in

Donated by the Artist

Value: $3,700

Ezra Stoller

Lot #141

Ezra Stoller

Smith House II

Photographic print

14 x 11 in

Framed

Donated by the Arthur Erickson Foundation

Value: $150

Arthur Erickson customarily hired the top architectural photographers to document his work. For Smith House II, Arthur hired one of America’s top architectural photographers, Ezra Stoller, and one of Canada’s top photographers, John Fulker. Their photographs of Erickson’s work were seen in publications around the world.

Lot #142 Sylvia Tait

Pathways to Music

1995

Acrylic on archival paper

46 1/4 x 35 in

Framed

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Bau-Xi Gallery

Value: $5,600

Gordon Smith was a friend for years although we seldom socialized in the party sense. We shared art Values and had favourite painters in common. He was always gracious and generous with his words about my work. He used to say, "I was the painter." ha ha … We were artists from the European tradition and those influences were/are still there, but Gordon always was inventive and daring with new approaches to the art scene. His legacy will be firmly associated with his love for the land, Canada, and the painterly qualities and integrity he always delivered.

Sylvia Tait

Lot #143

Andrea Taylor Fever

2020

Cardboard, glue, fibreglass, epoxy resin, epoxy putty, scrap metal, acrylic paint, pencil crayon, charcoal

12 x 8 x 7 in

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Mónica Reyes

Gallery

Value: $1,100

I chose this sculpture, Fever, because it reminds me of a piece of dancing driftwood. When I was little, I used to watch my grandfather carve wood statues in his boathouse on Bowen Island. He would find pieces of driftwood and see figures in them, and make sculptures. This sculpture is chosen in memory of Grandad and also the memory of Gordon Smith who loved trees, and even made a few paintings of driftwood. My connection with the Smith Foundation began when I was Artist-in-Residence at Artists for Kids Summer Camp at Paradise Valley in 2017, and when I was included in the 3-person exhibition curated by Kate Henderson, We can only hint at this with words, at the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art in Spring of 2022.

I use mostly discarded, ordinary materials, like cardboard, to create mixed-media abstract sculptures. The sculptures end up being quite robust as I use fibreglass, epoxy resins, and putties, along with other materials. I relate to my sculptures as physical, wordless poems, consciously making space to allow for the viewer’s own experience of the work. Narratives surrounding the sculptures are centred around existential and lyrical/poetic ideas, feelings of embodiment, and in-the-moment thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

Lot #144

Mina Totino

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Mónica Reyes Gallery

Value: $6,000

Mina Totino's work was included in the 2016 exhibition "Readymades" at the Gordon Smith Gallery. Gordon Smith was inspired by a memory of the 1961-62 The Art of Assemblage exhibition at Museum of Modern Art (New York), which featured work by Marcel Duchamp, Picasso, and Braque.

Gordon's 2016 exhibition, curated by Bill Jeffries, brought together a group of renowned local artists for whom readymades factored into their practices.

Mina Totino Tavush Green

2019 Oil on canvas 28 x 26 in

Charlene Vickers

Lot #145

Charlene Vickers

Spring Has Sprung Ovoids

2021-22

Felt, glass beads, shell buttons, paper, gouache, embroidery thread

31 x 31 in

Framed

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Macaulay & Co. Fine Art

Value: $7,800

I am grateful to have my Turtle Clan and Thunderbird Woman in the Gordon Smith Gallery collection, and to support Artists for Kids’ Paradise Valley Summer School of Visual Art as the upcoming Artist-in-Residence.

Lot #146

2010

Photograph

Edition 6/10

Donated by the Artist

Value: $600

I photographed Gordon Smith many, many times over the years, quite often while he was teaching youth about art. Not only was he a great artist but a wonderful teacher as well. Gordon really pushed me to pursue my personal photography. We spent many hours at his West Vancouver studio discussing photos and the process involved in creating. I feel if it wasn't for Gordon's encouragement, I wouldn't have experienced so many aspects of photography and art in general.

Mike Wakefield House Raising

36 x 24 in Framed

Lot #147 Ian Wallace

The Table (Coup de Dés and Canvas) II

2019

Acrylic and photolaminate on canvas

24 x 24 in

Donated by the Artist

Courtesy of Catriona Jeffries Gallery

Value: $27,000

In memory of Gordon Smith

In memory of dear friend and most excellent painter Gordon Smith and to continue his legacy in initiating the Artists for Kids program I am pleased to offer a work for auction to support the fundraising part of the 2023 Brilliance Gala.

Lot #148

Gu Xiong

Cafeteria #3

1993

Serigraph

23 1/4 x 28 1/4 in Framed

Edition 19/50

Donated by the Artist

Value: $2,800

Gu Xiong

I have been involved with Artists for Kids for a long time, and I have taught some courses for the Paradise Valley Summer Visual Arts Camps. I also had a solo show and group show at the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art. I love to share my experience and artwork with kids.

Xwalacktun

Lot #149 Xwalacktun

Untitled

2023

Yellow cedar, aluminum, LED lights

24 1/4 x 21 x 3 1/4 in

Donated by the Artist

Value: $5,000

Gordon had a great vision for art education; he was thinking of the next generation. Gordon and Artists for Kids gave each individual student the tools for their journey and the ability to utilize their learnings.

I was very honoured to carve the doors for the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art.

The design of this artwork was originally created for the 2018 FANS Society Lifetime Achievement Award, given to Gordon Smith, and the 2018 FANS Society Distinguished Artist Award, given to Sylvia Tait and Claudia Casper.

The artwork has been photographed to showcase a sampling of the many different colours that can be displayed using LED light controls built into the piece.

2015

Karen Zalamea

Edition 1/5

Donated by the Artist

Value: $2,700

I became involved with the Gordon Smith Gallery through an invitation to participate in the group exhibition Beyond the Horizon in 2021. Through this experience, I was introduced to the dedicated educational and curatorial staff who were genuinely excited about mounting the exhibition and having it serve as an educational tool for countless elementary school classes who would visit the gallery that academic year. Following the exhibition, I was invited to be the Photographic Enrichment Mentor and Artist in Residence with Artists for Kids in November 2022. I worked with a motivated group of high school students, and our workshops reflected on how photography impacts our relationship to place by visiting the North Vancouver Archives and by creating artworks that merged historical documents with their own locationbased photographs at the Shipyards District. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to contribute to the Smith Foundation’s educational programs through the Gordon Smith Gallery and Artists for Kids.

