Last night we went out to the opening of a student show at Emily Carr, “Of the Kingdom.”

It was quite good and definitely worth going to see. If you’re going to be down on Granville Island, take a few minutes to walk through the gallery. I’m showing a few images below, but this is just a small selection of the great work these students have done.

Instead of trying to explain what the show is all about from my outsider perspective, I’ll let the show speak for itself:

From cave paintings to contemporary corporate logos, the images, ideas, and values animals communicate to us, play a pivotal role in contemporary art, visual language and popular culture. Wildlife was one of the first subjects of art. This exhibition seeks to address how art employs non-human sentient beings as muses for expression. Have animals become mere vessels of romanticism? Why do we worship wildlife as gods, build human characteristics into animals for the sake of storytelling, and continually represent them in art? How are animals forced to operate within a world where one species dominates above all the others? Exhibiting a wide variety of media, artists and disciplines, Of The Kingdom aims to uncover the function of wildlife within the context of contemporary art to explore the relationships between animals and humans.

Show description

"Endangered Originals" by Gayle Koyanagi

"To Good Times" by Neil Chung

"Untitled" (detail) by Meghan Leeburn

Here’s the list of the students:

Vanessa Black
Dyanna Beckwith
Erin Busswood
Neil Chung
Christina Christie
Aisha Davidson
Katrina Dombsky
Catherine Chun-Hua Dong
Jules Francisco
Katalina Geurrero
Emma Kesler
Gayle Koyanagi
MAKA
Meghan Leeburn
Philip Materna
Zoe M. Peled
Karolle Wall
Emma Walter

Note: The show will be up through February 2nd.