Museum PR Announcements News and Information

Vancouver Art Gallery Offsite Opens Elspeth Pratt Exhibition

For the fourth installation at Vancouver Art Gallery Offsite, renowned sculptor Elspeth Pratt draws on architectural forms as inspiration to investigate how built environments define public space. While her artworks negotiate a line between abstraction and representation, her ideas are manifest through use of ready-made industrial materials that negate notions of permanence and value associated with traditional sculpture. Exhibition on view June 29, 2011 to January 8, 2012.


Elspeth Pratt, “Second Date,” 2011. Site-specific installation at the Vancouver Art Gallery Offsite. Photo by Rachel Topham, Vancouver Art Gallery

Pratt’s new project for Offsite examines how forms of spatial organization become a naturalized force in the urban environment. Through subtle changes and dislocations of the components in the existing space, the work re-orients our perception of Offsite and its architectural framing. Rigid angles are transformed into curves, gridded surfaces become reflective skins, and hard stone is covered with bright rubber. All of these changes amplify and shift the features of the space, opening up new possibilities for imagining the shape of space within the urban fabric of Vancouver.

Over the last twenty-five years, Pratt has developed a sculptural language that is largely dictated by her choice of materials and their juxtapositions. Based in Vancouver, she has exhibited nationally and internationally.

Offsite is organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Kathleen Ritter, associate curator. This series is funded by the City of Vancouver through the Public Art Program. The Gallery recognizes Ian Gillespie, President, Westbank; Ben Yeung, President, Peterson Investment Group; and the residents at Shangri-La for their support of this space.

Offsite is the Vancouver Art Gallery’s outdoor exhibition space in the heart of urban Vancouver that offers a rotating program of innovative public art projects. Launched in July 2009 with the photo-based work of O Zhang and followed in January 2010 with a sculptural installation by Ken Lum, Offsite: Heather and Ivan Morison is the third project in the series.

www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *