The Monte Clark Gallery is pleased to announce a photographic exhibition entitled A Proposal for an Exhibition , curated by Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft .

8 February - 2 March, 2003
Opening reception: Saturday, February 8, 1PM

Photographs are a significant part of contemporary art, and Vancouver is home to a handful of photographers who began to attract art world acclaim in the late 1970's. Since then another two generations of artists have added breadth and depth to the internationally recognized Vancouver photographic scene. A Proposal for an Exhibition suggests an additional context for contemporary photographs, one which reaches back to the larger history of photography. The exhibition contextualizes the work of seven younger Vancouver photographers represented by the Monte Clark Gallery with nine important international photographers within the history of the medium. Contemporary works by Roy Arden, Karin Bubas, Chris Gergley, Evan Lee, Scott McFarland, Howard Ursuliak and Stephen Waddell will be exhibited with historical works by Peter Henry Emerson (1886), Eugéne Atget (1922), Walker Evans (1933, 1940), Helen Levitt (1940) and works from the 1970's by Garry Winogrand, William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Joe Deal and Lynne Cohen. Each image in the exhibition represents the everyday, the overlooked, the pedestrian, the familiar. The exhibition proposes that it is in the photographic ways the image is made that the picture becomes an artwork.

The Monte Clark Gallery has invited Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft to curate this important exhibition. Highly regarded within the photographic community, Beck and Gruft were forerunners in exhibiting photographs in Canada at their NOVA Gallery in Vancouver which showed many of the photographers included in the above exhibition. From 1976 - 1982 NOVA showed a broad range of photographs, from the 19th century through 20th century classics to contemporary work. Over the years they have contributed various essays and works from their personal collection to important photographic exhibitions. A Proposal for an Exhibition will be accompanied by an essay.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00am to 6:00pm
E-mail: info@monteclarkgallery.com
Website: www.monteclarkgallery.com