How can we explain the roles and meanings of space in our daily lives? In art? How have artists approached the challenge of space, at once a concrete concept but also as an abstract idea? Art educator Jessa Alston-O'Connor will take a closer look at the Vancouver Art Gallery's recent exhibition, The Poetics of Space, featuring key works of historic and contemporary art from their permanent collection.  Works from notable artists including Lawren Harris, Emily Carr, Jack Shadbolt, Rebecca Belmore and many others will be considered in questioning how we strive to represent space visually and as an abstract idea. A range of works from abstraction, to modern sculpture, performance and contemporary photography, will be discussed with a focus on how each artist approaches space in the 2D and 3D, in the homes we live in, and in mapping the open cities and natural surroundings where we build our lives. The possibilities of representing space in art are rich and complex, and are a challenge artists of the past and present are continuously faced with. How does space factor in to your art practice?  Join us for a thought provoking lecture and discussion.

Jessa Alston-O'Connor is an art educator and independent arts writer from
Vancouver. She holds a Masters in Art History from Concordia University with a concentration in Asian Canadian Art, Identity and Food Culture in Contemporary Art. Over the past ten years she has taught Art History at the University of Saskatchewan, and worked in public art galleries and collective run art spaces across Canada, developing and delivering programs for meaningful connections between art and diverse publics. She is an educator in Public Programs at the 

Vancouver Art Gallery and instructor at Emily Carr University of Art 

and Design.

Admission fee: $5.00
All proceeds earned go towards the cost of this lecture and future lectures in the series.

Lecture takes place in the Slide Room Gallery Wednesday July 17 at 7pm