Artist’s talk: Michael Doerksen
Michael Doerksen is a Canadian visual artist who has exhibited sporadically since the late 1990s. His practice is based mostly in sculpture with occasional detours in drawing, photography, and video. His figurative group sculpture entitled ‘chatbots’ along with his latest wood carvings based on whimsies are the focus of this talk.
How art seeds change, and seeds change art: Carey Newman
Indigenous artist, visionary, and creator of the powerful art installation ‘The Witness Blanket,’ Carey Newman guides us through some of his inspirational art pieces to teach us how art can be the key to enabling ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
Kelly Richardson discusses her work with Metallica on CBC As It Happens
In this interview, artist Kelly Richardson discusses her work with Metallica on CBC As It Happens. The opportunity began when director Tim Saccenti and artist/curator Dina Chang reached out about using some of Richardson’s art in a music video. “There’s a primal unease to her pieces that cuts to your core.”
Dr. Heather Igloliorte: Illavut/ Our Relatives: Transforming Relations Between Inuit and Institutions Through Care, Mentorship, and Collaboration.
In this presentation, Dr. Igloliorte discusses how she and other Inuit scholars, curators, artists and museum professionals are currently reshaping how circumpolar Inuit art is written about, exhibited and collected within Canada and around the world.
Paul Walde in conversation with KAG curator Charo Neville
Professor Paul Walde discusses his solo exhibition Glacial Resonance (from 2023) with Kamloops Art Gallery curator Charo Neville. Glacial Resonance shares the artist’s enduring concern about environmental crises, channelled through sound and video with the largest exhibition of his work to date.
Southam Lecture: David Beers on “The War on Journalists”
Visiting Southam Lecturer David Beers WEDNESDAY, Feb 12, 2023 When veteran journalist David Beers founded The Tyee two decades ago as one of Canada’s very first independent online-only news sites, he intended an “experiment to see if the nascent internet would allow...
Puppets Forsaken presents – The Noisebau
Puppets Forsaken presents THE NOISEBAU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2022 | 7:30 PMPhillip T. Young Recital Hall, MacLaurin Building, University of Victoria Puppets Forsaken (David Gifford & Natali Leduc)With work by Mowry BadenAnd a performance by Christopher Butterfield...
Dr. Chen Shen
Dr. Chen Shen Vice President of Art & Culture at Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)Museum and Object Being the Agency in Transforming Peoples’ Lives. Dr. Chen Shen serves as the Vice President of Art & Culture at Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), responsible for research...
Michèle Moss
Michèle Moss Dancer, choreographer, researcher Description As well as being co-founder of Calgary’s concert jazz dance company and community school DJD (Decidedly Jazz Danceworks), Michèle Moss is an associate professor with the University of Calgary’s Faculty of...
Creative Futures: “Documenting the Climate Crisis”
Fine Arts Dean's Speaker Series presents Creative Futures: "Documenting the Climate Crisis" Published JULY 6, 2022 How can the arts help people better understand the impact of the climate crisis? Discover how artists & scholars in the Faculty of Fine Arts are...
From a Ragged Edge, Daniel Laskarin explores possible futures
Continuing Studies at UVic presents A Ragged Edge, Daniel Laskarin explores possible futures Published JULY 5, 2022 An artist and a professor with the Department of Visual Arts, Daniel Laskarin’s practice is object based, materially and philosophically rooted; it...
Counter Mapping and Sinixt Resurgence
Marilyn James is a Smum iem Matriarch appointed by her Sinixt elders to uphold Sinixt protocols and laws in the Sinixt təmxʷúlaʔxʷ (homeland) under the laws of whuplak’n and smum iem. Her work has included the repatriation of 64 ancestral remains from museums and...
Living Lightly on the Earth
Visiting Scholar: Steve Mannell The Orion Series in Fine Arts proudly welcomes guest Steve Mannell, who will give an online lecture entitled, “Living Lightly on the Earth.” Built in 1976 by Solsearch Architects and the New Alchemy Institute as an “early...
Strength in Spirit
Strength in spirit Living with COVID-19 Artists work This last year has been a particularly challenging one for the art world. COVID-19 spread across the world like a wildfire, forcing us into a public lock-down. Confined physically, Indigenous artists have had to...
Blue and White
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria Dr. Heng Wu AGGV Curator of Asian Art Adjunct Assistant Professor, Art History and Visual Studies University of Victoria Marcus Milwright Department Chair, Professor Art History and Visual Studies
Islamic Tiles in Museums: Past, Present & Future
Visiting Scholar: Richard McClary Islamic tiles are always a challenge to present, as individually they are but one small part of a larger decorative programme. This talk offers a way to contextualise the objects and tell their stories more fully by examining the...
