Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 gallery exhibits worth hitting on the West Coast this spring
Photo-based exhibitions can be found throughout Metro Vancouver and in Whistler this season
Rotimi Fani-Kayode, untitled. Photo courtesy of Autograph (London)
SPRING IS A time of discovery, and there’s no shortage of art-gallery exhibitions to encounter in and around Vancouver this season. Here’s a look at a few photo-based exhibits coming to the West Coast.
Rotimi Fani-Kayode: Tranquility of Communion
To May 25 at The Polygon Gallery
Identity, sexuality, and race are all themes that shine through in the art of Rotimi Fani-Kayode, whose photography practice defied categorization. The artist, who was born into a prominent Nigerian family, sought political refuge in London in the 1960s during the civil war. Owing to his immigrant status and queerness, he considered himself an outsider. Many of his photographs were created in collaboration with his partner, Alex Hirst, and treated romantic love with spiritual veneration. Featuring colour and black-and white photographs, along with archival prints and never-before-exhibited works from Fani-Kayode’s student years, the exhibition organized by London’s Autograph and Columbus, Ohio’s Wexner Center for the Arts is the first North American survey of the photographer’s work and archives.
Barrie Jones, Kissing in the Ferns Near the Parkade, 2012. Photo courtesy of the artist
Barrie Jones: Urban Wild
March 19 to May 3 at West Vancouver Art Museum
Vancouver-based photo artist Barrie Jones is a former professor of photography at UBC who, throughout his 45-year career, has focused on documenting human behaviour. Urban Wild—a term that describes a remnant of a natural ecosystem found within an otherwise highly developed urban area—showcases Jones’s outdoor photography, which features Vancouverites interacting with city green spaces throughout Vancouver and the North Shore. Look for everyday small moments along with subtle facial expressions and bodily movements in his works.
Lucy Raven, Murderers Bar, 2025, production still from moving-image installation. Photo courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery
Lucy Raven: Murderers Bar
April 18 to September 28 at Vancouver Art Gallery
Lucy Raven is a multidisciplinary artist whose works span installation, photography, video, drawing, and sculpture, all to explore historic and contemporary representations of the American West. The first major presentation of Raven’s work in Vancouver, Murderers Bar is the artist’s largest exhibition in Canada to date. A highlight is the world premiere of the new moving-image installation Murderers Bar, along with previous related works. Among her ongoing research interests is the place where nature and technology meet. The exhibition is part of the 2025 Capture Photography Festival.
Edward Burtynsky, Coast Mountains #15, Receding Glacier, British Columbia, Canada, 2023. Photo courtesy of Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary / Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto
The Coast Mountains: Recent Works by Edward Burtynsky
April 27 to September 15 at the Audain Art Museum, Whistler
For the past four decades, internationally acclaimed Toronto-based artist Edward Burtynsky has pointed his camera lens on the impact of human industry on the Earth. In The Coast Mountains, he presents a selection of large-scale photo-based works that capture the rugged beauty of British Columbia’s natural environment, while highlighting the pressing issue of glacier retreat due to global warming. The exhibition is part of the 2025 Capture Photography Festival.
Fred Herzog, Untitled, Pender Street, Chinatown, 1968. Photo courtesy of Equinox Gallery and the Estate of Fred Herzog
Vitality: Fred Herzog Photographs In and Around Chinatown
April 5 to May 3 at Equinox Gallery
Long before the use of colour photography for observing everyday life became recognized as a documentary and artistic style, Fred Herzog was busy focusing his lens on the street life of Vancouver’s Chinatown and surrounding neighbourhoods. Guest-curated by Carol Lee, cofounder and chair of the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, the exhibition showcases Chinatown’s heritage and culture through images taken in the 1950s and ’60s. Running parallel to the show—which is part of the 2025 Capture Photography Festival—is a public-art project and exhibition at Vancouver’s Chinatown Storytelling Centre, which features historical photographs and untold stories of Chinatown alongside a selection of Herzog’s images. 
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