With his newest collection, Close to Home—his first since 2019’s Everywhere From Here—artist David Wilson offers a peek at some final, pre-COVID days. In the poignantly titled “Come Back to Me”, Wilson’s vibrant acrylics capture the Stanley’s grand marquee as it presides over a rain-slicked South Granville Street, still busy with traffic and—typical to the artist’s often-waterlogged work—hunkered pedestrians clutching their umbrellas.

“It’s a world that, despite its many monstrosities, seems a little bit whimsical now,” says Wilson. “It’s a place that, in spite of all of its shortcomings, doesn’t seem so bad.”

With an unknowable future, Wilson turned to the past, emerging from a familiar cycle of grief and despair to find solace in a trove of old photographs. “Feels Like Only Yesterday” takes us back to a thriving Granville strip at night. “A Path Through the Sea” pits the Burrard Street bridge against a twinkling Fairview at dusk, suggesting a city pregnant with energy. That same landmark is given a chilly, vivid rendering in “The Wind in Our Faces.” In all cases, Close to Home feels like an attempt to time-stamp the tone of pre-COVID life in Vancouver.   

As yet another reminder of an extraordinary moment in time—and in observance of the Kurbatoff Gallery’s health and safety protocols—there will be no exhibition opening for Close to Home.

Temporary Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 11 am to 5 pm and Sunday noon to 4 pm 
Info: www.davidwilson.ca / www.kurbatoffgallery.com