Image: Joan Balzar, Electra II, 1967/2009, Acrylic paint on canvas with neon tubing, 152 x 323 cm, Collection of West Vancouver Art Museum

Join curators Lisa Baldissera and David MacWilliam for a hybrid (in person and online via Zoom) exhibition tour of Intersecting Orbits: Michael Morris and Joan Balzar. 

Co-curated by Lisa Baldissera and David MacWilliam, Intersecting Orbits presents the art, archives and collections of Michael Morris and Joan Balzar to celebrate their converging influence on conceptualism on the West Coast. To be within their orbit was to be part of a movement which shaped and internationalized visual art in the 1960s and 70s in this part of the country, and went on to become enduringly echoed and quoted.

Two major collections, bequeathed by the artists, form the core of Intersecting Orbits and are generously shared with the public for the first time through this exhibition: the Morris collection, presented courtesy of Michael’s husband, Rahmi Emin, and Balzar’s niece, Shawn Macmillan’s collection, which features work by Balzar from across the artist’s career. Additional loans from Macmillan’s sister, Janice Haakons, the Darrin Morrison & Stephanie Edwards collection, and the West Vancouver Art Museum highlight key moments in Balzar’s artistic development.

We are grateful to Odlum Brown for their sponsorship of Intersecting Orbits: Michael Morris and Joan Balzar.