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Vancouver BC V6Z 2H7
Canada
Hours: Wednesday–Monday 10am–5pm,
Friday 10am–8pm
The lineup features world and North American premiere exhibitions, including a major new commission.
Today the Vancouver Art Gallery announces a bold spring/summer lineup of exhibitions to inspire visitors from around the world. The season includes the world premiere of Lucy Raven: Murderers Bar, the first exhibition at the Gallery curated by CEO & Executive Director Anthony Kiendl. Spring will also bring an ambitious exhibition dedicated to the most significant donation of international contemporary art in the Gallery’s history in Postcards from the Heart: Selections from the Brigitte and Henning Freybe Collection, as well as a landmark retrospective honouring one of Canada’s most significant artists of the twentieth century, Jean Paul Riopelle, organized by the National Gallery of Canada. Visitors can look forward to a summer of ceramics: the first exhibition in North America dedicated to Japanese artist Otani Workshop, alongside an exploration of British Columbia’s ceramic history told through the extraordinary collection of John David Lawrence.
“This season presents a captivating exhibition program that will offer moments of wonder and surprise,” says Anthony Kiendl, CEO & Executive Director. “We are especially pleased to present projects that have never appeared anywhere before now. We are grateful to our incredible staff who have made this program unique in the world, as well as our numerous supporters. Most of all we are grateful to these myriad artists coming together in the months ahead.”
On March 21, 2025, the Vancouver Art Gallery will present a major exhibition of works by Canadian icon Jean Paul Riopelle. Organized by the National Gallery of Canada to mark the centenary celebration of the artist’s birth, Riopelle: Crossroads in Time brings together almost 100 works from 20 national and international private and public collections, spanning five decades of the artist’s creative journey. Guest curated by art historian and independent researcher Dr. Sylvie Lacerte, this spectacular exhibition offers an original take on Riopelle’s creative output, highlighting his thirst for freedom of expression, his yearning for innovation and his experimental approach to art making.
From April 18 visitors will encounter Lucy Raven: Murderers Bar, the first major presentation of the New York–based artist’s work on the West Coast and Raven’s largest exhibition in Canada to date. The exhibition will feature the world premiere of Raven’s sculptural moving image installation Murderers Bar (2025), co-commissioned and jointly acquired by the Vancouver Art Gallery and The Vega Foundation. Together with Raven’s kinetic light installation Casters X-2 + X-3 (2021) and a series of evocative works on silk, this exhibition provides a timely glimpse into the expanding field of Raven’s vision—the push and pull between human intervention and the more-than-human forces of nature and the physical world.
On the other half of the floor, visitors will journey through Postcards from the Heart, an ambitious exhibition of modern and contemporary artworks, spanning painting, printmaking, sculpture, film, photography and installation—gifted to the Gallery by Vancouver-based collectors Brigitte and Henning Freybe. This promised gift encompasses works by some of the most important European and North American artists working in the last 50 years, including Daniel Buren, Tacita Dean, Frank Stella, Alicja Kwade, Wolfgang Tillmans, Robert Rauschenberg, Julie Mehretu and William Kentridge, alongside celebrated BC artists Beau Dick, Stan Douglas, Rodney Graham, Brian Jungen and Jeff Wall. Postcards from the Heart honours the Freybe’s transformative gesture of love to the art world: the most significant donation of international contemporary and modern art in the Gallery’s history.
Later this spring, the Gallery will host two major exhibitions that highlight the significance of ceramics across time and place—one tracing the history of British Columbia’s studio pottery movement, and the other showcasing contemporary ceramic innovation from Japan. Written in Clay presents a history of ceramics made in British Columbia told through the collection of John David Lawrence, a long-time Vancouverite, musician, performer, activist, and collector. Through his relationships with ceramic artists and their work, Lawrence has become a crucial figure in preserving and documenting local ceramic history. Featuring approximately 200 ceramic objects collected over four decades, this exhibition reveals the diversity of material and aesthetic approaches to ceramic production in the province.
On the east side of the floor, Otani Workshop: Monsters in My Head offers visitors a look into the mind of one of Japan’s leading contemporary ceramic artists. Born in 1980 in Shigaraki—one of Japan’s oldest pottery centres—Shigeru Otani, known as Otani Workshop, is an important figure in Japanese ceramics. This visionary exhibition marks Otani’s first solo presentation in North America and retraces his artistic journey, providing insight into the mythical figures and contemporary imagery that have come to characterize his work. Featuring new paintings inspired by personal memories alongside hand-built ceramic sculptures in varying scales, the exhibition is a compelling introduction to Otani Workshop’s unique practice.
Exhibition schedule
March 21–September 1, 2025
Riopelle: Crossroads in Time
Organized by the National Gallery of Canada and curated by Dr. Sylvie Lacerte, Art Historian and Independent Researcher. The Vancouver Art Gallery presentation is coordinated by Siobhan McCracken Nixon, Associate Curator. Presented by: The Audain Foundation. Generously Supported by: The Heffel Foundation.
April 18–September 28, 2025
Lucy Raven: Murderers Bar
Murderers Bar is co-commissioned and jointly acquired by the Vancouver Art Gallery and The Vega Foundation.
Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Anthony Kiendl, CEO & Executive Director, with Siobhan McCracken Nixon, Associate Curator. Presenting Sponsor: Bruno J. Wall. Community Partner: Capture Photography Festival.
April 18–October 5, 2025
Postcards from the Heart: Selections from the Brigitte and Henning Freybe Collection
Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Eva Respini, Deputy Director & Director of Curatorial Programs, with Andrea Valentine-Lewis, Curatorial Assistant. This project is supported by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
May 25–November 9, 2025
Otani Workshop: Monsters in My Head
Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Diana Freundl, Senior Curator.
May 25–November 9, 2025
Written in Clay: From the John David Lawrence Collection
Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Diana Freundl, Senior Curator, with Michael J. Prokopow, Special Advisor, and Andrea Valentine-Lewis, Curatorial Assistant.
