19 March 2019
For Immediate Release
Press contact: LaTiesha Fazakas
latiesha@fazakasgallery.com
BEAU DICK Early Works exhibition and Beau Dick: Devoured by Consumerism Book Launch
March 29 - May 11, 2019
Tanúyap Project Space, lower level of Fazakas Gallery
688 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC
Opening reception and book launch: Friday, March 29th, 6-8 PM
info@fazakasgallery.com
Fazakas Gallery's Tanúyap Project Space is pleased to present an exhibition of works by acclaimed artist Beau Dick. Early Works includes thirteen previously unexhibited masks and objects created between 1979 and 1980 when Dick was in his early twenties. It is rare to view such a coherent grouping of works from this period, partly because Dick did not adhere exclusively to the conventions of the art market, often bypassing the gallery system and selling works directly to private collectors. This exhibition affords us the opportunity to contemplate a seminal moment in Beau Dick's artistic development and to consider these works alongside the significant oeuvre which proceeds them. As a collection, these artworks form a complex portrait of a young artist's attainment of a remarkably high level of virtuosity and stylistic diversity.
Chief Beau Dick, Walas Gwa'yam (1955-2017), was a Kwakwaka'wakw (Musgamakw Dzawada'enuxw First Nation) artist and activist who was acclaimed as one of the Northwest Coast's most versatile and talented carvers. His work has been shown in exhibitions around the world, including at the Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, B.C. (1976); Canada House, London, United Kingdom (1998); the 17th Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2010); and documenta 14 in Athens, Greece and Kassel, Germany (2017). He was the recipient of the 2012 VIVA Award and was artist-in-residence at the University of British Columbia's Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory from 2013 to 2017.
