That Green Ideal: Emily Carr and the Idea of Nature is the largest solo exhibition of iconic British Columbia artist Emily Carr (1871–1945) at the Vancouver Art Gallery in over twenty years.

Featuring more than 100 works, it explores in-depth the artist’s obsession with the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, using close analysis of her paintings and writings to investigate how she understood nature and her relationship to it. The exhibition argues that Carr’s landscapes exist at the intersection between an experience of nature and an idea about how to transmit that experience through a painting, with the goal of expressing a divine essence in nature. It teases out the tension between individual and local references and the larger ideas and philosophies about nature in Western cultural traditions.

Guest curated by Salish artist Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun, this exhibition brings together the work of 11 Coast and Interior Salish artists working across sculpture, printmaking, textiles, painting, and mixed media. Together, their practices reveal the deep cultural, linguistic, and artistic relationships that flow across the Salish world.

While institutional narratives have often centered on Coastal Salish art, this exhibition broadens the lens, foregrounding the vital interconnectivity between Interior and Coast Salish communities. In doing so, it challenges the historic marginalization of Salish art within broader Northwest Coast art histories.

At the heart of the curatorial vision is the river, both a living presence and a powerful metaphor, linking land, water, identity, and evolving cultural practices.
The exhibition celebrates Salish art as dynamic, sophisticated, and forward-looking, affirming its place as both culturally essential and artistically visionary.

Featuring influential artists who have paved the way, including Susan Point and Angela Paul, alongside emerging voices shaping the future, this exhibition offers a resonant and timely exploration of continuity, connection, and creative resurgence.

Tupananchiskama: Ancient Andean Cosmovision explores the enduring worldviews of ancient Andean civilizations through nearly 100 exquisite pre-Columbian ceramic, textile, bone and wood works, some dating back more than 2,500 years. These works were collected by former UBC Professor Alan R. Sawyer and donated to MOA. The Andes are home to some of the world’s most complex cultural traditions, and its knowledge lives on in landscapes, practices, languages, and material culture.

This exhibition highlights Andean cosmovision—a holistic and spiritual understanding of the universe grounded in reciprocity, balance, and the recognition of nature as a living being. Far more than artistic objects, the belongings on display embody relationships between humans, ancestors, and sacred forces.

Tupananchiskama, is a word in Quechua, an Indigenous language of the Andes. It means “until life brings us together again” and reflects an ancestral view of life and death as part of a continuous cycle. In Andean philosophy, death is not an end but a transformation. Through the belongings in this exhibition, visitors are invited to reflect on continuity, resilience, renewal, and the promise of reunion.

This exhibition is located on a billboard at 1607 East Hastings Street, near Woodland Drive and adjacent to the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society. Directions »

As new ecological realities reshape the planet, what role does art play? Artists are not scientists, nor are they journalists. But they invite us to think differently and imagine new futures. Cannupa Hanska Luger’s work offers one such mediation on the possibilities.

Luger’s billboard Future Ancestral Technologies: WE SURVIVE YOU (2026) is part of a larger body of work that includes sculpture, film, performance and installation. Luger’s ongoing series Future Ancestral Technologies is a form of Indigenous science fiction that imagines how our culture confronts and shifts into the future. Featuring warrior- or sentry-like figures sporting brightly coloured and patterned regalia, WE SURVIVE YOU is both joyful and imposing. Who is implied in “we” and “you”? This work underscores that Indigenous knowledge is critical to human survival. In this century shaped by climate change and socio-political upheaval, Luger insists the act of imagining is necessary.

This public artwork’s location has meaning that resonates both locally and globally. WE SURVIVE YOU is presented on the unceded and ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations, and it is being presented adjacent to the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society. East Hastings is one of Vancouver’s busiest streets, a commercial thoroughfare with intersecting histories of industry, immigration, poverty and social upheaval. Together, these confluences give rise and context to the phrase: We survive you.

More than 200 works. Over 100 artists. One exhibition.

Permanent collection exhibitions are vital to a collecting institution, offering insight into both a visual history of place and the values that define the museum today.

Highlights from the Collection is drawn entirely from the Vancouver Art Gallery’s permanent collection and will be presented over a three-year period, with scheduled rotations of works on paper and photography.

This exhibition traces the evolving history of the Gallery’s collection through the environments in which art has lived, circulated and gathered meaning. From historical paintings to contemporary installations, artworks are presented in groupings that reflect the cultural and aesthetic contexts in which they were originally shown, including the formal arrangements of a salon-style installation, the domestic space of a modernist home, the experimental spaces of artist-run centres and the white cube galleries of the twenty-first-century museum.

Featuring art from this region while situating it within a wider global context, Highlights from the Collection considers how local developments connect to international movements. Ultimately, it tells a story—through the shifting of values, voices and aesthetic visions—of how art is shaped by place, and how place, in turn, is shaped by art.

