The Vancouver Art Gallery says three exhibitions organized for its Centre for Global Asias will run from December 2026 to September 2027.
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The Vancouver Art Gallery has announced a 2026/2027 exhibition lineup organized by the gallery as an initiative of the Centre for Global Asias, bringing three shows to audiences in Vancouver between December 2026 and September 2027.
The gallery said the lineup includes Modern Iran and the Avant-Gardes, 1948–78, which runs December 11, 2026 to May 2, 2027, and is guest curated by Pantea Haghighi.
According to the gallery, Modern Iran and the Avant-Gardes, 1948–78 explores how cultural tensions during a thirty-year period of rapid modernization led to artistic innovation. The show includes more than 80 works across painting, sculpture, mixed media, photography, drawing and architectural documentation from more than 30 Iranian artists of the modern period, including women artists, with the gallery noting that in the years following the coup of 1953, artists worked between Iranian and Western modes of production.
The second exhibition, Made in Hong Kong: From the Collection, is scheduled for February 12 to September 12, 2027, and the gallery says it is drawn entirely from the gallery’s permanent collection.
The Vancouver Art Gallery said Made in Hong Kong is anchored by the largest donation of Hong Kong art in the gallery’s history made by Continuum Hong Kong (ACHK) in 2025. The gallery said the exhibition spans six decades and is organized loosely chronologically, with more than 50 works by 35 artists, and includes two new commissions from Vancouver-based artists Greg Girard, Howie Tsui and Lam Tung Pang.
The third exhibition announced for the Centre for Global Asias is Stephanie Comilang: Search for Life, running February 12 to May 16, 2027. The gallery said it presents Search for Life I (2024) and Search for Life II (2025), two multi-channel video installations.
The gallery said Search for Life I traces shipping routes used by Spanish conquistadors following the colonization of the Philippines, and that the work has resonance in Vancouver as a port city shaped by migration and maritime trade. For Search for Life II, the gallery said themes include migration, labour, diaspora and technology through the history and industrialization of pearl diving in the Persian Gulf, the Philippines and China.
In a statement included with the announcement, Eva Respini, Co-CEO and Chief Curator of the Vancouver Art Gallery, said the exhibitions connect “the bold experimentation of Iranian modernists,” “the evolution of Hong Kong’s artistic landscape,” and “Stephanie Comilang’s powerful explorations of migration, labour and new technologies.” The gallery also included comments from Sirish Rao, Co-CEO and Executive Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, emphasizing that there is “no single Asia” and describing the Centre for Global Asias as a way to bring these histories and artistic voices into dialogue in Canada.
The gallery also said it will continue its Vancouver Now! series of solo exhibitions alongside the three Centre for Global Asias shows, including an exhibition by Annie Briard beginning in December 2026, followed by Manjot Kaur from April 2027.
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