Speaker Series: Ian Wallace

Since the late 1960s, Ian Wallace has been a leading figure in the landscape of Canadian and International art. His conceptual approach to the making of art has allowed him to connect his interest in diverse disciplines such as abstract painting, documentary photography, design, and literature. In Wallace’s work, classic modernist practices are reconfigured to allow a contemporary modernity to be addressed in all its complexity. His importance to the local art scene can not be underestimated. In his teaching of historical and contemporary art at the University of British Columbia, in the late 1960s, and at the Vancouver School of Art (now ECI), from 1972 to 1998, Wallace introduced ‘Art Now’ into the art history curriculum. He has exhibited internationally for the last thirty years and was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts in 2004. His exhibition Ian Wallace: In the Studio is currently on at the Charles H. Scott Gallery.

The Speaker Series (2000–2006) was a programme of visiting artist talks and lectures organized by Charles H. Scott Gallery in conjunction with the Art Now course at ECIAD. The programme was initiated by ECIAD faculty Ian Wallace in the 1970’s as a series of lunchtime artist talks. Wallace ran the programme until 1998.