Karen Zalamea Light & Variation 6

Archival inkjet print on Photo Rag mounted on Dibond 25 x 31 in Framed

Lot #150

Lot #151

EXPERIENCE PACKAGE: FIND INSPIRATION IN TOFINO

Among the beachcombing and tidal pools, a feature of Gordon Smith’s work and an inspiration to him personally, enjoy a two-night stay at The Tofino Beach Collective’s Unique Vacation Rental Homes, Tofino Brick House. Located across the road from and a short walk to the majestic views and worldclass waves of Chesterman Beach, the Tofino Brick House is a unique, three-bedroom home situated on a landscaped acreage with a private hot tub and outdoor shower. Clad in old brick, the home features, on the main level, a timber-frame, vaulted-ceiling living space with a fantastic chef kitchen and eating bar, an elegantly furnished and spacious dining and living area, a large bedroom with two double beds, a bathroom (shower only) and laundry room. On the second level is a master bedroom with king bed, a second bedroom with queen bed, a full bathroom with a shower and soaking tub, and a cozy, art-inspired reading lounge. For surfer enthusiasts, surfboard and wetsuit storage are provided.

Complete with a private tour of Tofino Gallery of Contemporary Art, hosted by director/curator, Leah McDiarmid, with complimentary BC sparkling wine.

This offer is not redeemable for cash and is valid November 15, 2023 through March 15, 2024, subject to availability, and excludes the week of Dec 24 - 31, 2023 and the Family Day weekend Feb 16 - 19, 2024.

Value: $1,800

Donated by Tofino Beach Collective Inc. and the McDiarmid Family https://www.tofinobeachcollective.com

Lot #152

EXPERIENCE PACKAGE: AN ARTISTIC WHISTLER GETAWAY

Get away for a two-night stay at the premier luxury Four Seasons property in Whistler, British Columbia, featuring a large-scale Gordon Smith piece in the lobby of this mountainside oasis. Enjoy a dinner at Hy’s, featuring Prime grade steaks, cold martinis, and trademark warm hospitality, with a gift card valued at $500. Complete your stay with a personal tour of the Audain Art Museum, featuring unique and evolving exhibitions from Canada and around the world, led by the Audain Art Museum curatorial team.

This package is courtesy of Four Seasons Whistler, Hy’s Whistler and the Audain Art Museum.

Value: $2,450

Whistler Getaway An Artistic

Biographies

Artist

Sara-Jeanne Bourget

Sara-Jeanne Bourget is a visual artist from Quebec, living and working in Vancouver, British Columbia. She engages in a cyclical process that captures and recycles the methods and materials inherent to her drawing and printmaking practice. Her work questions how the act of mining materials in/site/fully is reflected in various systems, including nonhuman interactions. She is fascinated with the effect of time on surfaces, the layers of matter that build up grounds, and how erosion creates space for new forms. She holds a BFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University (2015) and an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2019). She is currently a sessional faculty member in the Audain Faculty of Art at Emily Carr University. She has exhibited her work and participated in residency programs in Finland, Canada, and The United States. In 2020, she co-funded Patio Press, a collaborative and experimental printmaking project.

Bobbie Burgers

Bobbie Burgers is interested in the process of decay, transformation, and metamorphosis. With a distinct style that merges abstraction with representation in increasing degrees, her work brings together instinctive compositions while revealing her precise powers of observation. Remarkable for their compositional rhythms, bold coloration, and sweeping gestural brushstrokes, Burgers’ paintings bring alive the fundamental quest to express something personal, subjective and emotive, in a poetic, abstract way.

Amelia Butcher

Amelia Butcher is a visual artist based in British Columbia with a sculptural and drawing practice centred in clay. She graduated from Emily Carr University in 2013 and is a founding member of the Dusty Babes Collective. From 2015-2021 she lived and worked out of their communal studio, built by the late great Don Hutchinson, in Surrey, BC. She has exhibited widely and instructs classes and workshops in ceramics, sculpture, and comic-making for all ages. She is a board member of the BC Potters Guild and coordinator of their community gas kiln. Her studio is based in South Vancouver, the unceded, ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Brent Comber

My practice explores generation, connection, permanence, and impermanence. Embedded with memory, the materials I work with— wood, predominantly distinct tree forms, and light—are elemental to the story being told, with their stories and my own inextricably linked to the Pacific Northwest. This place, as a physical environment and a sensorial experience, has shaped who I am and how I see as an artist. Sculptural and often large-scale or inherently purposeful, my work invites the viewer to reimagine their relationship with the natural world.

Pierre Coupey

Pierre Coupey, founding editor of The Capilano Review, has

been exhibiting nationally and internationally in solo and group shows since 1964. He has received awards for poetry and painting, private and public commissions, and grants from the Conseil des Arts du Québec, the Canada Council, and the BC Arts Council. In 2013 his work was the subject of a survey show, Cutting Out the Tongue: Selected Work 1976-2012 , jointly curated by the West Vancouver Art Museum and the Art Gallery at Evergreen. The exhibition catalogue was supported by a grant from the Audain Foundation for the Arts. He is represented in private collections in Canada and abroad, and in corporate, university and public collections, including the Belkin Art Gallery, Burnaby Art Gallery, Canada Council Art Bank, Kamloops Art Gallery, Kelowna Art Gallery, Simon Fraser University Art Gallery, University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, and West Vancouver Art Museum.

Douglas

Coupland

Douglas Coupland is a West Vancouver writer and artist who has been working in the global arena for over 30 years. He was close friends with Gordon Smith and has incorporated Gordon's own modes of creation into his own practice.

Christos Dikeakos

Christos Dikeakos was born 1946 in Thessaloniki Greece, and moved with his family to Canada in 1956. Dikeakos received a BFA honours degree in 1970 from the University of British Columbia. Since the 1960s and 70s, Dikeakos' photo practice has played an important role in the development of

conceptual photography in Vancouver. His work investigates the archaeological and historical through photography. As a firstgeneration member of the Vancouver photo conceptualist scene, he offers a critique of urban history, topography, cultural aspects of inhabitation, and the city in a state of flux. His Sites and Place Names photographs of Athens, Berlin, Saskatoon, and Vancouver open histories, ideological contexts, and track significant cultural shifts. His recent photographs of West Coast Pacifica engage in the idea that there exist conductive resonances in both cultural and natural spaces. A retrospective exhibition of 5 decades of his work, The World is an Open Studio, is currently on view at the Museum of Photography in Thessaloniki Greece.

