The Audain Art Museum is a 56,000-square-foot private museum located in

Whistler, British Columbia Whistler (, ; , ) is a resort municipality in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, British Columbia, Canada. It is located in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains, approximately north of Vancouver and south of Pemberton, Britis ...

, Canada, that houses the private art collection of

Michael Audain Michael James Audain, (born July 31, 1937) is a Canadian home builder, philanthropist and art collector. He is the Chairman and major shareholder of the privately held Polygon Homes Ltd., one of the largest multi-family builders in British Col ...

. Designed by

Patkau Architects Patkau Architects is an architecture firm based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is a full-service firm practicing in Canada and the United States. Its project scope includes, but is not limited to, gallery installations, art galleries, ...

and opened to the public in 2016, it holds a comprehensive permanent collection of British Columbian art.

Design

The site is moderately forested with mature

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

and

cedar Cedar may refer to: Trees and plants *''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae * Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar Places United States * Cedar, Arizona ...

trees. In an effort to preserve the site's ecology only a single tree was removed during the initial phase of construction. The design is intended to blend into the existing site. Its cladding "is an intentionally recessive colour—it recedes into the shadows, and that's our view of the appropriate relationship between it and the context". The museum's design was shaped by its function as a gallery, by the challenging site in the

Fitzsimmons Creek Fitzsimmons Creek is a large Stream, creek in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, having its origins at the Fitzsimmons Glacier in the Garibaldi Ranges of the Coast Mountains. For half its length of approximately 10 kilometres, the creek courses ...

floodplain which poses a flood risk, and the enormous amount of annual snowfall Whistler receives.

Awards

*2017 Wood Design Honor Award *2017 AIBC Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Medal in Architecture *2017 Azure AZ Award *2017 Canadian Wood Council Design Award *2018 RIBA Award for International Excellence *2018 Governor General's Medal in Architecture *2018 AIA Award – Architecture

Permanent collection

The Audain Art Museum displays a permanent collection of nearly 200 works of art from coastal British Columbia. The works span from the 18th century to the modern era and present day, containing a collection of Northwest Coast First Nations masks, a collection of works encompassing all periods of

Emily Carr Emily Carr (December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945) was a Canadian artist who was inspired by the monumental art and villages of the First Nations and the landscapes of British Columbia. She also was a vivid writer and chronicler of life in her sur ...

's artistic career as well as art by important post-war modernists such as E.J. Hughes, Gordon Smith and

Jack Shadbolt Jack Leonard Shadbolt, (February 4, 1909 November 22, 1998) was a Canadian painter. Early life Born in Shoeburyness, England, Shadbolt came to Canada with his parents in April 1911. He was raised in Victoria, British Columbia. He studied at t ...

. The collection also showcases art by internationally renowned contemporary British Columbia artists including

Jeff Wall Jeffrey Wall, Order of Canada, OC, Royal Society of Canada, RSA (born September 29, 1946) is a Canadian photographer. He is artist best known for his large-scale back-lit Cibachrome photographs and art history writing. Early in his career, he h ...

Dana Claxton Dana Claxton (born 1959) is a Hunkpapa, Hunkpapa Lakota filmmaker, photographer, and performance artist. Her work looks at stereotypes, historical context, and gender studies of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, specifically those of the First ...

Marianne Nicolson Marianne Nicolson (‘Tayagila’ogwa; born 1969) is a Tsawataineuk First Nation, Dzawada’enuxw Visual arts, visual artist whose work explores the margins at which public access to First Nations in Canada, First Nations artifacts clashes with ...

Rodney Graham William Rodney Graham (January 16, 1949 – October 22, 2022) was a Canadian visual artist and musician. He was closely associated with the Vancouver School. Early life Graham was born in Abbotsford, British Columbia, on January 16, 1949. ...

and

Stan Douglas Stan Douglas (born October 11, 1960) is a Canadian artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Since the late 1980s, he has created works in film and photography as well as theatre productions and other multidisciplinary projects that invest ...

, among others.

Accessibility

All public areas of the museum are wheelchair-accessible.

Past exhibitions

Since its inception, the Audain Art Museum has hosted numerous temporary exhibitions, displaying a variety of artworks. *January 21 – May 22, 2017 ''

Fred Herzog Fred Herzog D.F.A. (September 21, 1930 – September 9, 2019) was a German-born Canadian photographer, who devoted his artistic life to walking the streets of Vancouver as well as almost 40 countries with his Leica, and various Nikon, Kodak an ...

: Shadowlands.'' *June 10 – October 16, 2017 ''

Edward Burtynsky Edward Burtynsky (born February 22, 1955) is a Canadian photographer and artist known for his large format photographs of industrial landscapes. His works depict locations from around the world that represent the increasing development of indust ...

: The Scarred Earth.'' *March 9 – April 9, 2018 ''Shawn Hunt: Transformation.'' *March 30 – June 11, 2018 ''

Beau Dick Beau Dick (November 23, 1955 – March 27, 2017) was a Kwakwaka'wakw Northwest Coast artist and Chief who lived and worked in Alert Bay, British Columbia, Canada. He was a contemporary artist, activist, and hereditary Chief from the Namgis Firs ...

: Revolutionary Spirit.'' *June 30 – September 17, 2018 ''POP.'' *October 6 – January 28, 2019 ''Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection.'' *February 16 – May 6, 2019 ''Tales of an Empty Cabin: Somebody Nobody Was…'' *May 18 – August 26, 2019 ''Artistry Revealed: Peter Whyte, Catharine Robb Whyte and Their Contemporaries.'' *September 21 – January 20, 2020 ''

: Fresh Seeing – French Modernism and the West Coast.'' *February 8 – October 18, 2020 ''The Extended Moment: Fifty Years of Collecting Photographs.'' *June 10 – September 6, 2021 ''Itee Pootoogook: Hymns to the Silence.'' *October 23, 2021 – February 21, 2022 ''Riopelle: The Call of Northern Landscapes and Indigenous Cultures.'' *April 2 – August 14, 2022 ''Wolves: The Art of Dempsey Bob.''

Governance

The Audain Art Museum is incorporated under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act, effective October 4, 2012, and is a Registered Charity. The Museum's Board of Trustees serves as its governing body.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2016 establishments in British Columbia Art museums and galleries established in 2016 Art museums and galleries in British Columbia Biographical museums in Canada Modernist architecture in Canada Whistler, British Columbia