Ser Serpas (b. 1995, Boyle Heights, California) lives and works in New York City and received degrees from Columbia University, New York, and HEAD, Genève. Notable institutional solo exhibitions include presentations at the Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland; the Pinault Collection, Bourse de Commerce, Paris; and Swiss Institute, New York. Serpas has also participated in group exhibitions at the Rubell Museum, Miami; Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; MoMA PS1, New York; the 2024 Whitney Biennial, New York; the 2024 El Museo del Barrio Triennial, New York; Musée d’art moderne et contemporain Genève; Bonner Kunstverein, Germany; Haus am Waldsee, Berlin; Istituto Svizzero, Rome; Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Punta della Dogana, Venice; and Kunsthalle Fribourg, Switzerland. Serpas has a solo exhibition upcoming at Kölnischer Kunstverein, Germany.

In Rafik Greiss’ work, we encounter a state between wakefulness and dreaming. Driven by the artist’s itinerant drifting within and across disparate urban landscapes, Greiss’ photographs, installations and videos reflect deeply on the complexities of movement and time, pursuing an impression of simultaneous distance and proximity.

In Public Image, Greiss presents a pair of photographic projects across CAG’s public sites. On the gallery’s façade is an arrangement of images from By the Highway, a series made in collaboration with Ser Serpas, depicting her creation of impromptu, temporary sculptures. At Yaletown-Roundhouse Station, Greiss has installed photographs of glass vitrines taken in the Agricultural Museum in Giza. Responding to the function of the display case to make its contents visible yet physically inaccessible, these deliberately ambiguous photographs double the station’s windows, taking glass itself – as opposed to what it reveals and encloses – as their subject.

Known for his meticulously rendered sculptures of social architectures — from bars and bookstores to clinics and changerooms — Douglas Watt’s work takes up the complex relationship between public space and the construction of self. Building on legacies of appropriation, assemblage and the readymade, Watt’s practice draws on quotidian materials and forms, producing model, set and prop-like works that engage questions about the performance of everyday life.In Mayor of the Village, Watt brings together a series of new and recent works that find their point of departure in Vancouver’s Davie Village, a historically significant centre of queer life in the city. Loosely staging the gallery as a café, Watt hangs within this environment a “survey” of his miniaturized model works from the past several years. Referencing tropes of the café art display, the resulting show-within-a-show at once evinces the ways that community is imagined and constructed in the public sphere — aesthetically, politically and otherwise — while nodding to the inevitable failures, fragilities and exclusions of these same structures.

Step inside a 360° experience set within some of British Columbia’s last remaining ancient forests, offering both an adventure for the senses and an ecological awakening.

Presented as part of the exhibition Future Geographies: Art in the Century of Climate Change, SANCTUARY: The Ancient Forest Experience is an immersive installation created by artist, ethnobotanist, educator and activist Dr. T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss in collaboration with filmmakers Damien Gillis and Olivier Leroux.

At the heart of the exhibition is a life-sized replica of an 1,800-year-old red cedar. Inside, visitors enter a geodesic dome where a stunning 360° film transports them deep into some of British Columbia’s last remaining ancient forests—places rarely seen, increasingly threatened and profoundly sacred.

SANCTUARY features the Inland Temperate Rainforest in BC’s Kootenay region and the Dakota Bear Ancient Forest, known to the Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) People as Stal’Kaya (Home of the Sea Wolves) and located on the Sunshine Coast in the unceded territory of the Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation). These rich, intact forests, which have evolved since the last Ice Age, are set in stark contrast with nearby clear-cuts and tree plantations.

Narrated by Dr. Wyss, this multi-sensory work is accompanied by a layered soundscape of birdsong, flowing streams and waterfalls. It also highlights the flora and fauna of these ecosystems, including culturally modified trees, living evidence of the Squamish Nation’s long-term care and use of Stal’Kaya. Red and yellow cedars, traditionally used to make canoes, paddles, baskets and other vital cultural objects, feature prominently in the film, with a selection of works displayed in the gallery.

In 2021, following more than a decade of advocacy to halt logging in Stal’Kaya, the Squamish Nation and the Government of British Columbia reached an agreement to protect the forest. The film also explores ongoing efforts by the Valhalla Wilderness Society to protect the Inland Temperate Rainforest. While the creation of the Incomappleux Ancient Forest Conservancy in 2023 marked an important step forward, many ancient forests in the Kootenays remain unprotected—an increasingly critical pursuit in the era of climate change.

As the environmental crisis accelerates, artists around the world are responding with urgency, insight and vision. Future Geographies: Art in the Century of Climate Change is the first major exhibition in Canada to examine the intersection of the climate crisis and contemporary art on a global scale.

