Stir is a digital media organization dedicated to covering Vancouver’s arts and culture scene through independent journalism.
Stir is a digital media organization dedicated to covering Vancouver’s arts and culture scene through independent journalism.
Visitors experiencing Mark Soo: Twilight on the Edge of Town. Photo by Third Eye Pro. Image in ad above: Artist Sammy Chien performs “W(e)aves 0.8 熾” during Sentient Circuitries: Digital Media Art Symposium in 2019. Photo by Pardeep Singh.
Sketching Keith Rice Jones’s Monumental Sculptures in the gallery courtyard. Photo by Third Eye Pro
Internationally recognized for its programming, the Gallery is celebrated for its exhibitions of contemporary art by local, national, and global artists, and digital and audio art have long been important parts of that mix. Today, visitors can always learn more about art at one of the Gallery’s engaging artist talks or tours, participate in a symposium, or make art by themselves or with family and friends. The facility offers demonstrations, workshops, and school programs with artists, educators, and other specialists.
In 2019, the Gallery celebrated 20 years of digital art programming in its TechLab, which shows a wide array of digital art, including artificial intelligence, interactive and immersive virtual environments, telerobotic sculptures and flash game installations, and much more. Surrey Art Gallery continues to showcase leading-edge digital art and experimental new media.
The Cultural Plan for Surrey and the Gallery Strategic Plan identified that the Gallery needs to evolve to serve its rapidly growing city. Adopted in January 2017, the ensuing City Centre Master Plan introduced the vision of future cultural facilities that would include the concept of an Interactive Art Museum. Now, in the City’s 5 year capital projects budget, this downtown contemporary art museum will soon be able to house multiple programs centred on digital art and more.
The Gallery has come a long way from its beginnings, when it was constructed for Canada’s Centennial in 1967 (and originally named the Centennial Arts Centre). Back then, the only place to exhibit art was on the walls of the corridor by the theatre. In 1973, the City dedicated funds to build a proper gallery—an experimental space for leading artists in Western Canada—and in August 1975, Surrey Art Gallery opened within the renamed Surrey Arts Centre. Soon, it needed improvements to expand to bring in bigger shows, and construction began in 1982 to expand the exhibit halls. The Gallery became certified as a Class A Museum in Canada because of the quality of its permanent collection storage area, the environmental controls of its display and storage, and the professionalism of its staff and programs. By the mid-’80s, Surrey Art Gallery had gained a national reputation for its contemporary art exhibitions and education programs and was touring them across the country.
In 2000, motivated by the City’s Cultural Strategic Plan, the Surrey Arts Centre underwent a significant redevelopment, adding a studio theatre, programs room, new classrooms and pottery studios, as well as expanded collection storage and exhibit halls with 20-foot ceilings. With a prototype TechLab now a permanent space, Surrey Art Gallery became the only art museum in Canada committed to supporting the production and presentation of digital media—the groundwork for the ambitious programming that will come in the next few decades at the landmark.
Kaleidoscopic projection reveals natural elements, from the grand vistas of the Coast Mountains to close-up images of roadside plants
Event inspired by the current exhibition A Tangled Thicket features hands-on art activities and a theatrical performance
Z·inc Artist Collective brings deep curiosity and personal experience to meditations on networks that sustain and adapt
Paintings and handcrafted installations by four Surrey artists revolve around the intersection of nature and humanity
Surrey Art Gallery is launching its 50th anniversary with the touring exhibition Rajni Perera: Futures
The colourful artworks with sound capture the movement of water, light, wind, and air from seven key geographic sites in the city
Event addresses the history of Lower Mainland farmworking with expert presentations, plant-bioelectricity music, poetry readings, and eco-printing
Solo interdisciplinary exhibition depicts 1970s and ’80s farmworker movements with stop-motion animation, black-and-white drawings, hand-stitched quilts, and poetry
Copresentation with Surrey Art Gallery and Powell Street Festival unpacks Tsang’s Hastings Park and Tansy Point exhibitions, the basis for his new catalogue
Group exhibition spans paintings, drawings, ceramic sculptures, and more
Selections from the gallery’s permanent collection and loaned artworks explore the concept of the future through dystopian and utopian ideals
Comprehensive display of painter-printmaker’s works highlights his signature abstracts, his iconic West Coast landscapes, and his unique merging of the two
Exhibition features over 60 prints by renowned Canadian artist Takao Tanabe, dating from 1948 to 2023
Group exhibition threads personal stories on the multi-faceted meanings of hair
Spanning sculpture to photography, exhibition focuses on hair in works by 10 BIPOC artists from across Canada
Event co-convened by gallery curators Sameena Siddiqui and Jordan Strom features a diverse array of speakers and experimental film screenings
Multisensory video installation by artists Alana Bartol and Bryce Krynski follows a bee’s journey
Montreal-based artist Tamhane works directly with block-printers and carvers in Kutch, India to craft her pieces
Artist uses embellished textiles and handmade cotton-cloth paper to consider India’s colonial history
Nash’mene’ta’naht weaver’s work includes ceremonial hand-spun sheep’s wool blankets
Showcasing works by emerging Salish artists and others, exhibit draws inspiration from nearby Bear Creek Park
West Coast marine life-inspired exhibition hones in on declining ocean health
Emerging artists-in-residence share dance, poetry, and music as part of exhibition on view to June 18
Exhibition on display until June 4 uses breath to explore Black resilience and community
Multimedia artwork on display until March 26 examines nuances of pandemic lockdown
Crafting, collaging, and a ventriloquist show on the day’s lineup of activities
The multimedia solo show at Surrey Art Gallery explores the richness of language and nature
Clay, collage, and mini murals are among the hands-on activities at the next Family Sunday
Video installation employs Chinook Jargon and a location that was key to Indigenous-U.S. territory negotiations in 1851
Concealed Cultures: Visualizing the Black Vernacular and I see; I breathe; I am! at Surrey Art Gallery speak to the Black experience in the West
1Up by Sonny Assu on Surrey Art Gallery’s UrbanScreen.
13750 88 Avenue
Surrey
V3W 3L1
Phone: 604.501.5566