Artist’s talk: Kelly Richardson
This talk was offered in support of her exhibition, Halcyon Fog, curated by Charo Neville for Kamloops Art Gallery (2022). Using digital technologies, Kelly Richardson creates hyper-real, sublime, and spectacular landscapes that communicate underlying unsettling narratives. Her work asks us to consider what we truly value and where we might go from here.
Unmasking Meaning: Culture, Collection and Family
Description Through the generous support of the Orion Fund in Fine Arts, the University of Victoria is pleased to present: Monika ZessnikCurator North American Collections, Ethnologisches Museum Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Presented by UVic’s Department of Art History...
Megan Dickie in conversation with Kimberly Phillips
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria presents Megan Dickie in converation with Kimberly Phillips Published NOVEMBER 22, 2021 Professor Megan Dickie discusses her solo exhibition and publication Blue Skies at the AGGV with Kimberly Phillips. The AGGV is thrilled to launch...
UVic Writing’s 2021 Southam Lecture: Andrew Nikiforuk
Description As an author, journalist and contributing editor for The Tyee, Andrew Nikiforuk has written about the use—and abuse—of natural resources and wild landscapes in Canada for more than 30 years. Now, the Department of Writing is proud to have him as their...
Creative Futures: Sustainability & the Arts
Description Discover how Fine Arts scholars & researchers are responding to today’s defining issues in this new biannual Dean's Speaker Series. The climate crisis is one of the most urgent problems of our time, and the arts can play a vital role in helping people...
Pop goes the art!
Legacy Art Galleries exhibit unites two alumni through art Absurdist leopard-print paintings may not pop immediately to mind when you think of Victoria’s artistic legacy. But that’s an oversight a new Legacy Maltwood exhibit will address with Eric Metcalfe: Pop...
JB MacKinnon on “The Day The World Stops Shopping”
We can’t stop shopping. And yet we must. This is the consumer dilemma that noted author J.B. MacKinnon is addressing in this special Department of Writing Orion Lecture. The author of five books of nonfiction, MacKinnon is also an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic and Atlantic, as well as the Best American Science and Nature Writing.
Curator’s talk: Eden Grove AIR
Visual Arts Visiting Speaker series presents Eden Grove Artist in Residence Recorded SEPTEMBER 15, 2021 The Eden Grove Artist in Residence program (March to June 2021) offered artists the opportunity to be immersed in ancient temperate rainforest ecosystems while...
The Choice To Be Creative with Lindsay Delaronde
Heart Seed Creatives presents The Choice To Be Creative with Lindsay Delaronde Published SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 Chantal Solomon interviews Lindsay Delaronde about staying true to her chosen path as an Indigenous Artist while navigating modern notions of artistry. She...
Carey Newman: Hearts and Hands
Visual Arts Visiting Speaker series presents Carey Newman: Hearts and Hands Recorded June 22, 2021 Carey Newman, whose traditional name is Hayalthkin’geme, is a multi-disciplinary Indigenous artist, master carver, filmmaker, author and public speaker. Through his...
Dr Fahmida Suleman
Since the late 19th century, museums have devoted attention to Islamic art and craft, encompassing objects dating from the seventh century to the present. Ideas about how the diverse and fascinating visual and material cultures of the Islamic world should be displayed have changed significantly over time, reflecting the broader trends in museum practice.
Life Stories
Life Stories Exhibition brings to light a provocative array of visual and material culture from the University of Victoria Art Collections that engages with life stages and related rituals. The exhibition runs December 2, 2020 - April 3, 2021 at the Legacy Art Gallery...
Jennifer Baichwal
Discover the life story of the planet Join Canadian filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal in conversation with local writer, filmmaker and TV producer Barbara Todd Hager for this lively Orion Series discussion, which is part of the public programming for the exhibition Life...
Nonfiction Podcast
Nonfiction Podcast with David Leach & Deborah Campbell A conversation between UVic writing professors David Leach and Deborah Campbell (plus guest authors and experts) about the art, craft and ethics of researching, writing and revising creative nonfiction,...
Artist’s talk: Katie Bethune-Leamen
Visual Arts Visiting Speaker series presents Katie Bethune-Leamen Recorded OCTOBER 21, 2020 Katie Bethune-Leamen is a visual artist who works in sculpture and installation. Recent solo exhibitions include: La douche écossaise (Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto), Tom...
