Jeff Wall, “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, the Prologue, 1999–2000.
Vancouver artist Jeff Wall has cancelled his exhibition at the Audain Art Museum. Earlier this spring, the gallery announced that Wall’s show was slated to open along with the museum in late 2015. The gallery is now scheduled to open in January 2016.
Speaking with Canadian Art, gallery director Suzanne Greening confirmed that the show would no longer be moving forward. “We were told that many of the works were not going to be available,” Greening says. “So we’ve had to respond accordingly, and have come up with another temporary show to open with.”
The change was sudden, admitted Greening. “We had been proceeding with the knowledge that we were opening with a Jeff Wall exhibition.
“We had done a catalogue, and had been working very closely, up until about two weeks ago.”
In its stead, the gallery will present the work of Diego Rivera and other Mexican Modernists culled from the collection. “We had talked about having a show like this down the road,” says Greening. “We’ve had to bring it forward, shall I say.”
The Audain Art Museum is the project of philanthropist and collector Michael Audain and with his wife, Yoshiko Karasawa. The gallery will focus on showing work from British Columbia and house their extensive collection, which includes pieces by Emily Carr and others.
Recently, Audain voiced some criticism about the Vancouver Art Gallery’s conceptual design, which he described as “basic” to the Vancouver Sun. Wall is a major proponent of the project.
Wall did not respond to request for comment by press time. His gallerist, Marian Goodman, declined to comment.
