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• June 22, 2017 - Spring 2019
• CURATORS: Karen Duffek, Jordan Wilson, Bill McLennan
• Despite sitting still in a glass case before you, some artworks never stop moving. They contain histories. They challenge us. They are more than art. In a Different Light presents more than 110 historical Indigenous artworks and marks the return of many important works to British Columbia. These objects are amazing artistic achievements. Yet they also transcend the idea of ‘art’ or ‘artifact’. Through the voices of contemporary First Nations artists and community members, this exhibition reflects on the roles historical artworks have today. Featuring immersive storytelling and innovative design, it explores what we can learn from these works and how they relate to Indigenous peoples’ relationships to their lands. With the increasing impacts of colonization in the 19th century, many Northwest Coast objects were removed from their communities. As they circulated through museums and private collections, their histories were often lost. Indigenous community members are now reconnecting with these objects and rebuilding their past. Through their eyes, you will come to see these artworks in a different light — as teachers, belongings, even legal documents. Ultimately, this inaugural exhibition of the Gallery of Northwest Coast Masterworks highlights the creativity and inventiveness of Northwest Coast artists and how they understood the world they lived in. And critically, it shows us the immense body of knowledge that endures today.

• March 1, 2016 - January 31, 2017
• CURATOR: Carol E. Mayer (MOA Curator, Pacific)
• The Sepik River of Papua New Guinea is one of the largest river systems in the world, extraordinarily beautiful, but seldom visited. It is here that the Iatmul people, who live along its banks, have created internationally renowned works of art primarily inspired by stories of the majestic crocodile as the primordial creator. This unique exhibition will showcase the most comprehensive collection of contemporary Sepik art in North America for the first time. In addition to highlighting the exquisite carvings of Papua New Guinea’s latmul people, the exhibition will delve into their economic, cultural, and spiritual connections to the river system, drawing urgent attention to the logging and mining operations that pose environmental threats to the region. Curated by Dr. Carol E. Mayer (MOA Curator, Pacific), In the Footprint of the Crocodile Man will showcase 27 enthralling sculptural works, created by upwards of 20 Sepik artists. Carved from wood, the strikingly beautiful pieces are ornately decorated with paint, sago fiber, cowry shells, and cassowary feathers.
• Inspiration for each sculpture is drawn from a number of sources, including ritual events such as initiation ceremonies, mythical beings who visit the villages at night, daily life on the Sepik River, and from ancestral stories of the majestic crocodile as the primordial creator. A sweeping installation of 100 hand woven flying foxes will also hang from the gallery ceiling, each one greeting visitors with a distinctive expression. The sculptural works will be displayed alongside photographs and videos of the magnificent Sepik River. These complementary components, prepared specifically for the exhibition, will provide further context for the contemporary art and highlight the environmental risks from logging and mining organizations. The most notable and immediate threat addressed in the exhibition will be that of the Frieda Mine, where excavation will begin even as the MOA exhibition opens. Located near the Sepik headwaters, the possibility of mine tailings entering the river system poses a grave risk to the Sepik people’s economy, cultural identity, and way of life.

• [ca. 1987-1988]

Use for: Babies

• September 14, 1993 - February 27, 1994 (Gallery 10)
• Guest curators Cole Harris and Robert Galois trace the British and Spanish expeditions through British Columbia’s Inside Passage.

Use for: Eskimo

• 1992-1993
• Student exhibition

• November 8, 1988 - February 26, 1989 (Gallery 5)
• As a companion exhibit to Gifts and Giving, this exhibition presents a selection of 44 Cape Dorset and Baker Lake prints from MOA’s recent acquisition of 150 Inuit graphics. The works span the period 1960 to 1975 for Cape Dorset and 1969 to 1980 for Baker Lake. In addition to representing a range of media developed by the two centres producing Inuit art, this show also affords small, concentrated explorations of the work of a number of prominent artists including Kenojuak, Pitseolak, Jessie Oonak, Simon Tookoome, Irene Avaalaaqiaq, Nancy Pukingnak, Marion Tuu’luq and others.

