The Centre for Global Asias (CGA) is a platform dedicated to catalyzing, amplifying and sharing new understandings of modern and contemporary Asian art and thought. The CGA recognizes Vancouver’s unique location on the Pacific Rim, and the cultural and geopolitical connections that radiate from here, thanks to the diverse people who call this region home. Acting as a vital bridge, the CGA aspires to be Canada’s cultural gateway to the world.

WHAT WE DO

The CGA amplifies the work of artists and thinkers from the local and global Asian diaspora through exhibitions, public talks, film screenings and performances. The CGA fosters research within the Gallery, as well as partnerships with other cultural institutions and visiting scholars. We facilitate lifelong learning, serving young learners through the Gallery’s School, Teen and Family Programs, and reaching diverse audiences through multilingual educational tours, community engagement initiatives and symposia. An essential part of the CGA’s work is to expand the Gallery’s collections, exhibitions and publications to share new research and thinking on Asian cultures and their critical role in shaping the past, present and future of our world.

SUPPORT

The work of the CGA is supported in part by grants from governments and foundations, and notably by a committed group of donors. Following the establishment of an IAA Development Council in 2014, a group of visionary donors came together in 2024 to seed a new fund dedicated to continuing the Gallery’s commitment to Asian art programming at the CGA.

This fund, starting at $1.6 million, was initiated by a series of extraordinarily generous gifts from the following individuals and organizations: Roger Lee; Xiang (Shawn) He and Yu Jue (Sylvia) Zhang; Visas Consulting Group; artist Henry Wang and the Chen Family. We invite you to join this founding group by making a gift to the fund.

MAKE A GIFT

HISTORY

The Vancouver Art Gallery has a long history of showing works by Asian artists, going all the way back to the Gallery’s founding in 1931. In 2014, the Gallery created a dedicated forum called the Institute of Asian Art (IAA): a platform for research, art education and public engagement. The founding of the IAA coincided with the opening of the major exhibition The Forbidden City: Inside the Court of China’s Emperors. Since then, the Gallery has organized at least one major historical or contemporary Asian art exhibition every year. While most of these exhibitions have been mounted onsite, some have appeared at international venues, underscoring our active role in a global art community that values the exchange of ideas and information across borders. In 2024—the 10th anniversary of the Institute of Asian Art—the IAA was renamed the Centre for Global Asias (CGA) to reflect an expanded scope. The CGA recognizes the many Asias that exist within the geography of Asia itself and in the global diaspora, as well as within Asias yet to be imagined and yet to come.

Image: Reena Saini Kallat, Woven Chronicle, 2015 (detail), circuit boards, speakers, electrical wires and fittings, sound component, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of the Artist

The Vancouver Art Gallery’s Permanent Collection of over 13,000 artworks reveals the evolution of more than two centuries of art making in Canada within an international context. The collection features historical and contemporary art in all media and represents the wide range of art movements that have been important globally. When acquiring works by Asian artists, the Gallery focuses on art that stems from Asian traditions, exploring issues such as globalism, cross-culturalism and/or identity.

The Gallery’s Chinese art collection contains many notable works by artists such as Wang Du, Yang Fudong, Zhu Jinshi, O Zhang and the art collective MadeIn Company. Following the 2010 presentation of Waste Not by Song Dong, we purchased a major work by the artist called Fill in the Sea, comprised of 168 colour photographs created to mark the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China. Wang Dongling gifted his Heart Sutra calligraphic drawing following his performance in the Gallery’s Rotunda in October 2016. In autumn of 2018 we were very pleased to acquire three beautiful works on paper by the Hong Kong artist Lui-Shou Kwan.

The Gallery is grateful for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s donation of a major 2014 work by Wang Jianwei and, in 2019, an important video animation work by Xun Sun, with support from the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative and China Global. We also received in 2019 a donation from Maryon Adelaar that includes significant works by Xin Cang, Yufen Qin, Xinning Shi, Tiehai Zhou and Koki Tanaka. Our collection also includes works by Eikoh Hosoe, Reena Saini Kallat, Mariko Mori, Fiona Tan, Hung-Min Yoon and Jin-me Yoon.