From Balzar to Hunt

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Left to Right: Michael Morris, “Untitled,” 2003; Shawn Hunt, “Trickster (detail),” 2009; Audrey Riller, “Untitled (Woman in Kitchen) (detail),” circa 1969

From Left to Right: serigraph, 26.8 x 34.3 cm, (Gift of Robin Bassett), (AGGV 2005.028.001); acrylic on canvas, 90 x 60 x 5" (Photo by Kenji Nagai), (courtesy of the artist); serigraph, 120.6 × 106.6 cm, (Gift of the artist's estate), (AGGV 2024.007.004)

From Balzar to Hunt brings together a selection of Pop Art made and owned by artists based in British Columbia, from the 1960’s to present. Together, these works provide a glimpse into the ways Pop Art aesthetics have informed art practice on Canada’s West Coast.

Originating in the United States and in Britain in the 1950’s, Pop Art peaked in the 1960’s and has continued to flourish internationally in the decades since then. BC based artists, including Joan Balzar (1928-2016) and Audrey Riller (1934-2023) produced work in line with their leading international contemporaries in the 1960s. Victoria’s own Michael Morris (1942-2022) was a friend and contemporary of internationally acclaimed Pop artists Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg. In addition to his own Pop inspired work, this exhibition features works that were made by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein and collected by Michael Morris. Most recently, contemporary artist Shawn Hunt (Heiltsuk, b.1975) has created work that merge the aesthetic legacies of Pop Art with those of Northwest Coast Indigenous artists.