A Studio Quivering in Readiness highlights B.C. artists at Burnaby Art Gallery to November 24
Works by Gordon Smith, Bill Reid, Roy Kiyooka, Toni Onley, and eight others are displayed in new exhibition, all donated by late collector Harry Locke
Gordon Smith’s Untitled, 1965, serigraph on paper, 49.0 x 47.0 cm. Photo courtesy of the City of Burnaby Permanent Art Collection, gift of the estate of Harry Locke
Burnaby Art Gallery presents A Studio Quivering in Readiness to November 24
LATE BURNABY RESIDENT Harry Locke was a gifted piano player and worked as an English teacher at Carson Graham Secondary School in North Vancouver—all while avidly collecting works by some of the biggest names in B.C. art. From 1974 to 1980, he served as an elected member of the Burnaby Art Gallery Association Board.
Though Locke passed away in 2018, his lifelong love and appreciation for the arts prevails at the Burnaby Art Gallery. This fall, his donation of several local artworks is now the backbone of A Studio Quivering in Readiness, a new exhibition that highlights some of B.C.’s most significant artists: Gordon Adaskin, Todd Baker, Wayne Eastcott, Max Ernst, Miriam Haworth, Brian Fisher, Roy Kiyooka, Toni Onley, Bill Reid, Lin Chien-Shih, Gordon Smith, and Jack Wise.
At the show, guests have the chance to see Reid’s 1973 silkscreen print Haida Dogfish on display, which references the powerful Dogfish Woman of Haida mythology. It is said that the being, part human and part dogfish (a small shark species), represents a transformation between human and non-human realms. Born in Victoria in 1920 to a Haida mother and American father, Reid was an acclaimed master carver, goldsmith, broadcaster, and community activist whose works blend Indigenous traditions with a unique modernist aesthetic. His work can be seen at a variety of other local galleries and art spaces, including the UBC Museum of Anthropology, which is home to his monumental 1980 yellow-cedar carving The Raven and the First Men.
Bill Reid’s Haida Dogfish, 1973, serigraph on paper, 65.7 x 50.6 cm. Photo courtesy of the City of Burnaby Permanent Art Collection, Gift of the Estate of Harry Locke
Another silkscreen print featured at the exhibition is Smith’s 1965 work Untitled. Smith, whose namesake Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art houses works by some of the country’s most talented artists, was best known for his modernist West Coast landscapes; but Untitled offers a different perspective into the creative’s mind, with vibrant blue, green, and orange tones creating a geometric optical illusion of sorts.
Accompanying the works in A Studio Quivering in Readiness are a series of archival letters between Locke and the artists, which provide a glimpse into the deep connections and support systems that helped some of the province’s most notable creatives flourish.
The full exhibition is available for viewing during the Burnaby Art Gallery’s regular opening hours, which are 10 am to 4 pm from Tuesdays through Fridays and 12 pm to 5 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is by donation. 
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