Tour with Michael and Inna O’Brian
Saturday, March 29, 2014 - 2:30pm
Forum:
Join us for an inside look at Cindy Sherman meets Dzunuk’wa in a special tour with Michael and Inna O’Brian at Satellite Gallery. This is your last chance to see selected highlights from their collection and to hear about their interests and choices. The show includes works by such key Canadian and international artists as Brian Jungen, Ann Kipling, Mary Pratt, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Victor Vasarely, and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun.
Formed over a period of 25 years, the O’Brians’ collection is both eclectic and unpredictable in its breadth and range of media, from paintings and sculptures to ceremonial regalia and conceptual photography. It emphasizes regional art from the postwar era to the present day, revealing the collectors’ special interest in local and emerging artists, many of whom have become personal friends. "My passion for the visual arts is not just about owning and collecting art," says Michael O'Brian; "The work must create within me a desire to feel and understand what was in the artist's mind at the time of its creation."
Taking an experimental approach to the exhibition, the curators—Karen Duffek (Museum of Anthropology, UBC), Helga Pakasaar (Presentation House Gallery), Cate Rimmer (Charles H. Scott Gallery, Emily Carr University), and Keith Wallace (Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery, UBC)—have avoided chronological and thematic categories by placing the diverse works into unexpected juxtapositions. Just as New York artist Cindy Sherman’s untitled portrait of vanity and the grotesque comes face to face with Kwakwaka’wakw artist Beau Dick’s mask of Dzunuk’wa, the Giant of the Woods, artworks in the exhibition are presented as a series of conversations, from intimate to confrontational.
Michael O'Brian is a B.C.-based investor/businessman and dedicated arts philanthropist. Inna O’Brian is a registered psychologist and philanthropist. Both Inna and Michael are currently directors of the Vancouver Opera.
As president of Nairbo Investments Inc., Michael has been involved with the securities industry for over 40 years, in addition to being actively involved in community affairs. He is a Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery Foundation, the National Gallery of Canada Foundation, and Emily Carr University, and is the founder of Satellite Gallery. He is a past trustee of the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Museum of Anthropology. He is a past member of the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Faculty of Arts at the University of British Columbia.