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Roy Arden

Roy Arden (b. 1957 in Vancouver) lives in Vancouver; the primary subject of his photographs. Arden graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design with a bachelor in Photography and Interdisciplinary Studies in 1982. He has been exhibiting since the late 1970s and in the past 5 years has produced digital video works. Recent solo exhibitions include Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England and Galerie Tanit, Munich, with forthcoming ones at the Charles H. Scott Gallery and the Vancouver Art Gallery. His work has been included in significant groups exhibitions such as the Busan Biennale 2004, Kunstmuseum Basel, 2004, Intertidal: Vancouver Art and Artists, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpen, 2006 and the major photography exhibition organized in conjunction with the 2005 reopening of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Exhibitions

  • Territory

    JENNIFER ALLORA AND GUILLERMO CALZADILLA, ROY ARDEN, THE ATLAS GROUP / WALID RAAD, MICHAEL BARNHOLDEN, YAEL BARTANA, CAO FEI, GERMAINE KOH, GONZALO LEBRIJA, SERIPOP, JAYCE SALLOUM, RON TERADA, ANNABEL VAUGHAN, NEIL WEDMAN
    June 10–August 6, 2006

    This exhibition is curated by Melanie O’Brian and Helga Pakasaar, and organized by Artspeak and Presentation House Gallery.

    Please check www.presentationhousegallery.org for more details about Territory.

    Territory is a visual art project concerned with mapping urban experience, civic space and contested terrains. The project includes installations at Artspeak and Presentation House Gallery as well as in public sites around Vancouver, guided walks, lectures, a film series, and publication.

    The works in Territory involve navigating real and imagined territories – geographic, political, economic and social. The exhibition expands on earlier articulations of the notion of derive, or wandering, as a way to investigate urban environments. Cities are understood as essentially unreadable cartographies, fragmented and unstable. This project points to the spatial collisions of urban life, such as those resulting from rapid urban development and increased privitization of public space. The works in Territory reveal how cultural mythologies, both local and global, are scripted into built environments and determine human interactions. The social impact of the often invisible boundaries delineated by political conflict, gentrification, security, and communication systems becomes apparent as the artists call attention to the intersections of psychological, social and physical space.

    Five artworks have been commissioned for the public domain: photographic billboards by Roy Arden, roaming mobile signboards by Ron Terada, soil transplants by Germaine Koh, photographs by Jayce Salloum dispersed through various distribution systems, and silkscreens postered around the city by Seripop. Encountered by chance and through uncanny recognition, these ephemeral works provoke tensions between public and private space. Distinctions between private acts and communal life are seen as porous. These artists temporarily occupy and lay claim to civic terrain and transient street life.

    Presentation House Gallery will be exhibiting the work of five artists that offers poetic interpretations of the conditions that impact global cities. Footage of an industrial port in China’s Pearl River Delta by Puerto-Rican based artists, Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, offers a meditation on global economies. Yael Bartana, an Israeli artist living in Amsterdam, manipulates images of street demonstrations by Israeli and Palestinian youth. The documentary material about post-civil war Beirut by the Atlas Group / Walid Raad, working out of New York and Lebanon, questions the representation of urban ruination and political violence. Gonzalo Lebrija, from Guadalajara, Mexico, looks at the potential violence of collective behaviour in street culture. Cao Fei, one of China’s most notable young artists, tracks the daily routines of a milkman in Guangzhou where she lives. Artspeak will present two of her media works that are concerned with urban fantasies and cultural mythologies.

    Territory also involves mapping the city through guided walks from literary, visual art and architectural perspectives that will bring to light some of its hidden narratives. Michael Barnholden will animate the events of two downtown riots, Neil Wedman will interpret the history of sidewalks, and Annabel Vaughan will trace threads of Vancouver’s original urban grid along Carrall Street. The guided walks are on Saturdays at 2pm. Film series at Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour Street Wednesday, July 19, Thursday, July 20, screenings begin at 7 pm.

    On July 19 at 7 pm, Cao Fei will discuss her artwork, followed by a screening of her film, “Father”.

