Works by Stan Douglas, Jack Shadbolt, Gordon Smith, Dana Claxton, and more are on the auction block at Audain Art Museum fundraiser
Chief curator Curtis Collins is just a little bit excited about the art on offer at the Illuminate Gala & Auction
Stan Douglas, Solitaire, 2017 (digital C-print mounted on Dibond aluminum; artist proof 1/2, edition of 5 60 x 80 inches, framed)
Audain Art Museum’s Illuminate Gala & Auction takes place April 24 at 6:30 pm PT online.
THE DEEPER YOU gaze into Stan Douglas’s Solitaire, the more you see: the staged scene features a woman, seen from above, trapped in an old elevator with metal-scissor gates during a power outage. She’s playing the one-person card game; look closer and you’ll see her that her cellphone indicates the time is 10:57, and that a makeshift candle, her only source of light, is produced out of a can of Crisco cooking oil.
“There are all these little clues to what’s happening,” says Curtis Collins, director and chief curator of Audain Art Museum in Whistler. “There’s a bag of groceries, and she’s eaten an orange, so we know she’s been there for a while.”
The 60-by-80-inch work—a digital chromogenic-print mounted on Dibond aluminum—is from the 2017 series Scenes from the Blackout, inspired by blackouts that occurred in New York City in 1977 and 2003. Solitaire, Collins says, suggests a hopeful vision of the ingenuity that can arise during a disaster.
“She’s just waiting it out,” Collins says. “It’s a brilliant piece.”
Solitaire is one of 16 stunning works of art that will be up for live bidding at the museum’s upcoming virtual Illuminate Gala & Auction.
Douglas, who’s based in Vancouver and graduated from Emily Carr University, is an internationally recognized artist who has created films, photographs, theatre productions, and other multidisciplinary projects, with works held at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Tate (London), to name a few. Recently selected to represent Canada at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, Douglas donated Solitaire to the museum for its upcoming fundraiser. Framed, it’s valued at US$100,000.
“We feel very fortunate,” Collins says.
The collection of works that people will be able to bid on during the live broadcast runs the gamut from historic to contemporary.
“What’s exceptional about this auction is it runs the full range of more traditional practices, such as landscapes, to highly abstract and challenging and conceptual work,” Collins says. (The auction is now open to the public for advanced online bids.)
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s Red, Black and White Ovoid (2013, acrylic on canvas, 48 by 48 inches), signed and dated by the artist, showcases the Cowichan/Syilx First Nations artist’s “ovoidism”. This is the term for his famous practice of isolating the ovoid forms of traditional Northwest Coast art and placing them as the sole graphic element in the Western abstract style.
Dana Claxton, Corey Bulpitt, Gordon Smith, Jack Shadbolt, Landon MacKenzie, Tiko Kerr, Tim Lee, Peter Aspell, Ross Penhall, Doria Moodie, Kevin Boyle, and Walter Joseph Phillips are other revered artists whose works make up the live auction.
Jack Shadbolt, Winter Landscape, 2011 (acrylic on canvas, signed 26 7/8 x 38 inches, framed)
There’s also a unique opportunity for a personalized custom commission—specifically, a signed archival digital print on canvas—by Paul Wong.
Influenced by the New York Pop Art scene of the 1960s and ’70s (and Andy Warhol in particular), Wong is known for his inventive multimedia pieces, performance installations, photography, and public art projects.
Whoever places the winning bid will get to have a one-on-one talk with Wong about their personal or family history, then will compile an archive of objects related to that narrative—whether those items are photos, letters, or physical mementos like medals. The offering is based on the artist’s recent projects that fused together archival letters and images from his family members into reimagined works, such as the triptych 父字 / Father’s Words (2019).
“He will scan all that material and arrange it as an ink jet on canvas,” Collins says. “And he’ll tailor the dimensions of that work on canvas to the space you want to put it in. I’d bid on it just for the meeting with Paul.”
All of the works can be seen on the museum’s website or in person in Vancouver this weekend. (Contact Collins directly for a private showing at ccollins@audainartmuseum.com.)
Amid these unusual times, Collins is more keen than ever to share art with the world, even virtually.
“It’s been a tough year, but we’re fortunate we’re a small institution and we were able to pivot quickly,” he says, pointing to its Tuesday Night Talks as an example of the museum’s online programming. “I like meeting people and getting them excited about cultural experiences, visual experiences.
“Everyone has that skill set to look at something and understand it,” he says. “I think with a little patience and a couple of cues, that skill set is universal. It’s fun to bring that out in people. When I see someone looking at a work and the light goes on, it’s very energizing.”
For more information, visit Audain Art Museum.
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