Vancouver Art Gallery Adds 334 Artworks to Its Collection

The Vancouver Art Gallery has recently added 334 works to its collection. The works include Sarah Anne Johnson’s breakthrough 2003–4 photo series Tree Planting, at least one of Brian Jungen’s latest sculptural pieces, and recent works by Elad Lassry.

Many of these artworks are due to be highlighted in a new exhibition series of the gallery’s fourth floor in 2019 “that will highlight selections from the collection, including recent acquisitions,” says chief curator Rochelle Steiner in a release. A few are on view now in the exhibition “The Metamorphosis.”

Of the artworks acquired this year, 41 have been donated by Vancouver-based photography collectors Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft. These include Stephen Waddell’s large-scale colour photo The Asphalt Layer (2001) and Wayne Alfred’s red cedar bark sculpture Salmon Transformation Mask (1992). Collector Tim Kerr also donated 24 pieces, including 15 black-and-white photographs by Fred Herzog dating from the 1950s to 1980s, and four works by Graham Gilmore.

Sonny Assu’s acrylic-on-panel work Ghost (2015) was donated by the artist. Artist Ian Wallace also donated his 2011 large-scale, four-part work Construction Site (Olympic Village I-IV) to the gallery’s collection, too.