Katie Kozak & Lucien Durey

Since 2012, Katie Kozak and Lucien Durey have worked together on durational projects that enact care for one another and gratitude toward the places and spaces in which the artworks are realized and exhibited. The resulting artworks and programs contemplate lineage, ancestry, queerness, sustainability, and healing within a context of reimagining place-based relations that serve the social and cultural landscape of their shared communities. The duo's first major project began in 2012 when they moved to Creighton, Saskatchewan to take up a year-long, self-directed residency in the home of octogenarian Sophie Ostrowski—Katie’s maternal grandmother. Titled Baba’s House, the site became a venue for public exhibitions, presentations, workshops and events, as well as an artists’ studio. Using materials found within the home, they produced scanner bed photographs that were exhibited at multiple institutions across Canada. Both Kozak and Durey are graduates of the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program at SFU's School for the Contemporary Arts.

Wayne Eastcott

In 1966, Wayne Eastcott graduated with honours in painting and printmaking from the Vancouver School of Art, then embarked on a career of innovative printmaking. This led to a Canada Council Grant in 1968 for the development of new printmaking techniques, in particular the Xerox technique. He subsequently engaged the interest and active participation of Xerox Corporation in Rochester, New York and Fuji-Xerox in Tokyo, Japan where he made a defining video “Electography, what is it?” Wayne joined the art faculty of Capilano College in 1971 and, in the same year, he and BC Binning, established the Dundarave Print Workshop in West Vancouver, which is now operating on Granville Island in Vancouver. In 1979, he established the printmaking Department of Capilano College. Wayne has exhibited nationally and internationally, including New York, Japan, Yugoslavia, Poland, Germany, Spain, India, and Brazil. His work is found in many private, corporate and public collections, such as the National Gallery of Canada.

Leonhard Epp

Leonhard Epp was born near Heidelberg in 1932. The youngest of 9, he lived through WWII while in his teens. Before he left Germany, he took a journeyman certificate in stone sculpture at the Handwerkskammer, Manheim. He arrived in Canada in 1951 and worked as a lumberjack for one year in Rimouski, Quebec. He moved to Vancouver and by 1956 enrolled at the Vancouver School of Art, graduating in 1960. At some point while at VSA he also took up ceramics, and would have been a student of Robert Weghsteen. He just missed John Reeve and would have crossed over with fellow

students, Heinz Laffin and Wayne Ngan. By 1962 and until 1972 he taught sculpture and ceramics at the VSA.

In 1973 Leonhard moved up country to Falkland, Okanagan and taught sculpture and ceramics at the Okanagan College from 1974-1976. From 1976 until 2008 Leonhard worked out of his studio. His last, curated exhibition was in 2008 in the Vernon Art Gallery. His life partner was Ann Kipling, another respected BC artist. Leonhard's work was exhibited in many galleries in BC, including the Vernon, Kamloops and Kelowna public Art Galleries, and in numerous group exhibitions in Vancouver and Seattle. He exhibited at the Bau-Xi Gallery, and the House of Ceramics. In 2021 his work was included in 2 group shows at the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art in North Vancouver.

Enn Erisalu

Canadian modernist painter Enn Erisalu (1943–2005) was born in Estonia and immigrated to Canada in 1951. He studied art in Florence, London, the University of Oregon, and at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, where he earned a BFA and BPA. In 1969, he settled in Vancouver and spent the early parts of his career creating abstractions, such as Three Forms, which have gained critical acclaim. Around the 1990s, Erisalu’s work took a conceptualist turn when he began working with text, numbers, and symbols. Erisalu’s work and legacy as an artist have been praised by several recognized art critics and historians including Robin Laurence, Chris Brayshaw, and Patrik Andersson. They cite his aesthetic influences in Cubism, Constructivism, Minimalism, and Conceptualism among others. Enn Erisalu’s work has been well exhibited and collected in Toronto,

Artist Biographies

Seattle, New York, and Europe. Collections include Agnes Etherington Art Center, Canada Council Art Bank, Artists for Kids, Bank of America, City of Seattle, Vancouver Art Gallery, Simon Art Gallery and more.

Jamie

Evrard

Jamie Evrard was born in 1949 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jamie enrolled at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and began to study drawing and etching in earnest. She pursued a Master of Arts degree at Iowa University, where she continued to build on her knowledge of printmaking and etching and her love of anthropology. She went on to receive an MFA in printmaking in 1976. She moved to Vancouver in 1978 where she has maintained a studio and pursued her painting and monotype printmaking. She was an instructor for one of the AFK summer camps at the picturesque Cheakamus Centre in Paradise Valley, Squamish BC. Jamie is a painter and printmaker best known for her lively and colourful explorations of still life, flowers, and gardens. Her lush, painterly approach to imagery has established her strong reputation across Canada and in the United States.

Geoffrey Farmer

Born in 1967, Geoffrey Farmer is an interdisciplinary artist living in Kauai whose work spans drawing, collage, sculpture, film, video, performance, and writing. His sitespecific installations draw on popular culture, history, and references from literature and film, creating a constellation of images and ideas from disparate sources and time periods. Farmer's approach highlights

how history is in a constant state of transformation and examination. Notably, for dOCUMENTA (13) in 2012, Farmer created Leaves of Grass, an installation composed of cut-out historical images from LIFE magazine, propped on blades of Miscanthus grass and assembled in chronological order. Farmer has exhibited widely, including representing Canada at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017 and solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Tate Modern, London.

1990s Fulker worked on international assignments photographing contemporary homes and historic buildings from around the world. Today in a time of rapid redevelopment and demolition, Fulker's work is a lasting record of an important architectural legacy.

Angela George

John Fulker's compelling architectural photographs first appeared in publications featuring modern design in the early 1960s. In subsequent decades, Fulker became a leading Canadian photographer through his intuitive approach to image-making. In North America, a burgeoning post-war building boom saw a flourishing period of innovative modernist architecture, particularly on the West Coast, and demand for photographers grew alongside it.

In 1958, while studying photojournalism at the New York Institute of Photography, Fulker realized that he could make a living photographing architecture and studied the work of prominent American architectural photographers, Julius Schulman and Ezra Stoller. Fulker's images of iconic homes and buildings designed by Arthur Erickson, Barclay McLeod, Dan White, Clifford Wiens, Douglas Cardinal and Barry Downs among numerous others promoted innovative Canadian design to local and international audiences.

