The emotional pull of oceans and waterways is explored at Surrey Art Gallery this summer, in a pair of concurrent exhibits.
Most prominent of the two is Diane Roy’s “The Deep and the Shallows,” a look at four decades of art created by the longtime Surrey resident.
Showcased in a separate space of the gallery is “Invisible Fish,” a group exhibit of works by Salish artists.
Roy, who has lived in Whalley for 32 years, is happy to have her fabric sculptures and other works featured in the city where she lives.
“It’s great to be here because I’ve been trying to get in for many years and finally I got in,” Roy said.
“It took me a long time to get here, to get into a gallery,” she continued. “This is 40 years of my work, and you present your work and get rejected and rejected and rejected until one day they say, ‘OK, you’re in!’ There are many artists like this, and I understand.”
Roy divides her art career into White, Black and Colour periods, starting with white, coral-like crochet works. Later, she used black fishing nets as a commentary about the commercial industry.
Most recently Roy made “The Magnificent,” a colourful wall tapestry of a blue whale’s head that dominates the gallery space. It’s a COVID-era project she started in 2020 at a friend’s warehouse.
“I found a place that was getting rid of all this foil paper that I turned into cable and made art with that,” Roy explained. “If you look closer, it’s cable stitched together to make this whale, stitched with fishing line. The cable is 1/16 of an inch in diametre, really thin, and this took a long time — a three-year project altogether.”
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Raised in Quebec, Roy was drawn to the Pacific side of Canada, and moved to this region in 1986. She was a school teacher in Coquitlam for 30 years.
“Education brought me here, and I always wanted to come here,” Roy explained. “I liked the Pacific Ocean, so yes, I was drawn by that. As a girl I would go to the aquarium and be so amazed, just wow, looking at all of the fish and ocean creatures.”
Over-fishing and deteriorating ocean health are themes of a large, net-like tapestry Roy calls “The Curtain of Death,” hung in adjacent room of the gallery at Bear Creek Park.
“I went to Steveston and asked if I could use the old nets to make this art,” Roy recalled. “The guys thought I was crazy, because they smelled really bad — I had to wash them over and over, and then I started to make this. They were hanging all over my backyard for about a year.”
Floats tied to the ceiling were collected during a post-tsunami cleanup on Vancouver Island. Off in a corner is “Icarus,” made in 1990 with willow branches.
Roy will talk about her work during an exhibit-opening event Saturday, July 8, starting at 6:30 p.m. Her art is showcased online at fibreart.ca and also facebook.com/DianeRoyFibreArt.
• RELATED: Watch Salish artist Atheana Picha weave at Surrey Art Gallery this summer.
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Also featured at SAG until Sept. 3 is “Invisible Fish,” which borrows its title from a Joy Harjo poem. The exhibit, curated by Alanna Edwards, encourages visitors “to think of their own relationship to the creeks, rivers, and sea that flow through and around this land.” Included are works by Roxanne Charles, Susan Point, Leslie Wells, Atheana Picha and other artists.
Some special events are planned at SAG this summer, including a Family Art Party on Saturday, July 15, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There’s also a plant walk July 22, a medicine-making workshop Aug. 12 and Soba’s Corner: A Chinese-Canadian Cooking Show on Aug. 29.
Admission is free at Surrey Art Gallery, online at surrey.ca/artgallery, or call 604-501-5566.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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