News 2009

December 17, 18, 2009 (aired on Shaw TV, The Express)
Tradition in the making and breaking

"The smooth voice of legendary Haida artist Bill Reid echoes under the high ceilings of the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art..."

November 18, 2009 (Where Travel, Kristina Urquhart)
Hot Art: Homage

"Prolific Haida artist Bill Reid may be a tough act to follow, with more than 1,500 pieces in his repetoire, but the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art salutes the work of contemporary First Nations artists in Continuum: Vision and Creativity on the Northwest Coast ."

November 3, 2009 (The Vancouver Sun, Shelley Fralic)
Day 5: The Olympic torch and Haida Gwaii, when old history meets new

Haida elder Percy Williams carried the Olympic torch aboard Lootaas (the canoe carved by Bill Reid for Expo '86) on Day 5 of the relay.

October 3, 2009 (Lori Henry, independant travel writer)
Martine Reid Discusses Haida Art at the Bill Reid Gallery

"“Bill [Reid] is taking you by the hand and taking you through his gallery,” Martine Reid tells us as we step into the Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver. She was the wife of Bill, celebrated Haida artist and CBC radio announcer (1920-1998), who describes herself as Bill’s “wife, partner and best critic."

July 24, 2009 (The Vancouver Sun, Kevin Griffin)
Trickster artist pushes boundaries of Northwest Coast art

"Shawn Hunt likes to catch people off guard with his art. He'll look at something and wonder why it has to be that way. If it's Northwest Coast jewelry in a display case and masks on a wall, he'll question why the jewelry can't be on the wall or the masks in the display case.

Although no one has put together pop culture and Northwest Coast imagery quite like him before, Hunt does it because he can't imagine making art any other way. He sees something in his head and then works to make it appear in the world."

July 20, 2009 (The Vancouver Sun, Kevin Griffin)
A Confident Raven Lands on the Coast

"If you want to see where Northwest Coast art is going, check on the exhibition Continuum at the Bill Reid Gallery. It has everything from contemporary pop cultural references mixed with traditional imagery to new mediums and ways of telling traditional stories. I was taken on a tour by Martine Reid, the consulting curator for the gallery, and then talked to artist Shawn Hunt who has painted Trickster which combines a little of Andy Warhol and Bill Reid in one powerful image. It's so visually startling, I wouldn't be surprised to soon see it on posters and T-shirts."

July 16, 2009 (The Georgia Straight, Robin Laurence)
Ancient and new blur in Continuum

"Continuum is a small yet ambitious show, striving to find a voice within both modern-day art production and eons-old First Nations culture. Featuring new work by 23 emerging and mid-career aboriginal artists from Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington state, the exhibition is at unfortunate odds with its temporary location. It is installed in the chopped-up galleries and amid the competing fixtures and permanent displays of the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art."

January 1, 2009 (The Globe and Mail, Fiona Morrow)
"I had a desire to complete the circle."

After eight years at Calgary's Glenbow Museum, Michael Robinson returns to his West Coast roots and his passion for Haida art with a new job at the helm of Vancouver's Bill Reid Gallery.

Vancouver -- Michael Robinson is coming home. The Vancouver-born former chief executive officer and president of Calgary's Glenbow Museum starts his new job as executive director of the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art Jan. 1, just before his 58th birthday. It's a move he describes as "somewhat salmonoid..."