• James Houston, Un’ichi Hiratsuka and the Inuit Print Tradition
• 19 June - 25 September, 2011 (The Audain Gallery)
• This exhibition features exquisite and extraordinarily rare prints from Japan and Cape Dorset, Nunavut, from the late 1950s and early 1960s. It also tells the little-known story of how, fifty years ago, the Canadian artist and “discoverer” of Inuit art, James Houston, travelled to Japan to study printmaking with Un’ichi Hiratsuka. An esteemed Japanese printmaker, teacher and champion of Japan’s “Creative Print” Movement (sōsaku hanga), Hiratsuka taught Houston a variety of direct transfer print techniques. With Japanese prints and tools in hand, Houston returned to the Canadian Arctic and resumed work alongside the five original Inuit printmakers — Osuitok Ipeelee, Iyola Kingwatsiak, Lukta Qiatsuk, Kananginak Pootoogook and Eegyvudluk Pootoogook. Their studio produced its first annual collection and released it to the public in January 1960. Since then, art collectors around the world have been continually surprised by Cape Dorset’s fresh, imaginative and original artworks on paper. It is an incomparable artistic legacy in Canada. Inuit Prints: James Houston, Un’ichi Hiratsuka and the Inuit Print Tradition is the first systematic inquiry into the Japanese influences on the early years of the Cape Dorset print studio. By juxtaposing the earliest Cape Dorset prints with the actual Japanese prints that inspired the Inuit printmakers in 1959, the exhibition examines the many ways in which the Cape Dorset artists creatively “localized” Japanese influences. This exhibition tells a much different story than is commonly associated with Inuit art, which is a romantic story about faraway people living in an enclaved, remote world. The complex connectivity that unites Japanese and Inuit printmakers through the intermediary work of James Houston is a story about globalization, cultural translation, travel and modernity — characteristics that define our present age. Exhibition organized by the Canadian Museum of Civilization with the assistance of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in Cape Dorset.

• November 20, 2015 – April 3, 2016.
• CURATOR: Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura, MOA Curator, Asia
• Against a backdrop of skyscrapers and mountains, ghosts and spirits haunt the island of Taiwan. Deities reside in a variety of shrines and temples or forms of natural phenomena across the island. Known for its democracy, contemporary Taiwan embraces different, often hybrid, beliefs expressed and practiced in myriad fashion. Taiwan’s urban and rural life cycles are filled with rituals and ceremonies of various faiths ranging from Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism to Christianity, Chinese folk religions and animistic beliefs of Taiwan’s Aboriginal peoples. While religion affects, challenges and intermingles with the secular world, myths, legends and fairytales add other layers to the spiritual world of Taiwan. Taiwan is home to sixteen officially recognized Aboriginal groups of Austronesian peoples and Han Chinese of various backgrounds as well as other long-term settlers and recent immigrants. Throughout its history, outside forces—Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese—have taken a turn to ‘discover’, settle in or occupy Taiwan. They introduced or forced different religions or brought myths and legends to the island with them. As with other East Asian countries, it is common to blend different religious practices in Taiwan. The spiritual world is very much part of life and has also been the source for creative inspiration in Taiwan. (In)visible: The Spiritual World of Taiwan Through Contemporary Art explores how traditional and religious beliefs and modern values are integrated in this vibrant country. The exhibition features works by seven contemporary Taiwanese artists, who express and visualize religious beliefs, myths and the spiritual world with modern sensitivities

• June 17 - November 30, 1986 (Gallery 5)
• This exhibition presents a half century of Jack Shadbolt’s Indian paintings together with a selection of Northwest Coast Indian masks from which he draws inspiration. This project was made possible through the Department of Communication’s Special Granting Programme for Vancouver to Celebrate the Centennial.

• From the exhibition, Jamelie Hassan: At the Far Edge of Words, at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
• June 18 – August 22, 2010 (Multiversity Galleries)
• Vitrine 448, a 'book work' created by renowned Canadian artist Jamelie Hassan in 1988, was shown at MOA as part of an exhibition organized by the UBC Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. Curatorial liaison: Karen Duffek.

• August 4 - October 18, 1987 (Theatre Gallery)
• A contemporary Cree artist from Edmonton expresses visions and supernatural images encountered in her sweatlodge experience.

• Labels by Dr. Ronald Dore (Japan) and Dr. Ping-ti Ho (China), 1962

• Exhibit connected to the arrival of material collected by Dr. Ronald Dore, Asian Studies, with historic emphasis. Installed under his direction in 1959

• March 7 - June 11, 1978