OPENING RECEPTION: March 22, 2025, 2-4 p.m. 

About the exhibition

Barrie Jones is a lens-based artist and a former professor of photography at the University of British Columbia. Over the course of his 45 year-long career, much of Jones’s practice has focused on documenting human behaviour. His photographs draw attention to small moments of the everyday, from labourers at work and leisure activities, to subtle facial expressions and bodily movements. This exhibition explores Jones’s outdoor photography, featuring Vancouverites interacting with urban green spaces throughout Vancouver and the North Shore. 

The term “urban wild” is defined as a remnant of a natural ecosystem found in the midst of an otherwise highly developed urban area. This exhibition beckons visitors to be curious about natural elements around them. It is within these places that we seek subsistence, refuge, safety, inspiration, and solace.

About the artist

Barrie Jones RCA is a Vancouver-based photo artist. His practice focuses on the human figure as a site of complex personal and collective identities, and on the urban environment and its many intersecting layers of social, economic, and personal histories. Jones received his BFA at the University of British Columbia, before spending several years in Ontario, where he received his MFA at York University. He taught at the University of Windsor before returning to British Columbia in the mid 90's where he was an instructor of photography at the University of British Columbia until 2021. In 2017, he was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Art and in 2025, upon being nominated by the RCA, he was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal for his significant contribution to the arts.

The West Vancouver Art Museum is located on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam Nation). It recognizes and respects them as nations in this territory, as well as their historic connection to the lands and waters around it since time immemorial.