SURREY — Since 1975, much of Surrey's landscape has changed.
There are roads and houses where there were once wooded areas, a SkyTrain routed through the city's centre and neighbourhoods densified and formed. But if the physical space has changed in the past 40 years, so too has the landscape of art.
Fitting, then, that Surrey Art Gallery is celebrating 40 years of art with not one, but three exhibits to detail and document the city's art since the gallery's inception in 1975.
"One of those is Views from the Southbank - Histories, Memories and Myths is the subtitle," explained Jordan Strom, the gallery's curator. The exhibit is the first of three in the series to be shown in 2015: the first exploring the area's history, the second exploring its present and the third, fittingly, looking toward its future.
"The second exhibition is put together by a group of artists and residents, called Re:Source, A Living Archive 1975-2015. The third one is Open Sound 2015: Polyphonic Cartograph," Strom detailed.The latter is a five-channel sound installation by Surrey-based writer Taryn Hubbard, called Surrey City Centre nee Whalley, that plays audio recordings collected over a year from North Surrey and surrounding areas.
While the archives project and Open Sound say much about the history of art and change in Surrey, it's arguable that Views from the Southbank is the focal point of the anniversary shows.
"Views from the Southbank is a pretty extraordinary show," Strom told the Now. "This one, in terms of addressing the history and memories of this region, which is growing, has a long history with its own identity. Oftentimes it's framed within the city and municipality limits, but really many of the municipalities are so intertwined socially, economically and physically.... The artists are interested in those boundaries and those blurred spaces. It's not meant to be a comprehensive portrait but overall, (the exhibit will) transform over the course of the year."
Artists involved in the initial installation include former Kwantlen art instructor Jim Adams, painter Nicoletta Baumeister, visual artist Polly Gibbons and others.
"This is sort of citing the beginning of the stories that we have, the myths and the memories we have of the place as it changes," explained Baumeister, who has resided in Surrey for the past 30 years.
"Artists tend to sit back and observe and take in what's happening to them, personally. I think that's why you see much variance in the expressions. Each person tackles that attitude in a different way, and that's what's so exciting about this particular show."
Adams' work includes four small paintings that juxtapose pyramid shapes and cityscapes, like views of the SkyTrain and a look inside residential homes from a street view, and that theme fits in well with the current display.
"This particular theme has been going on for the past five or six years," Adams said of his work. "I live in the White Rock-South Surrey area where you can actually see the sky. It's just the whole idea of expansive landscape that we don't pay that much attention to."
Meanwhile, Re:Source: A Living Archive 1975-2015 documents the change of the art gallery itself, which has always been connected with Surrey Arts Centre, the city's hub for performance art.
The Surrey Art Gallery's winter exhibits launch Saturday (Jan. 17) with a curator's tour at 6:30 p.m. and reception at 7:30 p.m.