From the late 1960s until the late

Angela George carries two ancestral names, sits’sáts’tenat and qwənat. Her late mother is slatwx, Cookie Thomas (Cole/Discon/Billy family) from Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and her father is from the Baker family from Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and the Jones and Peter family on Vancouver Island. This Coast Salish mother of 4 has dedicated her career to the betterment of First Nations people and communities. Traditionally groomed, she has a strong understanding of her culture and spiritual teachings and the impacts of colonization and barriers that plague First Nations communities. She has a strong passion for traditional canoe racing, weaving, and cultural singing and dancing and believes that practicing traditions and having a strong sense of identity and connection to our ancestors is vital to community wellness, development and sustainability.

Graham Gillmore

Exploring the word as image and the image as word, Graham Gillmore’s work balances between treacherous antipodes: pathos and wit, defiance and charm, and more basically, the anguish of experience and the rapture of its aesthetic expression. The twisting knife of a smartass remark, the threatening anonymity of a clinical evaluation, and the famous-last-words potential of pillow talk are articulated

John Fulker

in his oeuvre with a chromaticism their ruthlessness seems to beg. Employing puns and punchlines both lewd and mawkish, and referencing clichés, board games, rebuses, barroom banter, and graffiti, his paintings are by subtle turns playful, earnest, and caustic. At times surrounded by bubbles that are interlinked via intestinal networks of lines, the letters and syllables he depicts take on lives of their own, as though reverberating in the mind suggestively, or suspiciously, connoting an overwhelming variety of possible meanings that appear to jostle for recognition.

Angela Grossmann

Angela Grossmann was born in 1955 in London, England. In 1980, she was visiting her sister in Vancouver when she discovered the Emily Carr College of Art and Design. Here, she began her formal art education. At Emily Carr she met fellow “Futura Bold” artists Douglas Coupland, Attila Richard Lukacs, Derek Root, and Graham Gillmore who came to be known as “The Young Romantics” after their now-legendary show at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1985. The exhibition launched the career of these young artists who each went on to international acclaim. Angela Grossmann has built a reputation as a significant force in Canadian art. She is an internationally acclaimed Canadian artist best known for her powerfully expressive collages and drawings, exploring issues of human identity.

Jeremy Herndl

Jeremy Herndl was born in Surrey, BC and has lived across Canada and abroad. He earned his BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art in Design in 1996 and his MAA in Painting at Emily Carr University in 2011. In recent years, Jeremy has received funding from the Canada Council for

the Arts, BC Arts Council, and a third Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant. He has been Artist-in-Residence at the Banff Centre, Tombstone Territorial Park in the Yukon, and the Vermont Studio Center (Helen Frankethaler Fellowship), along with receiving The Brucebo Residency Award in Gotland, Sweden. In the past few years his work has been exhibited at Michael Gibson Gallery in London, Ontario; Surrey Art Centre in Surrey, BC; Open Space Art Society in Victoria, BC; Two Rivers Gallery in Prince George, BC; and numerous other group shows. His work is in collections such as the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Surrey Art Centre, The University of Victoria, The West Vancouver Museum, the Brucebo Foundation in Sweden, The City of Surrey, The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and many corporate and private collections.

Karl Hipol

Karl Mata Hipol is a Filipino Canadian multidisciplinary artist, curator, and writer from the traditional unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, North Vancouver. Hipol’s work spans painting, weaving, sculpture, art installation, and public artwork. His current artistic practice looks at Archival Collections, investigating the absence or presence of Filipinos in Canada. He aims to disturb 'Filipino invisibility' within the Canadian landscape. Hipol holds a BFA (2022) with a major in Visual Arts and a minor in Curatorial Practices from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, where he was awarded the OPUS Graduation Award and Anti-Racism + Social Justice Award. Previously, Hipol curated an exhibition at the Gordon Smith Gallery and Faculty Gallery at Emily Carr University. His gallery exhibitions include Burnaby Village Museum, Burrard Arts Foundation, Centre A, Seymour Art

Gallery, and the Reach Gallery Museum. He was also the Artist-in-Residence awardee at the Herschel Supply Co. (2022).

Khim Hipol

A graduate of Certificate of Photography (2019), and Bachelor of Fine Arts Major in Photography and Minor in Art and Text (2023), both from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Hipol received the Audain Travel Award (2022) and was long-listed for the Lind Prize (2022). He has shared his works in group shows at The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado (2022); Calgary (2022 and 2023); and Vancouver.

John David James

Self-taught and led by his own inquiries, Canadian artist (John) David James has absorbed mediums and subject matter in an artistic practice that has spanned more than thirty years. James’ characterization of himself as a dilettante belies the fact that, as a painter, photographer, filmmaker, and musician, as well as a performance, sound, and installation artist, he has made himself at home across a number of disciplines. James emerged in the late 1990s. His earliest works, in which he utilized the act of presenting art as the foundation to create his work, were based on a deep understanding of the conceptual ideology of the artist being both the creator and the viewer. His current practice makes use of photographs, collage, paint, and sculpture as he continuously inverts, re-mixes, and re-creates his images. Final pieces are most often presented as large-scale photographs of the work.

Despite his prolific practice and having his work collected within Canada and beyond, he is just now becoming deliberate about exhibiting.

Biographies

Artist

Mark Johnsen

Mark Johnsen is an American visual artist living and working in Vancouver, British Columbia. His print-based practice examines the possibilities of the unique, handpulled impression in an era of digital reproduction. Through studies of material exploration, traditional and non-traditional printing techniques, he works to capture gestural and representational time stamps. He is the co-founder of Patio Press, an experimental and collaborative printmaking project run alongside artist Sara-Jeanne Bourget. He holds a BFA in Photography from California College of the Arts (2012) and an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2020). He has exhibited throughout The United States, Canada, The United Kingdom, Turkey, Bosnia, Japan, Switzerland, and New Zealand and is currently an Assistant Professor in Print Media at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

Lotus Laurie Kang

Lotus Laurie Kang works with sculpture, photography, and siteresponsive installation. Known for her sprawling installations and distinctive material repertoire, Kang’s practice is a dialogue with impermanence and entropy. Elegantly disordered and richly layered, her site-sensitive works explore the relational bonds between time, personal history, and cultural knowledge. They seek to disrupt a human-centred perspective of the world with a broad curiosity for life and matter tangled in states of exchange that produce and are reproduced by their environments. Notable group exhibitions include The New Museum; SculptureCenter;

Cue Art Foundation; New York; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver; The Power Plant; Art Gallery of Ontario; Franz Kaka; Cooper Cole, Toronto; Remai Modern, Saskatoon; Misk Art Institute, Riyadh; Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana; and Camera Austria, Graz. Recent solo exhibitions of her work include Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Mercer Union, Toronto; Oakville Galleries, Oakville; and a forthcoming commission at Chisenhale Gallery, London.

