A new season of exhibitions and programs opens Friday, Jan. 27 at The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford.
An opening reception runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and features speakers, light refreshments and a cash bar. Admission is by a pay-what-you-can donation.
The Reach hosts more than 20 local artists over the winter/spring season for the seventh Fraser Valley Biennial, guest curated by Candace Couse.
Since its start in 2011, the biennial has showcased the work of more than 250 local and regional artists.
Couse, who recently joined the department of visual art at University of the Fraser Valley, has set the theme for this year’s biennial as “the body,” and has encouraged artists to explore this concept as broadly as possible.
The resulting exhibition includes work in a variety of media that approach the theme from a range of unique perspectives.
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Also this season, Art on Demand is an exhibition series that brings together emerging artists and curators to showcase the talents of young creatives in the region.
The exhibitions are often participants’ first opportunity to display their artwork in a professional public gallery.
Emerging curator Rachel Kehler has curated two shows with emerging artists Emily Goodbrand (Jan. 27 to March 18) and Krystal Charlston (March 24 to May 6).
In image/object, a new exhibition curated by Adrienne Fast, three artists – Karin Bubaš, Natalie Hunter and Karen Zalamea – each explore the potential for photographic images to be spatial, experiential and material, but do so in different ways and to different ends.
From the earliest days of photography, artists have attempted to push the medium beyond its revolutionary ability to capture realistic two-dimensional imagery and to test its possibilities.
In recent years, there have been a number of contemporary artists who have been again attracted to the potential for three-dimensional photography.
New artistic practices are now emerging that embrace and revel in the material qualities of photography itself. image/object invites its viewers to experience the possibilities of the photograph beyond its two dimensions.
Visit thereach.ca for more information.
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