  • Artspeak: 5th Anniversary, Exhibition and Sale

    DONNA LEISEN, DAVID STEELE, DOUG MUNDAY, WORKSITE, LAURA LAMB, ARTISTS'S BOOKWORKS, MARK GRADY, REID SHIER, ROB LINSLEY, LAIWAN, ROBERT SHERIN, SFU STUDENT WORK, PATRONS, STAN DOUGLAS, BRENNA GEORGE, MARK LEWIS, HENRY TSANG, ROY ARDEN, ALLYSON CLAY, KATHERINE KORTIKOW, BEHIND THE SIGN, ANNE RAMSDEN, CORINNE CARLSON, CHRISTINE DAVIS, LAUREL WOODCOCK, AMI RUNAR HARALDSSON, KATHY SLADE, PHILLIP MCCRUM, EDWARD POITRAS, WILL GORLITZ, KELLY WOOD, NANCY SHAW, KEN LUM, LORNA BROWN, ROY KIYOOKA, KAY HIGGINS, ELLEN RAMSEY, SARA LEYDON, MARTHA TOWNSEND, MINA TOTINO, FRANK GAUDET, LANI MAESTRO, PANYA CLARK
    February 22–March 23, 1991

  • Behind the Sign

    ROY ARDEN, PETER CULLEY, JEFF DERKSEN, STAN DOUGLAS, DEANNA FERGUSON, SARA LEYDON, DONNA LEISEN, KATHRYN MACLEOD, DOUG MUNDAY, CATE RIMMER, CALVIN WHARTON
    September 10–October 1, 1988

    “Behind the Sign” an exhibition of collaborations between writers and visual artists, will be shown at Artspeak Gallery from September 10 to October 1, 1988. Over the past eight months, five visual artists and five writers have collaborated in pairs to develop works for this exhibition. The list of participants reveals an impressive array of talent from Vancouver’s visual art and writing communities: Stan Douglas and Deanna Ferguson; Roy Arden and Jeff Derksen; Donna Leisen and Calvin Wharton; Doug Munday and Kathryn MacLeod; Sarah Leydon and Peter Culley.

    The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue with texts by Scott Watson, Cate Rimmer, and Miriam Nichols.

  • West

    ROY ARDEN
    May 7–May 28, 1988

Talks & Events

  • Territory Book Launch

    ALLORA & CALZADILLA, ROY ARDEN, THE ATLAS GROUP/WALID RAAD, YAEL BARTANA, CAO FEI, GERMAINE KOH, GONZALO LEBRIJA, JAYCE SALLOUM, SERIPOP, RON TERADA
    May 30, 2009

    Artspeak and Presentation House Gallery are pleased to announce the launch of TERRITORY on Saturday, May 30, 7 pm at Presentation House Gallery, 333 Chesterfield Avenue, North Vancouver BC.

    This publication documents the Artspeak/Presentation House Gallery co-production TERRITORY, a visual art project concerned with urban experience and civic space that included gallery installations, public projects around the city, walking tours, a boat tour and film screenings.

    Featured Artists:

    Allora & Calzadilla, Roy Arden, The Atlas Group/Walid Raad, Yael Bartana, Cao Fei, Germaine Koh, Gonzalo Lebrija, Jayce Salloum, Seripop, Ron Terada.

    Texts by Michael Barnholden, Germaine Koh, Melanie O’Brian, Helga Pakasaar, Jordan Strom, Michael Turner, Annabel Vaughan and Neil Wedman.

    64 pages, Designed by Studio:Blackwell

    Special launch price: $18, regular price: $22

    Please join us for bubbly, readings, music and famous ham.

    This event is in conjunction with the launch of the Spring 2009 issue of The Capilano Review “Moodyville”, a co-production with Presentation House Gallery.

  • Territory Film Series

    CAO FEI
    July 19–July 20, 2006

    Film series at Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour Street

    Wednesday, July 19, Thursday, July 20, screenings begin at 7 pm.

    On July 19 at 7 pm, Cao Fei will discuss her artwork, followed by a screening of her film, “Father”.

    Cao Fei (b. 1978 in Guangzhou, China) lives in Guangzhou where she produces films, photography and theatrical works. Her artwork has been included in recent exhibitions on contemporary Chinese art, such as “Between Past and Future: New photography and Video from China” and “Follow Me!:Contemporary Chinese Art at the Threshold of the Millennium” She has participated in major international exhibitions such as the Third Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fifth Shanghai Biennial and is in the forthcoming Sydney Biennale.

