Mind-blowing new exhibit coming to the Vancouver Art Gallery!

October 29, 2016
DV
By Destination Vancouver
3 min read
Three-panel artwork showing stylized figures in a graveyard with trees, glowing orbs, and a full moon in a muted color palette.

Fresh off its awesome Mashup: The Birth of Modern Culture show earlier this year, the Vancouver Art Gallery (750 Hornby St.) is again going contemporary with a new exhibit of daring work from a variety of international artists.

Conceived by the renowned Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and co-curated with Evan Pricco, Editor-in-Chief of the art magazine Juxtapoz Art & Culture, Juxtapoz x Superflat features the work of more than 30 artists from Japan, Korea, Canada, the United States and Europe. The exhibition opens at the VAG Nov. 5 and runs until Feb. 5, 2017.

According to the VAG press release, “Juxtapoz x Superflat is a manifesto for new creative practices that can no longer be adequately described by the traditional categories of art and modes of production.” In plain English, co-curators Murakami and Pricco want the exhibit to be representative of the most exciting visual art to emerge in recent years. The artists selected are influenced by various subcultures, whether it’s graffiti, street art, comics, design, illustration, painting, digital, or even (gasp!) traditional arts.

According to the VAG release, Murakami coined the term “superflat” while describing the future of Japanese art. For the artist, “’superflat’ meant many things — a recognition of the formal qualities of contemporary design, anime and manga; the fundamental importance of sub-cultures in the conception of contemporary art; the persistent presence of a banal and superficial consumer culture; a flattening of traditional hierarchies; and a reconfiguration of the edges and boundaries that have traditionally shaped meaning in contemporary cultural production.” There you have it.

Art studio setup with a central nude statue on a pedestal, surrounded by easels and chairs, walls covered in sketches.

Artists includes: Nina Chanel Abney, Chiho Aoshima, Urs Fischer, GATS, Kim Jung Gi, Kazunori Hamana, Trenton Doyle Hancock, John Hathway, Todd James, James Jean, Friedrich Kunath, Austin Lee, MADSAKI, Geoff McFetridge, Christian Rex van Minnen, Rebecca Morgan, and many more.

Yellow ceramic jug shaped like a face with exaggerated features and textured bumps.

For more info, visit vancouverartgallery.bc.ca.

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