Offsite: Robert Youds
October 21, 2014–March 30, 2015
Vancouver Art Gallery
750 Hornby Street
Vancouver, BC V6Z 2H7
Canada
The Vancouver Art Gallery launches the latest Offsite project For Everyone a Sunset, a site-specific public installation by Robert Youds, from October 21, 2014 to March 30, 2015.
Victoria-based artist Robert Youds takes his cues from the built environment to construct an enigmatic light sculpture. For Everyone a Sunset transforms ordinary materials such as aluminum, salvaged glass and neon lighting to create cinematic plays of light that activate its surroundings.
As viewers move past the aluminum chambers filled with sheets of laminated glass and neon tubing, the individual modules become compositions of light and shadow that are further augmented by changes in natural lighting throughout the day. While the installation is associated with the subject of architecture, it avoids any particular built form. Instead, For Everyone a Sunset triggers an array of pictorial possibilities amidst the surrounding cityscape.
Robert Youds is an artist who works in several media. Initially trained as a painter, over the past two decades he has expanded his engagement with the medium to include the materials within the designed environment, including aluminium, Plexiglas, neon lights and digital signs. Youds’ use of artificial light has given rise to the seductive and meditative explorations of perception that he refers to as “structures” and “light paintings.” His artworks have been exhibited nationally in many public institutions including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Power Plant and are found in both public and private collections. Youds is a Vancouver native, but is based in Victoria where he is a Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Victoria.
Offsite, the Vancouver Art Gallery’s outdoor exhibition space, is dedicated to newly commissioned public art projects and brings innovative contemporary art to a broad audience. It is located on West Georgia Street between Thurlow and Bute Streets in downtown Vancouver. Offsite: Robert Youds is organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Diana Freundl, Assistant Curator.
Visit the website and the microsite for further information on Offsite exhibitions and related public programs, special events, tours and lectures.
Media information
Debra Zhou: T +604 662 4722 / M +604 671 2358 / dzhou [at] vanartgallery.bc.ca
About the Vancouver Art Gallery
The Vancouver Art Gallery is a not-for-profit organization supported by its members, individual donors, corporate funders, foundations, the City of Vancouver, the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts. We thank everyone for their continuing generosity.
