Arts Tip Sheet: VSO pop-ups, Vancouver Mural Festival, Festivals for Compassion, and more
Our picks from the week's arts roster--with some of them live, and in-person, as well as online.
Pride in Chinatown MMXX
To September 7 at streets around Chinatown
Artist and rebel Paul Wong curates a street-based show of site-inspired artworks from the queer pan-Asian diaspora--art that emblazons everything from utility poles to laneways. Sadly, a few of the pieces have been stolen. Highlights that remain as bold tributes to the Asian LGBTQ community: David Ng's text and collage work Comrade(ry), located at the Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Association building, sourced from a 1906 Province newspaper article about a bathhouse at that very site; and the video installation The Petal (Cánh Hoa) at the Or Gallery, by filmmaker Christian Jones and drag performer Kara Juku, featuring the latter "morphing between an Áo dài (traditional Vietnamese garment) and a contemporary outfit; shapeshifting out of the want to fit in".
Vancouver Mural Festival
To September 7, online and at locations around town
Digital and live-in-person events combine at the fifth annual fest, which plans to bring 60 murals to nine neighbourhoods across the city over the coming three weeks. Look for artists like Rory Doyle, Arty Guava, and Fernanda Ribiero to bring new life to the walls of the River Distrcit, while talents like OWES, Tabouli, WRUES, ZEDEK, Animalitoland, and more bring colour to the fest's traditional stomping grounds at Mount Pleasant. Watch for the VMF Pop-Up Patio, ticketed sit-down live shows in an open air pop-up deck at 123 East 6th Avenue, as well as a virtual Year 5 Art Exhibit, 100-plus originals and reproduction prints on view and for sale.
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Pop-Up Performances
Wednesday (August 19), downtown Vancouver, from 2 to 5:30 p.m.
Keep your eyes peeled and your ears open for VSO trombonists Brian Wendel and Andrew Poirier at four surprise outdoor locations downtown tomorrow.
Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience
To January 3, 2021 at the UBC Museum of Anthropology
Kent Monkman's provocative show of artifacts and epic canvases sparked lineups during a cross-country tour to nine cities. Lineups aren't the order of the day as the exhibit finally hits the Museum of Anthropology here, but it's still a momentous event that you won't want to miss. Years in the making by one of Canada’s most exciting contemporary painters, it was originally conceived to mark this country's 150th anniversary through an Indigenous point of view. Monkman slyly subverts the style of old painting masters, injecting grand landscapes with stories left out of colonial history--think children being ripped out of their mothers' arms to be taken to residential school, or settlers massacring beavers across pastoral green hills.
Festivals for Compassion: Mark Takeshi McGregor
Tuesday (August 25) on Music on Main YouTube channel
It's been making the rounds of Europe, and now it's finally coming here: the new solo composition "Thin Air", gifted to ensembles and presenters around the world by the Greek-Dutch composer Calliope Tsoupaki to help soothe these challenging times. Now Music on Main has the chance to bring the Festivals for Compassion project here, with star Vancouver flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor taking on the work for a new recording to be made at The Post at 750 and then released for the city--and the world--to enjoy.
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