Exhibitions
Libby Leshgold Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
The Undesirables
Myfanwy MacLeod
Curated by Cate Rimmer
Libby Leshgold Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Myfanwy MacLeod entitled The Undesirables, featuring works drawn from her public art endeavours over the past ten years and including both realized and unrealized projects as well as propositional ideas. Studies, casts, and working models created as part of the design and production process, largely overlooked as art works in their own right, are on display in the exhibition as are works that have grown out of her public art projects.
At the centre of the exhibition is a twelve-foot tall cast for Primrose, a sculpture of a donkey soon to be installed in Toronto. Like MacLeod’s set of iconic public sculptures, The Birds, installed in Vancouver’s Olympic Village, Primrose is the antithesis of the soulless “turd in the plaza” (a phrase coined by architect James Wines). Both of these public sculptures, along with The Lady, a camel installed in North Vancouver, make up a trilogy that alludes to the symbolic language of animals in Western art. At the same time, they reference histories and specifics of the sites where they are permanently located. This blending of art history, popular culture and folklore is a consistent feature of MacLeod’s work whether it is presented in a gallery or a public space. It skillfully walks the line between conceptual consideration and the appealing whimsy.
Myfanwy MacLeod’s work is charming, but at times it also touches on social, political and environmental concerns such as in her work honouring Jane Jacobs, the feminist, author and activist whose ideas about healthy urban environments put her at odds with urban renewal schemes of the nineteen sixties and seventies. Jacobs’ advocacy work and writing around the social constructs of a city continue to influence urban planning and artistic engagement within the urban environment.
During the exhibition, Libby Leshgold Gallery will host public programmes that relate to notions of public art. Of particular interest to Myfanwy MacLeod is the importance of encouraging more woman artists to take an active role in public art and this is one of the themes that will be addressed in the companion programming.
Public Programmes
Opening Reception
Thursday, September 19, 7 PM
Libby Leshgold Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
The Undesirables: Art in Public Spaces
Panel discussion with Myfanwy MacLeod, Steph Kirkland, Vanessa Kwan, Sarah Siegel, and Tatiana Mallema
Thursday, November 28, 6 PM
Reliance Theatre, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Biographies
Myfwany MacLeod has over the past twenty years become widely known for her complex and irreverent artwork that draws upon a broad set of references, from conceptual and minimalist art to motifs salvaged from popular literature, music and cinema. MacLeod takes the familiar, cartoons, movie posters, record albums and soft-core porn magazines and shifts their form or context to make visible the way they shape our understanding of ourselves and our place in the world. With a longstanding interest in satire as a tool for critical examination of the world around us, she uses humour to speak to the vexations that persistently confront artists: the struggle to produce something “socially relevant,” the tension between art and commerce, and the conflict between popular entertainment and “high culture.” Her work explores widely held conceptions of beauty and truth, while also presenting a subversively humorous critique of imbalances of power within the art world — inequities MacLeod sees as representative of the world at large.
MacLeod has been the recipient of numerous awards including the City of Vancouver’s Mayor’s Award (2013), The Glenfiddich Distillery artist-in-residence program (2005), The City of Vancouver Live/Work studio residency (2003-2005), The Canada Council for the Arts Paris Studio (1999), The Doris and Jack Shadbolt Foundation VIVA award (1999) and the Fondation Andre Piolat (1994).
