Kesu’

March 17-September 3, 2012, The Audain Gallery, MOA. Opening reception, Friday, March 16, 7 pm (free; everyone welcome)

Northwest Coast Kwakwaka’wakw art is renowned for its flamboyant, energetic, and colorful carving and painting. Among the leading practitioners was Doug Cranmer (1927-2006), whose style was understated, elegant, and fresh, and whose work quickly found an international following in the 1960s. He was an early player in the global commercial art market, and one of the first Native artists in British Columbia to own his own gallery. A long-time teacher, he inspired generations of young Native artists in Alert Bay, BC, and across the province.

Kesu’: The Art and Life of Doug Cranmer honours a man who embodied “indigenous modern” before the term had been coined, but preferred the descriptor “whittler” or “doodler” to “Kwakwaka’wakw artist.” In this celebration of Cranmer, Kesu’ captures the artist’s personality, his paradoxes, his range of work, and his profound influence on generations of Northwest Coast artists.

The exhibition displays a wide range of Doug’s artistic works in two and three dimensions in wood and paint, from totem poles, a canoe, masks, bentwood boxes, bowls, and prints, to his important “Abstract series” of paintings on mahogany plywood. Works and words by his students will also be included in this unique exhibit, which is organized as a series of overlapping modules that present aspects of the artist’s complex perspectives:

• Doug the Contrarian - “Always his own man”
• Doug the Pragmatist - “Better than working for a living”
• Doug the Individualist - “Nothing to prove to anyone”
• Doug the Iconoclast - “I always figured it could be done”
• Doug the Mentor - “Don’t lose the centre line”
• Doug Cranmer - “Indigenous modern artist”

Dr. Jennifer Kramer, MOA Curator, Pacific Northwest, and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at UBC, is the curator of the exhibition, and author of a book by the same name, published by Douglas & McIntyre. She has worked with the Nuxalk Nation of Bella Coola, BC, since 1994, and with the Kwakwaka’wakw since 2004, collaborating on the care and curatorship of their cultural heritage in the collection at MOA.

Vivien Cranmer, Doug Cranmer’s widow, is curatorial consultant for this exhibition. She holds a BA in Education from Simon Fraser University, and works as an artist and fashion designer.

Gloria Cranmer Webster, Doug Cranmer’s younger sister, is a cultural consultant to the exhibition. She is the first director of the U’mista Cultural Centre, working tirelessly to repatriate the potlatch collection illegally taken from guests attending a potlatch held in 1921 by her father, Dan Cranmer. She holds a BA in Anthropology from the UBC, and has curated and consulted on numerous exhibitions and books, such as Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kwakiutl Potlatch at the American Museum of Natural History and The First Peoples Hall at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Forest One by Annie Ross

March 20-May 27, 2012, The Great Hall, MOA

The Great Hall: gallery, performance space, parking lot. Yes, parking lot! For about two months this spring, Annie Ross’ amazing Forest One – a full-size, 1956 Nash Metropolitan automobile that the artist has wrapped, twined, and plaited with cedar-bark and other reclaimed materials –will be displayed here, in all its woven glory. Using bark salvaged from clear-cut urban forests, Dr. Ross, a weaver and Assistant Professor in First Nations Studies at Simon Fraser University, completely transformed the car inside and out. Forest One speaks of colonization, urban sprawl, trash, and remediating the urban landscape through acts of salvage.

Visions of Enlightenment

May 10-Sept 30, 2012

As this is a first-time exhibit on Buddhism for MOA, the content will focus on basic Buddhist concepts and images, and reflect the purpose of Buddhist art: why it is made, who made it, for whom, and how it is used; for example, in teaching, facilitating meditation, gaining merit, and for devotional purposes. 

The content will be presented in 'theme clusters,’ according to such topics as: the Three Treasures of Buddhism, that is the Buddha, Dharma (Teaching), and Sangha (Community); the role of the bodhisattva and teacher; karma; the role of hand gestures (mudra); obtaining merit, ritual, meditation, devotion; and other personal expressions of Buddhist practice.

Objects included will represent and illustrate each of the content themes, and offer viewers varied visual experiences. A range of media will be represented, including sculptures (made of stone, metal or lacquered wood) paintings, scrolls, ceramics, manuscripts, and textiles. These will be drawn from MOA's Asian collection, as well as from private lenders in British Columbia and from the collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

Visions of Enlightenment will show examples of Buddhist art from the two main Buddhist traditions: the Theravada and Mahayana.  In Vancouver, the Mahayana tradition is well represented, and reflects the well-established Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan communities. The Theravada school is less familiar, and represents the traditions of the smaller Thai, Burmese, and other Southeast Asian groups. The inclusion of Mahayana Buddhist art will make a connection with Vancouver’s Buddhist community, and present Buddhist images that are widely recognized today.

The exhibition is guest curated by Paula Swart, who has been associated with the Museum of Anthropology as a Curator Asia since 2009. She lectures in the University of Victoria  Continuing Studies Department, and has guest lectured on National Geographic Society expeditions to Asia.

Exhibition organized by the UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver Canada, and sponsored in part by Canadian Society of Asian Arts.