Russna Kaur

Born in 1991 in Brampton, Ontario, Russna Kaur is a painter currently living and working in Richmond, British Columbia. Kaur completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Waterloo (2013) and a Master of Fine Arts at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2019). Kaur is the recipient of the Takao Tanabe Painting Prize (2020) and the IDEA Art Award (2020). Kaur has exhibited works nationally at institutions including the Remai Modern (2023), Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives (2022), and Kamloops Art Gallery (2021) and has shown internationally in Mumbai, IN (2023). She was commissioned to create work for the Boren Banner Series at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA (2021). Kaur’s work is held in numerous collections including the Audain Art Museum, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Surrey Art Gallery, and the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art.

Tiko Kerr

Tiko Kerr, born in 1953, initially received his BSc in Biology from the University of Calgary in preparation

for a career in medicine. However, a following gap year turned into a six year global adventure which enabled Kerr to pursue his true calling: to document his experiences in drawing and painting.

Kerr settled in Vancouver where he established a four decadelong career of exhibitions in public and commercial galleries as well as set design, installation, murals, performance, public art, and documentary art direction. Collaborating with other artists as well as teaching and community advocacy have always been important to him.

Ann Kipling

Ann Kipling is one of Canada's most original and distinctive senior artists. She is acclaimed for her careerlong commitment to the practice of drawing and for the characteristic visual language she employs in registering her chosen subject. She is best known for her landscapes in ink, pencil, conte, or watercolour, many of which she created in the Northern Okanagan area, where she has lived for more than 40 years. However, she has also drawn animals, still life subjects, and psychologically piercing portraits of friends, neighbours, and colleagues. Born in Victoria, BC in 1934, Kipling attended the Vancouver School of Art in the late 1950s, graduating with honours in 1960. She has exhibited extensively and her work has found its way into public and private collections across Canada. In 2004, she won the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts and in 2008, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Emily Carr University.

Lyse Lemieux

Lyse Lemieux’s interdisciplinary practice has focused on drawing, and includes sculpture, painting, and installation. In recent years Lemieux has expanded her practice to include outdoor large scale public art with projects that consider the physical, emotional, and communal environments these spaces can offer. Through considerations of process and materiality her work continues to explore the space between abstraction and representation, while maintaining a strong connection to the human and sometimes not so human figure. Originally from Ottawa, Lemieux attended the University of Ottawa and graduated with a BFA from the University of British Columbia. She has exhibited nationally and internationally including the Canadian Cultural Centre in Rome, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Oakville Galleries, Richmond Art Gallery, TrépanierBaer Gallery in Calgary, Wil Aballe Art Projects, SFU Gallery, and the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver. Lemieux has been awarded grants from the BC Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts, and is the 2017 recipient of the VIVA AWARD granted annually by the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation for the Visual Arts. Her work can be found in public and private collections nationally and internationally. Based in Vancouver, two of Lemieux’s large-scale public art projects were installed in Vancouver in 2020 and 2021. Upcoming projects and exhibitions include solo exhibitions in the fall at Wil Aballe Art Projects in Vancouver and at Loftyart Gallery in Taipei. Lemieux has been awarded and is currently working on a public art project scheduled for completion in 2025 in Burnaby.

Attila Richard Lukacs

Atilla Richard Lukacs was born in Alberta in 1962. In 1985, Lukacs graduated from the

Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia. He moved to Berlin in 1986, working at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin. In 1996, he relocated to New York City in order to be closer to the centre of American art Lukacs is known predominantly for his paintings of male skinheads, primates, and American military cadets during the early 1990s. These brutally explicit works shocked and provoked a generation of painters and critics alike. Although Lukacs is best known for paintings that depict exaggerated masculine figures, such as gay skinheads and military cadets (Military Series True North), he has also created a collection of paintings of flowers (Flowers) and trees (Arbor Vitae). His paintings frequently reference the historical compositions and themes of David and Caravaggio as well as the compositional devices of the miniature painters and illustrators of India (Of Monkeys and Men) and the Middle East. A more recent series of paintings depict conifer trees, dramatically painted in tar on a silver leaf field. The artist now lives in Vancouver.

Erin McSavaney

Born in Vancouver in 1973, Erin McSavaney studied at Emily Carr University of Art + Design and graduated from Capilano University in 1998. Erin has exhibited his work across Canada and the United States, and is represented in both public and private collections, such as Global Affairs Canada (Ottawa) and TD Bank Group (Toronto).

Mehran Modarres-Sadeghi

Mehran Modarres-Sadeghi, born in Isfahan, Iran, is an interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver. She received an MFA in Visual Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and a BFA from the University

of British Columbia. Modarres-Sadeghi’s works pose questions about preserving culture and language amongst generations of Iranian immigrants living in North America; it investigates the socio-cultural implications of hybridity as they relate to interethnic exchange and the globalizing process of travel and translation. She has exhibited her work in several solo and group exhibitions and participated in residency programs. Her recent solo exhibitions include Thread at Sunshine Coast Arts Council’s Doris Crowston Gallery (2020), TRACING SHADOWS at Gallery 1515 (2021), and Ma Miaeem va Miravim (We Come and Go) at North Vancouver District Library’s Gallery (2022).

Damian Moppet

Born in Calgary in 1969, Vancouver-based Damian Moppett’s solo exhibitions include Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver (2023, 2021, 2016), Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (2016), Simon Fraser University Gallery, Burnaby (2014), Vancouver Art Gallery Off-site (2012), Rennie Collection at Wing Sang, Vancouver (2011), Yvon Lambert, Paris (2007), Temple Gallery, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia (2007), Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa (2006), and Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2005). Moppett has been included in numerous group exhibitions including Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (2022), Griffin Art Projects, North Vancouver (2018), National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2017, 2014, 2012, 2008), Vancouver Art Gallery (2010), Witte de With, Rotterdam (2006), Museum Van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp (2005), White Columns, NY, Galerie Kunstbuero, Vienna (2004), and Power Plant, Toronto (2002). Moppett holds an MFA from Concordia University, and a BFA from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design, where he has taught for over a decade.

Emily Neufeld

Emily Neufeld lives and works on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples in what is currently named North Vancouver. Her practice investigates place and the layers of memory and psychic history that accumulate in our material world. She is committed to examining her own Mennonite and Scottish settler colonial histories in understanding her relationship to this place as Indigenous land. Recent solo exhibitions include Prairie Invasions: A Lullaby (2020, Richmond Art Gallery, BC), Before Demolition: Tides (2019, Eyelevel Gallery, NS), Motherlands (The Pole, Den Haag, ND), and Before Demolition (2017: Burrard Arts Foundation, BC). She received her BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2013. Neufeld has created and participates in community sharing gardens, and sees land as fundamental to her research process.

Wayne Ngan

With his singular blend of technical mastery and experimental methodology, Wayne Ngan (1937–2020) is widely recognized as one of Canada’s most renowned and celebrated ceramic artists. His prolific body of work spans over 60 years and reflects influences of both historical and contemporary modes of making. Ngan’s artistic legacy lies in his remarkable, transcendent works that convey a voice uniquely his own.

Wayne Ngan received the Saidye Bronfman Award for Masters of the Crafts in 1983 and the British Columbia Creative Achievement

Award of Distinction in 2013. His work has been shown at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Hanart Galleries in Hong Kong and Taipei, the London Design Festival at Canada House, NADA Art Fair in Miami, the Dallas Art Fair, and he has had solo exhibitions at Nathalie Karg Gallery in New York, Marc Jancou in Geneva, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and numerous other venues worldwide.

Birthe Piontek

Born and raised in Germany, Birthe Piontek moved to Canada in 2005 after receiving her MFA from the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany. Her work has been exhibited internationally, in both solo and group shows, and is featured in many private and public collections such as the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and the Museum of Applied Arts in Gera, Germany. Birthe Piontek’s project The Idea of North won the Critical Mass Book Award in 2009 and was published as a monograph in 2011. Her project Abendlied received the Edward Burtynsky Grant in 2018 and was nominated by Time Magazine as one of the best photo books of 2019. Her most recent work, Janus, was published by Gnomic Book in 2021.

Birthe Piontek is an Assistant Professor of Photography in the Audain Faculty of Art at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver and a member of the Cake Collective.

David Pirrie

David Pirrie creates iconic representations of the mountains that surround us in Western Canada. His work has been shown internationally

for over 15 years and he is represented in Vancouver by Ian Tan Gallery and in Jackson, Wyoming by Diehl Gallery. Recent corporate collections have included Deloitte, Microsoft, and Cathay Pacific. Museum shows have included Search/Research: Contemporary Landscapes at the Surrey Art Gallery, Roadrunners at the Kelowna Art Gallery, and Western Drift at SFU.

Cindy Richmond

Cindy Richmond has been involved in the visual arts for the past 35 years in various capacities, and more recently took up ceramics in 2018.

Derek Root

Derek Root is well known for his mastery of colour, and his new body of work focuses his dexterity on the monochrome. In past works, Root has explored the monochrome through wax paintings, but his latest works delve into a new method of composition where the artist methodically applies and removes wet paint from the canvas surface. Creating different textures and patterns through repetitive linear strokes using hand-made tools, the works suggest elemental knowledge and assume a narrative or poetic quality. Though reductive in colour—charcoal on charcoal, white on white—and absent of any overt symbolism, a sense or mood emerges from the expressive quality of the mark-making. Root uses the means of abstract minimalism—seriality, the grid, and monochrome, to emphasize the gestural mark and surface, indicating the existence of time passing. Like all of Root’s paintings, regardless of medium, they embody an enigmatically sculptural presence.

Derek Root is a graduate of Emily Carr University of Art + Design. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including at Monte Clark Gallery, Union Gallery in London, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. His works are included in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Canada Council Art Bank, and numerous others. Derek Root lives and works in Vancouver.

Holly Schmidt

Holly Schmidt engages processes of embodied research, collaboration, and informal pedagogy to explore human relations with the natural world. Her recent exhibitions and residencies include: City of Vancouver Engineering Artist-in-Residence (2020-2023); The Future is Floating (2020), Other Sights & Sydney Festival, Sydney, Australia; Mantle (2019), Art Gallery of Evergreen, Coquitlam; Vegetal Encounters Residency (2019-2023), UBC Outdoor Art Program, Vancouver; Quiescence (2019), Burrard Arts Foundation, Vancouver; Pollen Index (2016), Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver; Till (2014/15), Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe. Schmidt is grateful to live and work in Vancouver, Canada, the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̍əm, Skwxwú7mesh and səl ílwətaʔɬ Nations.

Jay Senetchko

Senetchko’s educational and professional path is as diverse as his work as an artist. He received a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Alberta in 1997, and a Diploma of Classical Animation from the Vancouver Film School in 2001.

His career path has seen him spend time as a professional soccer player in Edmonton and Montreal, a hydroponic farmer in Hawaii, and since 2002 as a

post-secondary professor of life-drawing, perspective, composition, painting, colour theory, and art history.

He is the author of two published texts, and is currently working on a third. Primarily self-taught as an artist, his painting has been strongly influenced by apprenticeships with both Gideon Flitt and Odd Nerdrum. His work has been exhibited internationally since 2002, is in both public and private collections, and is the recipient of numerous awards.

Arnold Shives

In 1964 after my studies at UBC I set off for the San Francisco Art Institute. I then received a Carnegie Fellowship to study at Stanford University and received a Master of Arts degree. In 1975 my puzzle prints received significant attention and I exhibited my work in Vancouver, in Pollock Gallery in Toronto, and over the years widely in Canada and abroad. At the 1977 World Print Competition at San Francisco MoMA, my print was singled out for the Alternate Special Edition Purchase Award. In 1985 one of my block prints was exhibited in the California Palace of the Legion of Honour in San Francisco. In 2018 I exhibited in the Audain Art Museum in Whistler. In 2020 I was included in the Vancouver Art Gallery's exhibition Lineage and Land Bases. My interest in landscape comes out of my background in mountaineering in the coastal mountains of BC. My work is in the permanent collections of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Burnaby Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Ontario, Tate Gallery London, Fitzwilliam Museum, and University of Cambridge.