Featuring works from the past 25 years, this exhibition underscores the urgency and relevance of sustainability and the environment as defining issues of our time. More than 35 works across a range of media—from large-scale video installations to living sculptures—invite viewers to confront pressing questions about our shared future on this planet.

Presented across multiple floors, Future Geographies includes a newly commissioned work by Jeffrey Gibson and marks the first time several artists are exhibiting in Vancouver, including Teresita Fernández, Josh Kline, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Jean Shin and Clarissa Tossin. The exhibition also features major works by BC–based artists such as Brian Jungen, Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun, connecting global issues with local specificity. Together, the works in this exhibition invite dialogue and create space for imagining.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Vancouver Art Gallery is partnering with the University of British Columbia Climate Action Lab to create unique platforms for cross disciplinary dialogue. After its presentation at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Future Geographies will travel to the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Future Geographies will continue on the Gallery’s 4th Floor with the immersive installation SANCTUARY: The Ancient Forest Experience, by Dr. T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss, Damien Gillis and Olivier Leroux, and a presentation of cedar works by local artists, curated by Dr. Wyss.

A public artwork by Cannupa Hanska Luger will be featured on a billboard on 1611 E Hastings Street (near Commercial Drive) and is a collaboration with Capture Photography Festival.

Becoming: The Art of Gu Xiong traces the evolution of Gu Xiong’s artistic practice and the major influences that defined it. Gu has exhibited in Canada, China, Italy and the USA in more than 40 solo shows and three public art commissions, but Becoming is the most comprehensive display of his work. Highlighting landmark pieces from his 50-year career, the exhibition showcases the pivotal moments that shaped his creative vision—serving as a roadmap of his artistic evolution from the 1970s to the present day and beyond.

Born in Chongqing, China and based in Vancouver, BC, Gu spent time as a labourer during the Cultural Revolution, faced challenges as a Canadian immigrant, built an academic career as a professor at UBC, and explored global migration—all the while committing to his artistic practice.

An internationally recognized multidisciplinary artist, Gu works across mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, video, and site-specific installations. His work redefines how we understand migration, hybridity, and globalization. Highlights include Enclosures (1989-2026), an installation not seen since the 1989 China/Avant-Garde Exhibition; the Crushed Cans painting and silkscreen print series (1991-93), an embodiment of Gu’s experience with culture shock; and Yellow Cargo (2016-26) a large-scale installation that explores globalization through the lens of migrant workers in Canada.

Performance tickets will be available to purchase on Wednesday, April 8.

If you are a Member or a Pack purchaser, be sure to take advantage of your pre-sale access!

The 2026 Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival will return to Sen̓áḵw/Vanier Park in Vancouver from June 9 to September 19, 2026.

The 2026 Season offers a thrilling journey through comedy, tragedy, and myth, presenting bold new visions of timeless stories. Playing in repertory on the BMO Mainstage, The Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Rebecca Northan, is a lively music-filled comedy set in a soccer-obsessed suburb, packed with trickery and mayhem, while the dark, relentless intensity of Macbeth, directed by Stephen Drover, provides a stark and bloody counterpoint. In the Douglas Campbell Theatre, the wildly successful Goblin:Oedipus, created by Rebecca Northan & Bruce Horak, with Ellis Lalonde, transforms one of Greek theatre’s darkest tales into a riotous, irreverent escapade. This production will play in repertory with Antigone, adapted by Kate Besworth and directed by Ming Hudson, which brings a raw and urgent contemporary lens to a classic tragedy.  

2026 Packs are available to purchase now. Lock in your Packs to secure early ticket booking in late March/early April!

Created by the BC Black History Awareness Society (BCBHAS) in partnership with the Royal BC Museum (RBCM), Hope Meets Action: Echoes Through the Black Continuum highlights the contributions of BC’s Black leaders across the centuries.

The exhibition follows the seldom-told stories of Black people such as Sylvia Stark, who was born an enslaved person in Missouri, taught herself to read by secretly listening to her master’s children’s lessons, and eventually became a pillar of the Black pioneer community on Salt Spring Island. Her daughter Emma Stark would later become the first Black teacher on Vancouver Island.

In addition, exhibition panels use artwork by young Black artists speaking to the history of the Hogan’s Alley community in Vancouver, BC.

Photo: museumofvancouver.ca

Did you know that Vancouver played a role in Nintendo establishing their North American headquarters? Or, that one of the top manufacturers of video game controllers during the late ’80s and early ’90s was located right in Burnaby?

The Canadian Video Game Museum (CVGM) is partnering with the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) to open a temporary exhibition called Press Start: A Vancouver Game History Pop-Up opening July 9, 2026 and running until Fall 2026.

Press Start explores Vancouver’s many contributions to gaming from mobile games like Marvel Contest of Champions, to big budget blockbusters from publishers like Electronic Arts and Microsoft, to award-winning indie games like Celeste and Darkest Dungeon and includes the chance to get hands-on with retro gaming hardware with made-in-Vancouver connections.

