Arts and culture are integral to a city’s distinct personality and flair, which is why we're committed to connecting locals with their civic spaces through programming, events and partnerships.
Vancouver Civic Theatres looks to use its venues as gallery space to provide an opportunity for local visual artists and arts organizations to exhibit their work. These artists are selected through a call and jury process which occurs annually. The artists range from emerging and mid-career to more established artists. Our intention is for both artists and visitors to experience and share in the work, using art as a catalyst for individual and community engagement.
Exhibitions will be available for viewing during show times for ticket holders. There will also be opportunities to view the exhibitions without a ticket through our seasonal Visual Arts Open House. Open House dates and information will be listed below once available.
We have now closed our applications for our 2023 artist call. Check back in the spring for our 2024 call.
Winter Exhibition in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Lobbies
Sylvan Hamburger - Aural Bodies
January 2023 to March 2023
Aural Bodies features the monoprints of a deconstructed violin and grand piano. Beyond repair, the dismantled instruments were collected, their surfaces inked and pressed onto felt cloth to create new compositions of form and colour. Alongside assemblages of piano parts, the printed impressions allude to human forms. Like a soft bruise, the imprinted felt holds the gestural marks of the artist’s hand used to press and transfer ink from the instruments to the cloth. Created for the lobby of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Aural Bodies plays with moments of resonance and discord amidst the surrounding architecture: piano tops shatter, violins flop, and felted hammers play the walls. In upholding the traces of these instruments, Aural Bodies reimagines the poetic possibilities contained within their discarded surfaces.
Winter Exhibition in the ANNEX
Adriele Au - Afterparty
December 2022 to April 2023
Adriele Au’s Puddluv and Kake series explores the meaning of special occasions and the objects we use to celebrate these with. Incorporating found materials like party streamers, blown candles, and confetti, the works point towards joy, family, and community. Although these objects provide the visual cues of celebration through their bright colors and shininess, they also carry emotional gravity and weight of social harmony with them. Released in novel ways by Adriele Au, these materials draw attention to the memories that one fiercely wants from celebratory moments or…. perhaps forget if the moment did not occur as planned. Behind her hybrid works of sculpture and painting, the overarching themes of emotions, home, time, and nostalgia are expressed through simulation and abstraction.
adrieleau.com I @adrieleau
Vancouver Community College - Jewellery Art and Design Graduates exhibit
Queen Elizabeth Theatre - Balcony Lobby
VCT’s creative spaces showcase and empower local artists and artist collectives by providing accessible and high impact gallery spaces. VCT’s partnership with the Vancouver Community College allows graduates of the Jewellery Art and Design program to display their award-winning work on the balcony level of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre lobby.
The current exhibition features work from Clémence Burton, Nicole Cote, Iris Lo, and Evan Matthews.
Arts Umbrella - Gallery for Young Artists
Vancouver Playhouse Lobby
VCT’s creative spaces showcase and empower local artists and artist collectives by providing accessible and high impact gallery spaces. VCT’s partnership with Arts Umbrella brings youth creators to the forefront of the arts and culture community. The work on display reflects some of the themes explored through a darkroom photography course for teens. Students frame everyday objects in new and unique ways, and look at the photographic image as a document of energy, through experiments with long exposure photography.
Lead Artists: Kristen Roos, Celia Jong
Student Artists:
Ivan Chzou
Jack Simpson
Maleka Parolin - photo shown above
Nisha Tiangratanakul