M.E. Sparks

M.E. Sparks is an artist and educator currently living in Winnipeg, MB, Treaty 1 Territory. Through a practice of pulling

apart and recombining borrowed forms, both art historical and autobiographical, Sparks looks for the moment an image loses its representational solidity. Sparks holds an MFA from Emily Carr University (Vancouver) and BFA from NSCAD University (Halifax). She is a recipient of project and research grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Winnipeg Arts Council, BC Arts Council, and Arts Nova Scotia. She has participated in artist residencies in Canada, Germany, and Finland, and was a finalist in the 2016 and 2017 RBC Painting Competition. Recent exhibitions include A Fine Line at Trapp Projects (Vancouver, 2021), and a Rag in the Other at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art (Kelowna, 2022), and We can only hint at this with words at the Gordon Smith Gallery (North Vancouver, 2022).

Ezra Stoller

Ezra Stoller was an American architectural photographer who worked from the late 1930s into the 1980s. Stoller’s images convey the three-dimensional experience of architecture through a two-dimensional medium with careful attention to vantage point and lighting conditions as well as line, color, form and texture. Among the iconic structures he photographed are Fallingwater, the Guggenheim Museum, the Seagram Building, and the TWA Terminal. Often the images are as familiar as the buildings they document. Ezra Stoller’s work included photographs of science and technology, factories and industrial production, and commercial and residential architecture. His work can be seen as social history as well as documents of design and construction. Many modern buildings are recognized and remembered by the images Stoller created as he was uniquely able to visualize the formal and spatial aspirations

Biographies

Artist

of Modern architecture. During his long career as an architectural photographer, Stoller worked closely with many of the period’s leading architects including Arthurt Erickson, Frank Lloyd Wright, Paul Rudolph, Marcel Breuer, I.M. Pei, Gordon Bunshaft, Eero Saarinen, Richard Meier and Mies van der Rohe, among others. Stoller died in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 2004.

Sylvia Tait

Sylvia Tait was born in Montreal and studied for four years at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts under Arthur Lismer, Jacques de Tonnancoeur, and Eldon Grier. There, Tait received three scholarships, the Top Student Award, and Honour Diploma. Since the late 1950s, Tait has exhibited across North America in solo and group shows, and has been represented by Bau-Xi Gallery since 1977. Her paintings are in private, corporate, and public collections in Europe, USA, Mexico, Ecuador, UAE, Hong Kong, Japan, South Asia, and Canada. Selected collections include: Musée de l'Art Contemporaine, Montreal; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba; Vancouver Art Gallery; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art; Burnaby Art Gallery; West Vancouver Art Museum; Canadian Music Centre; Simon Fraser University; University of British Columbia Collection; St. Paul’s Hospital; Vancouver General Hospital; and Lions Gate Hospital, Provincial and City Art Collections.

Andrea Taylor

Andrea Taylor is a local artist whose work considers body fragility/strength,

temporality, corporeality, movement, and the experience the viewer has with the work. Using mostly commonplace materials, she creates abstract mixedmedia sculptures, stop-motion videos, and drawings. Andrea holds an MFA in Visual Art from Vermont College of Fine Arts (2014) and completed a Banff Centre Spring Intensive Residency (2017). Past solo shows include Mónica Reyes Gallery (2022), Malaspina Printmakers, and Back Gallery Project. One of her videos was included in God in Reverse: When Wisdom Defies Capture, a digital exhibition curated by Mohammad Salemy for the Richmond Art Gallery in 2020. In 2022, her work was featured in a three-person exhibition at the Gordon Smith Gallery with M.E. Sparks and Russna Kaur, curated by Kate Henderson, and in 2023, was in a group exhibition at Lalani Jennings Contemporary in Guelph, Ontario. She has taught Continuing Studies for many years at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

Mina Totino

Mina Totino is a Canadian painter based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Totino's work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions in Montreal, Toronto and Berlin. Totino first came to prominence in the 1985 Young Romantics exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Her work has been exhibited notably in Vancouver at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Artspeak, SFU Galleries, Western Front, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and most recently the West Vancouver Art Museum. Internationally, her work was shown at the Centro d'Arte Contemporanea, Ticino, Italy; Centre d'Art Centemporain and Dialogai

Geneva, Switzerland; Latvian Center of Contemporary Art, Riga, Latvia; Canada House, London, UK; and Galerie Likorfabrik, Berlin, Germany, among others.

Charlene Vickers

Charlene Vickers is a Vancouver based visual artist and performer from the Anishinaabe Wauzhushk Onigum First Nation. Charlene has work in collections at the Gordon Smith Gallery, the Museum of Anthropology, the Forge collection, and Seattle Art Museum. Charlene is an artist of modern life who teaches at Emily Carr University of Art + Design and plays Bass.

Mike Wakefield

After graduating from Emily Carr, I worked as a photographer for the North Shore News for 37 years. I have been included in many soIo and group shows and have presented various talks, classes, and workshops on photography over the years.

Ian Wallace

Ian Wallace was born in Shoreham, England in 1943. After completing his studies at the University of British Columbia and graduating with a master’s degree in Art History, he taught art history at UBC from 1967 to 1970 and at the Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design from 1972 to 1998. Wallace was granted an honorary doctorate at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2007) and University of British Columbia (2010).

Wallace has been active in the creation, promotion, and appreciation of innovative processes in contemporary art practice through

writing, teaching, and exhibiting his work. Wallace has been an influential figure in the development of an internationally acknowledged photographic and conceptual art practice in Vancouver.

Ian Wallace is represented by Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver; Jessica Silverman, San Francisco; Parra and Romero, Madrid; and Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels.

Gu Xiong

Gu Xiong is a professor and multimedia artist at the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, UBC. He works with installation, painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, photography, video, digital imagery, text, and performance art. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, including more than sixty solo exhibitions and three public art commissions. He has participated in over one hundred prominent national and international group exhibitions. His works are represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the China National Museum of Fine Arts, and the Vancouver Art Gallery, among many other museums and private collections.

Gu’s practice centres on the creation of a hybrid identity arising from the integration of different cultural origins. Through the critical angle of visual art, his work encompasses the dynamics of migration, invisible labour, globalization, local culture, and seeks to create an entirely new identity.

Xwalacktun

Xwalacktun OBC (born Rick Harry) is a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation artist whose works are recognized internationally. Xwalacktun was born and raised in Squamish and carries with him

the rich ancestries of his father (Squamish Nation) and mother (Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw Nation ). He was given his Indigenous name by his father, Pekultn, who was a hereditary chief, originally from the Seymour Creek area in North Vancouver.

Xwalacktun attended Emily Carr University of Art + Design and Capilano College and credits both with helping him acquire skills in starting his career. But it is his endurance and commitment through trial and error, and deep commitment to the community, that has helped propel him forward as an artist. He has received numerous honours and awards including an honorary degree from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2022), the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013), and the Order of British Columbia (2012) for his many contributions to British Columbia, Canada, and beyond.

