Opening reception: January 18, 8-10 pm

The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery opens its Belkin Satellite location at 555 Hamilton Street on January 18, 2002. The former premises of the Contemporary Art Gallery have been renovated with a generous grant from the Vancouver Foundation.

The opening exhibition Suite features works by a group of young artists: Sean Alward, Gavin Hipkins, Tim Lee, Natasha McHardy and Ann Shelton, all of whom are currently completing their MFAs at UBC.

This multimedia exhibition includes photography, painting and sculpture. Sean Alward’s painting investigates the theme of ventriloquism. Tim Lee’s photographic work documents the artist’s attempt to levitate. Gavin Hipkins explores the themes of landscape and seriality in the touristic packaging of British Columbia. In her monumental photographic diptych Ann Shelton revisits the scene of a crime that captured the public imagination in her native New Zealand through its portrayal in the mass media. Natasha McHardy’s sculpture presents a miniature picnic of visual delights.

Between 2001 and 2008, the Belkin Satellite operated as an auxiliary space in downtown Vancouver that presented a mix of exhibitions by local artists, new projects by mid-career artists, experimental projects by UBC curatorial studies students, and served as an additional venue for the Belkin’s permanent collection. Its location at 555 Hamilton Street is Vancouver’s most enduring single gallery space as the prior site of the Bau-Xi Gallery from 1964 to 1972 and the Contemporary Art Gallery from 1973 to 2001; in August 2008, the Or Gallery took over the site.