Vancouver’s artistic diversity knew no bounds in 2016.

While we saw the return of popular festivals like the Eastside Culture Crawl, which celebrated its 20^th anniversary this year, we also saw new arts events and one-time exhibitions that reinforced the belief that Vancouverites are keener than ever to not just look at art, but to engage with it, too.

To list them all would be impossible, so instead, here are four that brought fresh perspectives and subject matter to the city’s multifaceted arts scene.

Capture Photography Festival

Returning for its third year this past March, 2016’s celebration of lens-based art saw the installation of a handful of thought provoking public pieces created by local artists including Adad Hannah, Stephen Waddell, Ryan McKenna, Erin Siddall, Sean Arden, and Jim Breukelman.

Some, like the graphic, large-scale images created by Hannah and Waddell, were plastered on the side of bus stations and buildings, while others, like the container-sized camera obscura created by Siddall and Arden, provided viewers with a more hands-on approach to photography.

These public installations were accompanied by more than 75 free exhibitions, surely meeting the festival’s mandate of increasing public awareness of photography’s cultural importance.

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Unceded Territories at the Museum of Anthropology

On their own, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s paintings are vibrant, powerful, and politically charged pieces of art, but together, as they were presented at this five-month long exhibit, they tell a story of the many struggles faced by Canada’s First Nations, both historically and today.

With nods to everything from oil pipelines, climate change, land claims, racism, colonialism, and residential schools, Yuxweluptun’s body of work—created over the course of 40 years—forced visitors to the museum to take a very close look at how the land on which they live is being exploited at the expense of Canada’s indigenous communities.

The exhibit ran alongside a campaign put forth by MOA that asked a question presented by the artist himself: Given the roots of our province’s colonial name, what would you rename B.C.?

Museum visitors were encouraged to provide feedback, making for an exhibit that not only informed viewers, but allowed them to think more deeply about the artwork as it pertained to the place they call home. (See photos from this exhibit here.)

MashUp: The Birth of Modern Culture at the Vancouver Art Gallery

It was the biggest and most ambitious exhibit that the VAG has ever undertaken, filling all four floors of the building and featuring 371 works by 156 artists.

By focusing on the very broad idea of ‘mashup’ techniques, which the VAG says, “changed the way we think about art and the way we see the world”, the gallery set the bar for large-scale exhibitions. 

Spanning a period of more than 150 years and showcasing work from artists like Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiet, and Barabara Kruger—whose bold painting adorned the walls of the gallery’s rotunda—the exhibit provided viewers with a look at how art itself has changed in the face of modernist practices like assemblage, photomontage, bricolage, and découpage.

With painting, photography, graphic design, music, film, sculpture, collage, and installations each being represented, it was an all-encompassing look at critical work of the last century. (See photos from this exhibit here.)

The Vancouver Mural Festival

Although the one-day fest took place back in August, one can still tour Mount Pleasant to spot the bursts of colour that were brought about by the inaugural Vancouver Mural Festival.

The first of its kind, the festival was modeled after a similar one in Montreal, and it proved to be an event perfectly suited for Vancouver. While the city supports an array of public art installations, large-scale, outdoor wall art was something that festival founder David Vertesi found to be lacking in Vancouver's landscape. 

After spending more than a year seeking out blank walls, he and his team provided 45 artists with the space to create permanent, contemporary murals in Mount Pleasant and parts of the Downtown Eastside, selecting artists through their own curated process.

Created in part because of Vancouver’s dwindling stock of brick-and-mortar galleries, it provided local artists with public exhibition spaces, and art enthusiasts with an avenue to discover both experienced and emerging painters. (See photos from this event here.)