A Look Back – Vikky Alexander: Extreme Beauty at the Vancouver Art Gallery

One year ago this week, the Vancouver Art Gallery opened Vikky Alexander: Extreme Beauty, the first retrospective of the work of this notable Canadian artist who has been exhibiting photographs, montages, sculptures, collages and installations for more than three decades.

Curated by the then-Interim Director Daina Augaitis, the exhibition comprised of approximately 85 works in all media and occupied the majority of the Gallery’s second floor, Extreme Beauty examined the major themes that have occupied Alexander for more than three decades – including the appropriated image, the artificially of nature, and the seduction of space – as the artist unravels the mechanisms of display that shape meaning and desire in our culture.

The exhibition was a smash hit with audiences and was extended beyond its close date in the Fall of 2019 to the end of January 2020. Additionally, the exhibition garnered glowing mentions in the following media outlets: Border Crossings Magazine, Canadian Art, Frieze Magazine, CBC Arts, Critics at Large, Gray Magazine, and the British Journal of Photography, to name a few.

On view now in Montréal is  Vikky Alexander: Nordic Rock, a precious, fantasy-rich installation that contrasts the brutalist and imposing architecture of the Fonderie Darling’s hall.  In the Fall of 2020,  Vikky Alexander will be shown in a group exhibition at the Musée d’art contemporain in Montréal titled La machine qui enseignait des airs aux oiseaux.  This exhibition is assembled along an open thematic framework that stems from an interest in how language is inscribed in bodies, gestures, and materials.

Stay tuned for more information about Vikky Alexander’s upcoming exhibitions!

Image Credit:
Teak Slice, 2019
Vikky Alexander: Extreme Beauty
Vancouver Art Gallery
2019 / 2020
Installation View