An art show that celebrates the beauty of Canada’s national parks travels to Port Moody this week to coincide with the country’s 150th year.
Art in the Park 2016, which opens at the Port Moody Arts Centre (PMAC) on Thursday, opens viewers to the landscape of Glacier National Park.
A dozen painters, drawers and photographers from B.C. and Alberta captured the natural and cultural scenes last August after spending four days in the Alpine Club of Canada’s A.O. Wheeler Hut, in the Rogers Pass area.
The Art in the Park program started in 2008 between Parks Canada and the Revelstoke Visual Arts Society to turn artists’ eyes to national parks.
And its most recent collaboration brought together three artists from Vancouver — Jaymie Johnson (sculpture, printmaking, pedagogy); Kate Brooks-Heinemann (acrylic); and Jeff Wilson (acrylic), a regular contributor at PMAC — as well as four artists from Revelstoke; the remainder came from Calgary, Fernie, Sorrento, Kelowna and Rosebud.
When the PMAC display ends in mid July, the Art in the Park exhibit will make its way to the Peachland Art Gallery and the Kelowna Rotary Centre for the Arts.
PMAC will also launch four more shows on Thursday with a Canadian twist.
Tiki Mulvihill will uncover an installation called Ancestral Drift while Pitt Meadows painter Roberta Coombs — a senior signature member in the Federation of Canadian Artists and the Northwest Pastel Society — has Pure Colour.
In the Young Artists Gallery, Coquitlam’s Yannie Lo presents Rhode Island Portfolio — a nod to her design school, which she will attend this fall — and, in the Appleyard Parlour, there’s the group show called Indigenous Perspectives - Home on Native Land. The latter includes such artists as Adele Arseneau, Windazi (Simon James), Kee Toy Joseph, Philip Hogan and Carl Sam.
Meanwhile, on June 23, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., there will be an art walk and cultural evening starting at PMAC and winding to the Silk Art Gallery and Gallery Bistro to celebrate the Indigenous Perspectives artists as well as Aboriginal Day.
• The opening reception for the five shows is June 15 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Port Moody Arts Centre (2425 St. Johns St.). The artists will attend and refreshments will be served. Call 604-931-2008 or visit pomoarts.ca.
@jcleughTC
