Curator's Conversation: Perspectives on the Work of Stan Douglas
Join us for a Montreal-Vancouver Curator Talk online. In collaboration with the Polygon, this event brings together curators in conversation on Stan Douglas’ work. Lisa Baldissera, Director of Griffin Art Projects, will be joined by Reid Shier, Director of The Polygon Gallery, who will share his experience curating Stan Douglas’ exhibition 2011 ≠ 1848 for the Canada Pavilion during the 59th edition of La Biennale di Venezia, which is currently featured at The Polygon Gallery. Joining us virtually from Montreal are Adjunct Curator, Dr. Karen Tam in conversation with Cheryl Sim, Managing Director and Curator at Phi Foundation for Contemporary Art in Montreal, who will talk about Revealing Narratives, the Canadian premiere of Douglas’s most recent photo series, Penn Station’s Half Century (2021). Lisa Baldissera has worked in curatorial roles in public art galleries in Western Canada since 1999, including Senior Curator at Contemporary Calgary (2014-16) and Chief Curator at the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon (2012-14). She was Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria from 1999 to 2009, where she produced more than fifty exhibitions of local, Canadian, and international artists. She holds MFAs in Creative Writing (UBC) and Art (University of Saskatchewan) and a PhD from Goldsmiths College. Baldissera has served on contemporary art juries across Canada and internationally, including the Canada Council for the Arts, Royal Bank of Canada Canadian Painting Competition, the Sobey Art Award and as a guest of the British Arts Council outreach program. She is Director of Griffin Art Projects. Reid Shier is the Director of The Polygon Gallery, formally Presentation House Gallery, in North Vancouver. Since joining The Polygon in 2006, Shier spearheaded the development of a new $17.5M waterfront facility, which opened in 2017. Prior to this, Shier was Chief Curator of the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2004-06), Curator of the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, (2002-04), and Director/Curator of the artist run Or Gallery, Vancouver (1996–2001). Shier has curated more than eighty exhibitions and his critical writing has been published broadly, including a recent essay on Stan Douglas’ public artwork Abbott and Cordova, 7 August 1971. Karen Tam is a Tiohtià:ke/Montréal-based artist whose research focuses on the constructions and imaginations of ‘ethnic’ spaces through installations in which she recreates Chinese restaurants, karaoke lounges, opium dens, curio shops and other sites of cultural encounters. She has exhibited her work and participated in residencies in North America, Europe, and China, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the He Xiangning Art Museum. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths (University of London) and a MFA in Sculpture from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is represented by Galerie Hugues Charbonneau. Cheryl Sim is Managing Director and Curator at the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art as well as an artist and scholar. Her work ethos has been greatly informed by artist run culture. Recent exhibitions include RELATIONS: Diaspora and Painting (2020), and STAN DOUGLAS: Revealing Narratives (2022) which both garnered critical acclaim. Her video and installation work has been presented in exhibitions and festivals in North America and Europe. She has a PhD in the études et pratiques des arts program at UQÀM and her book Wearing the Cheongsam: Dress and Culture in a Chinese Diaspora was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019.
