Photo: Ema Peter Photography
After nearly 30 years of planning, The Polygon Gallery has opened to the public on the Waterfront at Lower Lonsdale in North Vancouver. Since 1976, the Presentation House at 3rd and Chesterfield has been a community art space that for the last three decades has had a focus on photographic arts.
Now in its new space next to Lonsdale Quay, the stunning $20million gallery provides an anchor to the evolving Lower Lonsdale precinct. The Polygon Gallery joins the new residences, bistros, restaurants, pubs and shops that have replaced the industrial spaces that were North Vancouver staples for decades. The Patkau Architect designed Gallery is constructed to the highest standards for sustainable building. The Gallery is a bright, open, light-filled space, with a fully-glazed ground floor and exterior cantilever, jutting over the boardwalk offers shelter from the weather. The new building’s lower floor boasts a welcoming Gallery lobby and gift shop, a café, and a multi-purpose exhibition and event space.
The second level features four exhibition spaces and a large exterior terrace overlooking Burrard Inlet, which, even on a recent dreary night, the sparkling skyline of Greater Vancouver, and the city’s busy harbour create a magnificent work of art of its own. While the exhibition space is vast but feels intimate to not overwhelm the art within, the all white interior is a blank canvas to highlight whatever work fills the space.
The Polygon Gallery’s inaugural exhibition N. Vancouver, is on display until Spring 2018. N. Vancouver honours the Gallery’s home with photographic works capturing its rich and varied history from Coast Salish village, to industrial port city to the emerging urban metropolis of today. Pieces reflect the industrial port, concrete grain terminals, docks and rail yards, all set against lush coastal mountains and natural beauty of the Skwxwú7mesh and Tsleil-Waututh territories. The most ambitious project in the Gallery’s history, N. Vancouver features commissioned works by more than fifteen artists, including Andrew Dadson, Gabrielle Hill, Althea Thauberger, Stephen Waddell and Tracy Williams, paired with existing work by Stan Douglas, Greg Girard, Fred Herzog, Curt Lang, and Jeff Wall, among others.
The Polygon Gallery is located steps from Lonsdale Quay, at 101 Carrie Cates Court, North Vancouver.
The Gallery is open 10am – 5pm, Tuesday – Sunday (closed Mondays)
Admission is by donation.