A glazed Stonepaste Bowl
What is stonepaste, and why was this material so important in the development of glazed pottery across the Islamic world? This talk considers a Medieval glazed stonepaste bowl from the Tushingham collection and looks at the ways in which the form and decoration were...
Handmade Pottery from Medieval Jordan
Why would anyone choose to form a ceramic vessel by hand when it is easier and quicker to make it on a potter’s wheel? This talk looks at two handmade pottery vessels from medieval Jordan and considers what the technological and visual characteristics might tell us...
A Painting from Hama
What unusual substance was used to make this painting? This talk considers a monochrome painting on paper made in 2005, and discusses the cultural significance of the substance used in the paint.Figure 1.Painting on paper by Sameer Tanbur. Hama, 2005. Private...
A Block-Printed Fabric from Hama
Why is a cotton sheet made in the Syrian city of Hama decorated with images of waterwheels? This talk discusses the visual characteristics of this simple textile and explores the links that can be made between the repeated decoration has to block-printed cotton...
A Brass Lunchbox
How many different techniques were required to manufacture this brass lunchbox? This talk examines the form and function of the lunchbox, and links it to earlier examples produced during the Mamluk sultanate (1250-1517) in Egypt and Syria? Figure 1. Brass lunchbox,...
An Interview with Rick Leong
PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art presents An Interview with Rick Leong Published JULY 21, 2020 Rick Leong in conversation with Cheryl Sim, curator of the exhibition RELATIONS at PHI Foundation. Rick Leong’s painted landscapes are rooted in a bilingual vocabulary...
A Rock-Cut Panel in Viar, Zanjan
Beyond the historical and aesthetic values of surviving architectural fragments in ruined sites, what is the importance of studying them? What do they tell us about the circumstances within which they were created? This talk looks at a rock-cut panel with the design...
A Glass Medicine Bottle
Why do we often use the term ‘balsam’ to describe a soothing medicine? This talk discusses a small glass bottle dating to the nineteenth century, and connects it to the use of medicinal tree resins in ancient and medieval times.Figure 1. Clear glass bottle of...
A Brick Dome in Iran
Why is brick such an important material in the architecture of Iran, and how was it used both for structural and decorative purposes? This talk examines an elaborate dome built over the prayer hall of a medieval mosque in the town of Ardistan in central Iran.Figure 1....
The Wildflowers Around Victoria Painted on Silk
Elizabeth Yeend Duer (1889–1951) was born in Nagasaki, Japan. Her father was an Englishman, Yeend Duer (1846–1921) and her mother a Japanese woman, Yasu Tsunekawa (née Zama, 1859–1936). Elizabeth grew up knowing much about both English and Japanese culture and language and learned to selectively deploy this knowledge, depending on context and the message she wished to convey.
Nashtifan Windmills
In a world where we are surrounded by high-tech architecture, why is it important to study and preserve different forms of vernacular architecture? This talk looks at the windmills of Nashtifan and examines the structural and functional features of these vernacular...
Crafts of Syria
The Traditional Crafts of Syria What can we learn about the artistic traditions of a country by learning about the lives and working practices of its artisans? This site allows you to explore the rich heritage of crafts in Syria from the seventh century to the...
The Arts of Death and the Afterlife in South Asian Traditions
Melia Belli Bose of University of Victoria discusses the arts of death and the afterlife in South Asian traditions as part of the Society for Asian Art's Arts of Asia lecture series, Visions of the Afterlife in Asia. For more information:...
A Satellite Image of Shahrasb
What are the challenges faced by architectural historians in gaining access to historical buildings and archaeological sites? Wars? Pandemics? Political conflicts? Or simply high costs of travelling? When physical presence in a historical site is not feasible, what...
Three Wooden Amulets
What leads people to make protective charms and why do these objects take some many different forms? This talk examines three amulets from Afghanistan, and links them to a tradition that stretches back before the birth of Islam.Figure 1. Carved wooden amulets,...
A Sheet of Handmade Paper
What makes handmade paper different from the paper we use in our everyday lives? This talk suggests that we should pay more attention to how paper is made and the impact it can have on drawing, printmaking, calligraphy, and painting.Figure 1. Sheet of handmade cotton...
Two Ceramic Bowls
Why might people drill through ceramic bowls. This talk examines what drill holes might tell us about the practices of display and repair in the Medieval Islamic Middle East.Figure 1. Sherds from a decorated lead-glazed bowl, excavated in Karak, Jordan. Late twelfth...