Xwalacktun’s works are seen throughout Vancouver and the surrounding areas. He created the 10 foot by 8 foot double doors for the Gordon Smith Gallery in the Artists for Kids Building. He is also known for the numerous and ongoing work he has done with a large number of elementary and secondary schools in 7 different districts.

Healing, growth and raising an awareness of the environment are central themes in Xwalacktun’s work.

By focusing on how the traditional stories relate to his own life, he suggests how to use this ancient knowledge to help heal oneself and one's community. The giving out of positive energy and seeing it come back through the young people is the reward that continues to feed his spirit so that he can give back to others.

Karen Zalamea

Karen Zalamea is a Filipino Canadian artist, educator, and cultural worker

based in Burnaby, the ancestral and unceded homelands of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples. Her work has been exhibited at Access Gallery (Vancouver), Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, Burrard Arts Foundation (Vancouver), Ex Teresa Arte Actual (Mexico City), Franc Gallery (Vancouver), Galerie Simon Blais (Montreal), Gallerí Fold (Reykjavik), Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art (North Vancouver), Or Gallery (Vancouver), Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art (Toronto), and The Reach Gallery Museum (Abbotsford). Zalamea’s projects have received support from the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, and Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and she has carried out artist residencies in the Philippines, Iceland, and Canada. In 2023, she received the Prefix Prize in photography. Zalamea holds an MFA from Concordia University and a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

Auction Conditions & Terms of Sale

LIVE AUCTION

The highest bidder acknowledged by the auctioneer shall be the purchaser. The Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation for Young Artists (the Foundation) or the auctioneer reserves the right to reject any bid. In the event of any dispute between bidders, or in the event of doubt on the Foundation’s part as to the validity of any bid, the auctioneer will have the final discretion either to determine the successful bidder or to re-offer and resell the property in dispute. If any dispute arises after the sale, at the discretion of the Foundation, its sales record is conclusive. Each lot is subject to a reserve. If bids are below the reserve value of the lot offered, the auctioneer may withdraw the lot from sale.

FRIENDS OF GORDON COLLECTION

The Friends of Gordon Collection is available for purchase through the Buy It Now option, as well as through the concurrent Givergy Auction. Buy It Now purchases can override previous Givergy Auction bids.

GENERAL TERMS

Bids entered are binding. All sales are final, the purchaser will be required to pay all applicable taxes. No purchase can be returned, refunded, or exchanged. The Foundation reserves the right to withdraw any property before sale and assign any lot number to an auction item.

PAYMENTS

Payments for Friends of Gordon Collection items will be processed electronically upon the closing of the auction. 7% PST will be added to all items. Invoices will be issued to Live Auction buyers at the final price as acknowledged by the auctioneer. 7% PST will be added to all invoices. Auction items will not be available for pick up until payment has been received in full. Payment must be received within 14 days of the auction. Charitable Tax Receipts will be issued to purchasers in accordance with CRA regulations.

AUCTION PICK UP

The designated day for Auction pick up is Saturday, June 17 from 12 pm to 4pm PDT at the Gordon Smith Gallery, 2121 Lonsdale Ave, North Vancouver. After Saturday, June 17, successful bidders must arrange to pick up Auction items within 30 days following the event. Successful bidders must pick up Auction items from the Gallery, complimentary delivery is not offered. Shipping may be arranged at the cost of the successful bidder. To schedule your pick-up after June 17 or to arrange shipping, please contact admin@smithfoundation.ca.

LIVE AUCTION PICK UP

The Foundation team will contact you following the Gala to make arrangements.

CLOSING OF AUCTIONS

Live Auction artworks will be auctioned in the lot order which they appear in this catalogue on Thursday, June 15, 2023. Friends of Gordon Collection bidding closes on Friday, June 16 at 4pm PDT.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

These Conditions and Terms of Sale as well as the purchaser and the Foundation’s respective rights and oblivion hereunder shall be governed by and constructed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the Province of British Columbia. By bidding at this Auction, online, by agent or other means, the purchaser shall be deemed to have consented to the jurisdiction of the courts of the Province of British Columbia.

Neither the Foundation nor the auctioneer shall be responsible for the acts of omission of its employees, agents, nor any carriers or packers of purchased lots. All lots are sold “as is.”

PRIZE DRAW (CONTEST) TERMS & CONDITIONS

The winner of these items must answer a skill-based question before being given their prize. If they cannot answer this correctly, a new winner will be chosen. The winner must be over the age of 19. The winner cannot be living in Quebec. A release form will be sent to the winner. No purchase necessary. Entries can be submitted by mail to the Foundation at 2121 Lonsdale Ave, North Vancouver, BC V7M 2K6.

Thank You to our Donors

Artists for Kids

Audain Art Museum

Daina Augaitis

Sara-Jeanne Bourget

Bobbie Burgers

Amelia Butcher

Brent Comber

Pierre Coupey

Douglas Coupland

Christos Dikeakos

Wayne Eastcott

Arthur Erickson Foundation

Estate of Enn Erisalu

Geoffrey Farmer

Four Seasons Whistler

Angela George

Graham Gillmore

Angela Grossman

Jeremy Herndl

Khim Hipol

Karl Hipol

Hy’s Whistler

John David James

Mark Johnsen

Lotus Laurie Kang

Russna Kaur

Tiko Kerr

Ann Kipling

Katie Lucien Kozak Durey

Lyse Lemieux

McDiarmid Family

Erin McSavaney

Mehran Modarres-Sadeghi

Damian Moppett

Howard and Coleen Nemtin

Emily Neufeld

Wayne Ngan Studio

Birthe Piontek

David Pirrie

MayLin Poon

Attila Richards Lukacs

Cindy Richmond

Derek Root

Morris and Kumyuen Saldov

Holly Schmidt

Jay Senetchko

Arnold Shives

M.E. Sparks

Andy Sylvester

Sylvia Tait

Andrea Taylor

Tofino Beach Collective Inc.

Mina Totino

Joan Tuey

Charlene Vickers

Mike Wakefield

Ian Wallace

Bruce Munro Wright OBC

Gu Xiong

Xwalacktun

Karen Zalamea

THANK YOU TO OUR TRIBUTE TO GORDON FILM CONTRIBUTORS

Greg Bartels

Douglas Coupland

Allison Kerr

Dr. Anne Watt

Asha Calaminus

Raiden Takahashi Stokes

Fraser Harding