Avis Rasmussen: The View from Here
Exhibition: 12 April – 28 May 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday 15 April, 3PM
Artist-in-Conversation / Book Launch: Sunday, 30 April, 3PM
1800 Store Street (wheelchair accessible)
Wednesday to Sunday, 12 to 5 pm
by donation: $2 – $20
In this retrospective exhibition, spanning six decades of production, the Victoria Arts Council recognizes the astounding output by local artist, Avis Rasmussen. A focus on Rasmussen’s oscillating points of view from the intimate to the international, offer a much needed look at this artist’s work.
Exhibition curator and VAC executive director, Kegan McFadden, first approached Rasmussen to work on this project together last year, noting, “The idea of The View from Here is to show Avis has always been paying attention and engages her surroundings to make her artwork; this is closer to the poet’s eye for recollection. So whether glancing around the gardens where she grew up, strolling through Beacon Hill park, taking in the landscapes of Greece, or the stage at Herman’s, and at times even her own reflection… Avis’s images have always been informed by her specific vantage point.”
Across the decades Avis Rasmussen has become known as a painter, printmaker, and poet. The selection of works in this sprawling survey will offer everything from sketches done in the 1950s to experimental prints from the 1970s to watercolours of the 1980s through to a linocut finished earlier this year. Gathered for the first time will also be work on loan from the University of Victoria’s Legacy Art Gallery and Library’s Special Collections, including an important oil on canvas painted at the internationally renowned Emma Lake Workshop in the 1990s. A publication of Rasmussen’s new and selected poems and texts, edited by McFadden and co-published with the University of Victoria will be launched during the exhibit. The illustrated book, also titled The View from Here, features poems from the 1970s up to 2022.
Rasmussen has stated, “As a visual artist my art and life is influenced by my life-cycles, the world around me, my family, friends and other supporters of my art during my long life. I often work in series creating from an idea, a fascination, an inspiration, a vision, a view, an activity, a live performance/performer, music or scenes on my travels. Captivated very young by colours, shapes, textures, patterns, shadows, and light that changes constantly and seasonally I continue to try to capture by selecting what I see or envision when sketching or painting outdoors. Some of these images become a series of studio oil paintings like the Boat series, some a series of studio acrylics and linocuts like the Jazz series; others are more of a lifelong investigation, such as my plein air paintings in oil and watercolour. I also enjoy the visual and tactile qualities of working with inks on paper so some images are translated to lithographs, etchings, reliefs, monoprints, or collographs. The linoblocks are carved, hand-rolled with ink and printed off.“
A selection of Rasmussen’s original art, limited editioned prints, cards, and books, will be available for sale during this exhibit.
__________________________________
Avis Rasmussen is a Victoria painter and printmaker of national significance who brings a West Coast narrative to her en plein air paintings. She has had a lifelong passion for painting in the ever-changing light of the Pacific coast. This inspired her to travel, seeking other coasts and rivers to paint in France, Italy, England, and the US. In the 1970s Avis majored in painting at the University of Victoria as well as minoring in Printmaking with Pat Martin Bates, obtaining a BFA with distinction and an MEd in Counseling and Art Curriculum. Avis has been advocating her whole life for the arts community in Victoria through a number of organizations, including Peninsula ‘Plein Air’ Painters and Ground Zero Printmakers. She has participated in international exhibitions in Pretoria, South Africa (2000), with the International School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture in Montecastello di Vibio, Italy (2003) and Hastings, New Zealand (2006), and the Atelier aux Lilas, Paris (2019). In 2019, as part of the Victoria Arts Council’s 50th anniversary celebrations, and in recognition of her artistic contributions, Avis was made a Lifetime Member. That same year, the Avis Rasmussen Award was established at the University of Victoria for mature students pursuing scholarship in the visual arts.
Rasmussen’s art can be found in collections across the country and beyond, including: University of Victoria, Government House (BC), Burnaby Art Gallery, Keyano College (Alberta), Dunlop Art Gallery (Saskatchewan), University of Saskatchewan, Wilfrid Laurier University (Ontario), York University (Ontario), University of New Brunswick, and University of of Prince Edward Island, among others.
https://www.avisrasmussen.com/
A profile accompanying this important exhibition is available to read at ArtOpenings.ca.
Avis Rasmussen: The View from Here is generously sponsored by Prestige Picture Framing. Any work by Avis Rasmussen bought during this exhibition will qualify for a 15% discount on framing at Prestige (limited quantity of gift certificates available).
Banner image: Avis Rasmussen, Self-Portraits (2012). Linocut Reduction print, ed. 7. Courtesy of the Artist.
Below: Avis Rasmussen. Emma Lake Boat III (1992). Oil on canvas. Collection of University of Victoria, Legacy Gallery | U008.28.1