OR GALLERY >> 236 E PENDER STREET VANCOUVER BC CANADA V6A 1T7

Exhibition: Hold On // Anna Zett // October 17 - January 11,

NEWS:Or Gallery is Moving! //

Dear Friends and members of the Or Gallery,

Or Gallery wishes to announce that it will be relocating in Fall 2019.

After just over 10 years (2009-2019) in its present location at 555 Hamilton Street, Or Gallery is moving to 236 East Pender Street, where as of October we will reopen our gallery and bookstore. We hope you will join us in celebrating the new space later this fall.

Or Gallery has benefited for many years from the low rental cost of 555 Hamilton, a space that nurtured several gallery spaces over the years, including Bau Xi, Contemporary Art Gallery, the Belkin Satellite and Or Gallery. While we have been served well over the years by our current location, it is important to acknowledge the long history the Or Gallery has had and how all its many phases of growth have significantly contributed to the Or Gallery’s role within the Vancouver arts community. We want to thank all of the previous directors, staff and volunteers for the many hours spent making Or Gallery what it is today.

Our move comes as economic realities have shifted around us. Or Gallery makes this strategic decision to move to a new location at a moment when local real estate costs have elevated well beyond any typical cycle of gentrification. Today’s market speculation has reconfigured the reality of being part of the Vancouver community, a fact that impacts all organizations and individuals, living and working here. We will continue to balance the need for a tightly budgeted operation, fair compensation for our staff and artists and free programming for our public. This move is another step in our continued commitment to fulfill our mandate as a critical yet accessible forum for contemporary art and ideas in the years to come.

As Or Gallery merges with the thriving arts community in Vancouver’s Chinatown, we will transform our ground floor site on East Pender, formerly run by Unit Pitt Gallery, to suit our needs and to serve as an excellent exhibition space, bookstore, community hub, and centre for discourse. We look forward to our home in a shared complex of artist studios which are managed by fellow artist-run centre 221A, neighboured by a community of studio artists and in close proximity to a number of arts organizations. We are excited about the potential for concurrently planned openings, and a general cross-pollination of curatorial exploration and strategies for survival and solidarity as Vancouver art institutions.

We enthusiastically enter into this new incarnation of Or Gallery — a transition to a clean and safe environment for the staff, the artists and the presentation of experimental curatorial and artistic projects.

The Or Gallery remains an artist-run centre committed to exhibiting work by local, national, and international artists whose art practice is of a critical, conceptual and/or interdisciplinary nature. Since its inception in 1983 the gallery has acted as a space for research, proposition making, conceptual experimentation and documentation. The Or Bookstore specializes in artists’ publishing carrying a range of books and printed matter including editions, artists’ books, monographs, design publications, local publishing, criticism and theory and journals and magazines.

We look forward to seeing you again really soon! Please click here to support the Or Moving Campaign!

Warmly,

The Or Gallery Staff and Board

Allison Collins, Cissie Fu, Yasmine Haiboub, Mark Harris, Karina Irvine, Asia Jong, Denise Ryner, Krista Belle Stewart, Michelle Weinstein & Laurie White

NEWS:Upcoming //

Visiting Speakers Panel: France as a Black Space
Saturday, Sept 28th, 2pm
This event will take place at Artspeak (233 Carrall St, Vancouver, BC V6B 2J2)

Writers, Activists and Curators Fraçoise Vergès and Olivier Marboeuf will have a conversation on colonized, decolonized and cultural space in France. This is the first part of our event series, Bodies Borders Fields, co-presented by Or Gallery and Trinity Square Video.

This panel is supported by the Consulate General of France in Vancouver.

Vancouver Art Book Fair and 4/edition Toronto
Look out for Or Gallery events, book launches and booths at the Vancouver Art Book Fair and 4/edition Toronto Art Book Fair this coming October.

Vancouver Art Book Fair : October 18 – 20
4/edition Toronto : October 24 – 27

Or Gallery is moving!
Between August 4th and October 15th, 2019 we will be closed as we relocate to our new home in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown neighbourhood. Join our newsletter for updates and information on our reopening and new space.
During this time we can be contacted at or@orgallery.org

INTERNATIONAL AND SPECIAL PROJECTS >>

talk: Visiting Speakers Panel: France as a Black Space // // Saturday, September 28 at 2pm >

fundraiser: Donate to the Or Gallery Moving Campaign // // >

fundraiser: Select//Or Mixtape Subscription Series // // >

fundraiser: Donate Monthly to the Or Gallery! // // >