To showcase these made-in-Vancouver stories, the pop-up will include vintage video game systems, playable arcade cabinets, game demos, and interactive glimpses into the game development process.

“Starting research for this project began all the way back in 2016 beginning with a database of game companies that have existed in Vancouver, later expanding to include all of BC. Over time this concept evolved, recognizing a need for a physical entity to spread awareness and education around game development and Canada’s role in the game industry.” —Ryan Dunnison, Executive Director and founder of the CVGM

For decades, Vancouver has been a global hub for video game development. The MOV is excited to partner with CVGM to share stories of how our community has helped to shape this half-trillion dollar global industry. The gaming industry in particular is born out of Vancouver’s unique crossover of people in film, VFX, and games. Press Start will spotlight, celebrate, and document the people, stories, and games that make up the city’s ever-changing video game landscape.

Emily Hermant is the inaugural artist in our new Vancouver Now! exhibition series, highlighting artists whose work is both timely and closely tied to this city.

Since arriving in Vancouver in 2016, Hermant has steadily built a reputation as an artist to watch. The exhibition will highlight her weavings, which are laboriously crafted from the wires and data cables of the technologies that envelop us, thoughtfully shifting the speed and focus of our attention. They invite viewers to move from the frenetic virtual experiences that increasingly characterize our daily lives to an unhurried and surprisingly aesthetically satisfying consideration of the material basis of that simulated world.

Although the works are beautiful in reproduction, their full effect can be experienced only in person. As they are approached, each work, which initially appears like an abstract or highly stylized painting or textile, transforms to reveal its materiality as a structure of coloured, insulated wires and data cables.

What happens when two artists from opposite sides of the Atlantic come together? In the work of American artist Anne Marie Grgich and French artist Claudine Loquen, the answer is a fascinating meeting of imagination, colour, storytelling and personal expression.

Based in Tacoma, Washington, Anne Marie Grgich is a self-taught artist whose work has gained international attention in the world of outsider and self-taught art.

Grgich works with collage, painting, found images, books and other materials, bringing them together to create richly layered works. Faces, figures, words and fragments of images seem to emerge from one another, inviting viewers to look closely and discover something new each time.

Grgich’s work primarily explores memory, identity, emotion and the many layers of human experience.

Grgich has exhibited extensively in the United States and internationally, including in France, Canada and Australia. Her work has been featured in Raw Vision and publications about outsider art, and is held in public and private collections, including the Musée de la Création Franche in France and the Milwaukee Art Museum. In 2023, she received an Artist Grant from the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation. Her distinctive imagery has even found its way into the fashion world through a collaboration with Japanese fashion house Comme des Garçons.

Get ready for 11 days of unscripted, unfiltered, and completely uncensored theatre! As one of the city’s most celebrated alternative performing arts traditions, the Vancouver International Fringe Festival returns to take over Granville Island and independent stages across the city.

Celebrating independent theatre culture, this massive festival features over 80 diverse shows from local and international artists. Because the lineup is chosen entirely by lottery and is completely unjuried, artists have total creative freedom. Come expect the unexpected—with a packed schedule spanning hilarious stand-up comedy, raw indie drama, experimental dance, spoken word, and boundary-pushing performance art. It’s the ultimate way to discover emerging talent, and 100% of the regular base ticket price goes directly back to support the artists themselves.

History Paintings features the works of renowned painters Gordon Hookey (Waanyi people) and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun (Cowichan, Hul’q’umi’num’ Coast Salish; and Okanagan, Syilx). Set within the artists’ respective homelands of Australia and Canada, their works offer vivid and powerful reinterpretations of a painting genre typically associated with mythological and classical narratives. Hookey and Yuxweluptun embrace the monumental, confronting colonial histories from an Indigenous perspective with canvases as rich as they are expansive.

One of the most distinguished Australian artists of his generation, Hookey creates paintings that re-envision significant moments in his home country’s history. In MURRILAND! 2, key figures and events from pre-colonization to the present day are amalgamated into one continuous narrative, offering a radical revisioning of language, national identity, and cultural value. Hookey’s tableaus collapse seemingly disparate concepts, combining satire and mourning, violence and beauty, and resistance with love. 

Yuxweluptun’s work similarly confronts the construction of national histories, drawing on the visual language of landscape painting to expose the ongoing effects of environmental exploitation. Working in direct opposition to Canada’s Group of Seven, whose paintings helped to construct an image of the country as untouched wilderness, Yuxweluptun’s remarkable Global Warming: Wildfire Storms—the artist’s largest painting to date—reveals the contradictions embedded within these prevailing nationalistic and cultural narratives and compels us to look directly at the environmental devastation we have wrought.