Scholar Christine Poggi and artist Ian Wallace at the Vancouver Art Gallery on January 29, 2013
On January 29, 2013, Canadian artist Ian Wallace and American critic and scholar Christine Poggi held a joint lecture and discussion at the Vancouver Art Gallery as part of Reading Ian Wallace: An International Perspective—a series of talks held in conjunction with the career survey of Wallace concurrently showing at the gallery.
Wallace is best known as a founding member of what has come to be recognized as the Vancouver school of photoconceptualism. Through his teaching at the University of British Columbia and other institutions, Wallace was a teacher and mentor to such younger artists as Jeff Wall, Ken Lum, Stan Douglas and Rodney Graham. His work set precedents by blowing up photographs to scales typically associated with history painting, and by uniting these images—documents from the news or the everyday—with minimalist, monochrome painting.
Christine Poggi’s research has focused on early 20th-century European avant-gardes, the invention of collage and constructed sculpture, and the relationship of art to emerging forms of labour and technology. She is also interested in contemporary art; in the relation of art, newspaper, and other forms of mass media; and in the ways works of art address singular or collective beholders.
Collage has been a recurring strategy in Ian Wallace’s work, and the recent proliferation of collage-based activity suggests its significance in contemporary art production. In this talk, Poggi addressed collage in the wider context of art history and related it to Wallace’s practice.
Ian Wallace in conversation with Christine Poggi from Vancouver Art Gallery on Vimeo.
Other talks in this series included a lecture by Wallace himself on January 15, a conversation between Wallace and Vancouver artist Stan Douglas on February 5, and a conversation between Wallace and UK artist and critic Victor Burgin on February 19.
Reading Ian Wallace: An International Perspective was a partnership between the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Canadian Art Foundation International Speaker Series. The series is sponsored by BMO Financial Group. To enjoy more talks recorded at Canadian Art Foundation programs, please visit our Talks page.