  • Artspeak: 5th Anniversary, Exhibition and Sale

    DONNA LEISEN, DAVID STEELE, DOUG MUNDAY, WORKSITE, LAURA LAMB, ARTISTS'S BOOKWORKS, MARK GRADY, REID SHIER, ROB LINSLEY, LAIWAN, ROBERT SHERIN, SFU STUDENT WORK, PATRONS, STAN DOUGLAS, BRENNA GEORGE, MARK LEWIS, HENRY TSANG, ROY ARDEN, ALLYSON CLAY, KATHERINE KORTIKOW, BEHIND THE SIGN, ANNE RAMSDEN, CORINNE CARLSON, CHRISTINE DAVIS, LAUREL WOODCOCK, AMI RUNAR HARALDSSON, KATHY SLADE, PHILLIP MCCRUM, EDWARD POITRAS, WILL GORLITZ, KELLY WOOD, NANCY SHAW, KEN LUM, LORNA BROWN, ROY KIYOOKA, KAY HIGGINS, ELLEN RAMSEY, SARA LEYDON, MARTHA TOWNSEND, MINA TOTINO, FRANK GAUDET, LANI MAESTRO, PANYA CLARK
    February 22–March 23, 1991

  • Catalogue Launch

    Roy Arden, Peter Culley, Jeff Derksen, Stan Douglas, Deanna Ferguson, Donna Leisen, Sara Leydon, Kathryn Macleod, Doug Munday, Cate Rimmer, Calvin Wharton, Behind the Sign
    September 10, 1988

  • Talk

    ROY ARDEN
    May 12, 1988

    Writers/Artists/Talks, a joint project of the Kootenay School of Writing and Artspeak Gallery, consists of a series of public talks and exhibitions by writers and artists with the intention to articulate a common theoretical and practical ground for the two disciplines.

Publications

  • Territory

    Territory front
    Territory spine
    Territory back

    Title: Territory
    Category: Catalogue
    Artists: Allora & Calzadilla, Roy Arden, The Atlas Group/Walid Raad, Yael Bartana, Cao Fei, Germaine Koh, Gonzalo Lebrija, Jayce Salloum, Seripop, Ron Terada
    Writers: Michael Barnholden, Germaine Koh, Melanie O’Brian, Helga Pakasaar, Jordan Strom, Michael Turner, Annabel Vaughan, Neil Wedman
    Editor: Melanie O’Brian, Helga Pakasaar
    Design: Studio:Blackwell, Toronto
    Publisher: Artspeak, Presentation House Gallery
    Printer: Generation Printing, Vancouver
    Year published: 2009
    Pages: 64pp
    Cover: Paperback
    Binding: Perfect Bound
    Process: Offset
    Features: 36 colour images
    Dimensions: 25.5 x 20.5 x 0.5 cm
    Weight: 285 g
    ISBN: 978-0-021394-58-7
    Price: $5 CDN

    This publication documents the Artspeak/Presentation House Gallery co-production TERRITORY, a visual art project concerned with urban experience and civic space that included gallery installations, public projects around the city, walking tours, a boat tour and film screenings.


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  • Behind the Sign

    Behind front
    Behind spine
    Behind back

    Title: Behind The Sign
    Category: Exhibition Catalogue
    Artist: Roy Arden, Jeff Derksen, Donna Leisen, Calvin Wharton, Stan Douglas, Deanna Ferguson, Peter Culley, Sara Leydon, Kathryn MacLeod, Doug Munday
    Writers: Cate Rimmer, Scott Watson, Miriam Nichols
    Editor: Monika Gagnon, Cate Rimmer
    Design: Doug Munday
    Publisher: Artspeak
    Printer: Benwell-Atkins Ltd.
    Year published: 1988
    Pages: 48pp
    Cover: Paper
    Binding: Perfect Bound
    Process: Offset
    Features: 11 b&w images, 1 colour image
    Dimensions: 25.5 x 20.5 x 0.5 cm
    Weight: 216 g
    ISBN: 0-921394-02-0
    Price: $7 CDN

    Collaborative works by visual artists and writers investigating the production of meaning within a variety of systems.


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  • West

    West publication
    Category: Exhibition Catalogue
    Artist: Roy Arden
    Writers: William Wood
    Design: David Clausen
    Publisher: Artspeak
    Printer: Hemlock Printers, Vancouver
    Year published: 1988
    Pages: 48pp
    Cover: Paperback
    Binding: Perfect Bound
    Process: Offset
    Features: 2 b&w images, 10 colour images
    Dimensions: 23 x 15 x 0.5 cm
    Weight: 135 g
    ISBN: 0921394020
    O.O.P.