The Burnaby Art Gallery is getting set to reopen with an exhibition that’s part of the Capture Photography Festival.
The gallery has been closed for renovations since Jan. 14. It’s opening to the public again March 14 with the reception to launch Lynne Cohen: These Walls. The reception starts at 7 p.m.
The exhibition features work by the American-Canadian photographer Lynne Cohen, best known for her photographs of institutional interior spaces – spaces generally inaccessible to the public, such as medical laboratories, private offices, factories, shooting ranges and military installations.
This is the first time in many years that Cohen’s work has been exhibited on the West Coast. The exhibit includes loans from the Canada Council Art Bank, the Olga Korper Gallery in Toronto and Cohen’s estate, bringing together work from the 1970s through to the early 2000s.
Cohen’s early artistic practice was based in printmaking and sculpture, but, in 1970, she began documenting domestic and recreational spaces in black-and-white photography.
Over the years, she began working at a larger scale, in colour, and gaining access to less accessible sites. In the latter part of her career, she spent a significant amount of time in libraries looking in technical journals to find subject matter, making telephone calls and writing letters to gain access to sites that weren’t accessible to the public.
“The result of her research, coupled with her precise and exacting compositional sense, leaves the viewer with a mysterious narrative that unfolds only through their own work,” says a press release.
The exhibition runs from March 15 to April 21, with a couple of special events included.
A curator’s talk is set for Sunday, April 7 at 2 p.m., when exhibition curator Jennifer Cane will lead an in-depth tour.
An In the BAG Family Sunday program is set for April 14 from 1 to 4 p.m. Families will be able to drop in, see the exhibition and then get into the studio to make their own artwork on the theme of “imagining places.”
Burnaby Art Gallery is at 6344 Deer Lake Ave. See www.burnabyartgallery.ca or call 604-297-4422 for information.
