Griffin Art Projects reexamines Canadian art history in Intersecting Orbits: Michael Morris and Joan Balzar

Address

Griffin Art Projects

1174 Welch Street

North Vancouver, BC V7P 1B2

Hours

Fridays–Sundays, from 12–5 pm

Griffin Art Projects presents Intersecting Orbits: Michael Morris and Joan Balzar from Jan. 27–May 5, 2024. Exhibition explores the legacies of Balzar and Morris as among the most influential West Coast conceptual artists of their times. Co-curated by Lisa Baldissera and David MacWilliam, the exhibition presents the art, archives, and collections of Michael Morris (1942–2022) and Joan Balzar (1928–2016) to celebrate their converging influence on conceptualism on the West Coast. To be within their orbit was to be part of a movement that shaped and internationalized visual art in the 1960s and ’70s in the region. This exhibition newly examines Morris’s legacy through works from his private collection, alongside works from across his career while contextualizing the Balzar’s stellar life and career. It is hoped that the exhibition will provide national and international audiences with a new appreciation of her work and career, through a select survey of woraks drawn from the collection of her nieces, Shawn Macmillian and Janice Haakons.

For more information, visit griffinartprojects.ca/exhibitions/intersecting-orbits. 

Opening Reception

Friday, January 26, 6–8pm 

Join us in-person for the opening reception for Intersecting Orbits: Michael Morris and Joan Balzar with collectors Rahmi Emin and Shawn Macmillan.

Curator’s Tour of Intersecting Orbits and Open Studio

Sunday, February 11: Open Studio 12–5pm / Curator’s Tour 1–2:30pm

Join us for a hybrid (in person and online via Zoom) exhibition tour of Intersecting Orbits: Michael Morris and Joan Balzar with curators Lisa Baldissera and David MacWilliam, and in person to see what Established Indigenous Studio Art resident Rolande Souliere has been up to during her time at Griffin.

Conference: Arcs and Orbits: Art, Relationality and Innovation

Sunday, March 10 11am–2pm

Join us March 10, 2024, for a hybrid online and on-site mini-conference Arcs and Orbits: Art, Relationality and Innovation, featuring discussions on artist collections through panel presentations by curator and media producer, and former Director of Power Plant, Wayne Baerwaldt; Marie-Eve Beaupré, Executive Director and Chief Curator, Guido Molinari Foundation; Bill Jeffries, former director of SFU Galleries and curator of the 2011 Balzar survey Orbital; along with contemporary Montreal-based artist Julie Trudel, who will give an artist talk on the convergence of the abstraction, light, and technology in contemporary art.