A selection of NOVA Gallery exhibition posters, 1976–81, offset-printed posters, dimensions variable. Part of the NOVA Archives. Courtesy of Claudia Beck.
A selection of NOVA Gallery exhibition posters, 1976–81, offset-printed posters, dimensions variable. Part of the NOVA Archives. Courtesy of Claudia Beck.
NOVA Gallery: 1976–81
Opening Reception
Saturday, March 29, 12 – 6 pm
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Posters designed by Jack Buquet, and printed by Don Atkins of Benwell-Atkins Ltd.
NOVA Gallery has been at the centre and the periphery of many histories of photography in Vancouver. Acknowledging the stories that have already been told, OHCE-ECHO presents “a little history” of the gallery, centred on a poster archive documenting the fifty-odd exhibitions that were held at 1972 West 4th Avenue between December 1976 and June 1981.
Ostensibly a commercial gallery with storefront exhibition space, a library of photo books, and flat files full of photographs, NOVA mixed commerce and community with occasional sales and serious research. Co-founders Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft, along with curator Helga Pakasaar, encouraged and sustained conversations on photography that carried in and out from the city’s studios, galleries, and less formal spaces.
Close up and in sequence, the posters describe difference and repetition, alternating contemporary and historical practices, solos and pairings, and thematic or less wieldy groups, and together reflect the variable circulations of timely and urgent ideas and the availability of new – even if vintage – prints.
In April, all are welcome at OHCE-ECHO to name and recall the artists, artworks, and exhibitions that contributed to a dynamic local community in its time, and that continue to offer point, counterpoint, or potential for contemporary practices, lens-based and otherwise.
