Admission is free to see the diverse works in ARTS 2024, the annual juried art competition at Surrey Art Gallery (SAG).
The exhibit opened May 4 at the Bear Creek Park gallery and continues until July 6, when People’s Choice prize winners are announced during a summer celebration.
For more than four decades, ARTS has showcased a wide variety of artistic talent in the region, thanks to a collaboration of the gallery and Arts Council of Surrey. With the exhibit title, only the digits of the year change every spring.
ARTS 2024 saw jurors select 51 works from entries in five categories including Painting, Drawing/Mixed Media, Sculpture/Fibre Art, Photography and Digital/New Media.
“We are always blown away by the response to this competition,” said arts council president Carol Girardi, who thanks the artists who share their time, hard work and talents.
“Surrey is honoured to be able to see the world through your unique creative lens.”
The five category winners are Samantha Harrison (Painting, for Pareidolia: Ring-Necked Pheasant), Min Lin (Drawing/Mixed Media, for Love the Righteous), Natasha Boskic (Sculpture/Fibre Arts, for Bird Song), Melika Mousavi (Photography, for Daily Nature Retreat) and Shirley Chen (Digital/New Media, for Sale at the Fish Market).
This year’s entries included marble sculptures, wooden carvings, whimsical digital paintings, handwoven textiles and more, now hung in the lobby area of the arts centre’s Main Stage.
The 2024 jurors were South Surrey-based artist Kiranjot Kaur, artist and Kwantlen Polytechnic University Fine Arts faculty member Sean Alward and Surrey Art Gallery curatorial assistant Zoe Yang.
“Many of the works were ambitious in their scope while remaining masterful in their execution,” the three-person jury stated. “Through the artists’ motivation and desire to express themselves through art, culture is born, and we look forward to the community engaging with this vibrant show.”
Those who want to purchase ARTS 2024 works can call the arts council, 604-594-2700.
• RELATED: ‘Rare opportunity’ to see 60 of Takao Tanabe’s prints in Surrey this spring.
Also at Surrey Art Gallery this spring, the work of master printmaker Takao Tanabe is celebrated in a Printmaker exhibit, closing June 2. The “major survey exhibition” offers visitors “a rare opportunity to enjoy the work of one of Canada’s greatest living artists,” according to Rhys Edwards, assistant curator.
Organized by Kelowna Art Gallery with guest curator Ian M. Thom, the exhibit features more than 60 prints made by Tanabe from the collections of SAG, Vancouver Art Gallery and Winnipeg Art Gallery.
A quick look at Takao Tanabe’s prints at Surrey Art Gallery in a rare local exhibit of "one of Canada’s greatest living artists" this spring.
— Tom Zillich (@TomZillich) May 7, 2024
STORY HERE: https://t.co/SaKYizbANy pic.twitter.com/S9f81XGMb4
At SAG the entirety of Tanabe’s career is showcased, from his earliest linocut Christmas cards dating from 1948 all the way up to depictions of the West Coast landscape completed as recently as 2023. Also highlighted are screen-printed hard-edge colour abstractions from the 1960s, monotypes (single editions) of natural forms from the 1950s, and even some of the physical woodblocks used to produce Tanabe’s more recent prints.
Looking ahead, opening June 22 at Surrey Art Gallery is Future Memoria, a group exhibit exploring utopian and dystopian ideals in pop culture with works from the gallery’s permanent collection along with loaned art. Dozens of artists will be featured.