One of Canada’s leading architects and a Vancouver legend is being recognized in his hometown for his expertise and artistic merit.
staff writer
One of Canada’s leading architects and a Vancouver legend is being recognized in his hometown for his expertise and artistic merit.
Arthur Erickson, who has designed everything from Simon Fraser University to Robson Square and beyond, will be feted by Vancouver Art Gallery with a retrospective of his work entitled “Arthur Erickson: Critical Works,” running May 27 to Sept. 10.
“The 75th anniversary of the gallery is the perfect time to celebrate our long and fruitful relationship with Erickson, which began in 1941 when one of his paintings appeared in the gallery, and has continued through two solo exhibitions of his architectural work and the gallery’s relocation to Arthur’s redesigned courthouse building in 1983,” VAG director Kathleen Bartels said.
“Critical Works” will present 12 major Erickson projects from the past 40 years. It will include photographs, models, architectural drawings and films, as well as using innovative techniques such as time lapse video of several Erickson buildings to illustrate how people’s interact with his structures.
Guest curator Nicholas Olsberg, former director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, is organizing the exhibition for VAG.
“The chief aim of this exhibition is to recreate the visceral experience generated by entering one of Erickson’s buildings,” Olsberg said.
“We want to communicate the voice of Erickson’s designs and reveal the poetry they add to everyday life,” he added.
The exhibition is split into three parts. The first, titled “Infinity,” concentrates on Erickson’s smaller scale projects and their effect on the surrounding landscape, while “Affinity” explores how Erickson added to the urban fabric. “Compression” examines model communities and landscapes.
All of the projects featured are base on the use of reinforced concrete, which Erickson used as his primary material.
“The exhibition will reveal how the architect gives concrete its force and beauty through contrast, by placing its density and finish against the light sheen of steel, the reflectivity of glass, the density of vegetation and the reflective variability of water,” a VAG release said.
Erickson, 82, burst onto the international architecture stage in 1964 with designs for the (then new) Simon Fraser University, as well as photographs of residences he had created.
Other projects, such as the keynote pavilion for Montreal’s Expo ’67, the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Robson Square, and a Los Angeles redevelopment project, solidified his reputation.
The legend is now working on a high rise condominium complex designed by and named after him.
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