At the West Vancouver Museum & Archives until October 16

Generations is a pleasant little community show, highlighting the practices of 23 artists who lived and worked in West Vancouver between 1955 and 1975. Paintings, drawings, prints, jewellery, weaving, and ceramics are complemented by stories and photographs of the artists, and archival references to pioneering galleries, a hipster coffeehouse, and the founding of the Dundarave Print Workshop. A slight portrait of a time and place emerges; however, if you're expecting to encounter evidence of West Van's best-known modernists--such as Gordon Smith, B. C. Binning, Alistair Bell, and Don Jarvis--you'll be disappointed.

Examples of their work appeared in the first version of Generations, covering the years 1912 to 1962, which took place at the West Vancouver Museum & Archives five years ago. (Both shows were organized by independent curator Ingunn Kemble.) Omitting these big names from this new survey is curious, especially given how productive the artists were during the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, and how long ago the first show was. Unfortunately, as a consequence, a goodly portion of the art currently on view is, well, insipid. (If Generations were a critical history, the quality of the art would matter; in a community history, perhaps not so much.)

Still, there are some fine artists here. Among the most accomplished are painter Sylvia Tait and her late husband, the poet Eldon Grier. The brief account of their peripatetic lives is tantalizing (for example, Grier studied fresco painting with the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera), and their art proclaims an energetic presence. Especially delightful is The Minotaur , an undated lithograph in which Tait has illustrated Grier's poem of the same name. As in her partitioned abstractions, Tait's touch here is nimble, and she communicates wonder and sensuousness.

Joan Balzar, Wayne Eastcott, Arnold Shives, and King Anderson are also strong inclusions in this small survey, as are ceramicists Zoltan Kiss, Tam Irving, and Sally Michener. A gentle revelation is Elizabeth Smily's 1950 Portrait of Susan Benson ; it's a conservative painting for its time, but very able.

One of the curatorial oddities here is that not all of the art falls within the stated time frame. Balzar is represented by a 2003 painting, Michener by two sculptures dated 2004, and weaver Mieneke Mees by a 1986 jacket. The introductory panel mentions Balzar's nighttime sketching expeditions into downtown Vancouver in the early years of her career, but her work from that period is not included.

Another area of inconsistency is in the archival material, which is often enlightening but occasionally irrelevant. Yes, the artists' individual stories add texture and colour to the community history, but in the display devoted to gallerist Mary Frazee, there's a 1959 letter from an upscale Vancouver dress shop, introducing her as their advertising representative. Huh? A vocational blip in Frazee's career shouldn't be taking up space in this small show. Chuck it so that we can focus on the contribution Frazee made to the evolution of West Vancouver's visual-arts scene.

Next Saturday (September 18) at 2 p.m., the West Vancouver Museum & Archives hosts a reception that will include music, poetry readings, and recollections by some of the artists.