JOSEPH PLASKETT: Still Life in a Hectic World

JOSEPH PLASKETT: Still Life in a Hectic World

Everyone is welcome.
Please join us for our official opening reception
Thursday, May 9th from 3 pm to 5 pm.

Renaissance Lounge, The Union Club of British Columbia
805 Gordon Street, Victoria

Dress code: Business Dress for Ladies and Gentleman
For more information on the Club's dress code, please call 250-384-1151

Exhibition continues to July 2019

The still lifes of Joseph Plaskett always bring joy into a room and somehow
quietens the hectic world beyond that room.

And so we are delighted to fill the Club’s Renaissance Room with the joy of Plaskett’s iconic still lifes and tablescapes. Here is a table vacated after breakfast, the serviette laid purposefully, the café presse drained, the butter dish left uncovered. And here is a generous bowl of oranges, an hospitable pineapple, an amaryllis in vibrant red bud; and then we encounter the artist himself – a self portrait, looking directly at the viewer, but nestled into his own still life with antique surrounds and a vase of wispy flowers.

Each time Plaskett documented the mundane, everyday life, he extended himself and somehow made the subject sing and made the objects significant.

Joseph Plaskett: Remains of a Breakfast 1, 2005, oil on canvas, 28 x 36 inches

Joseph Plaskett received a BA in history and a teaching certificate from the University of British Columbia in 1939. He went on to study with Jack Shadbolt and B.C. Binning at the Vancouver School of Art and with A.Y. Jackson at the Banff Summer School. In 1946 he was awarded the first Emily Carr Scholarship which he used to study at the California School of Fine Art, San Francisco.  Canada’s most beloved painter later established his own foundation which continues to award similar scholarships to emerging artists.

Known for his figurative and still life paintings, Plaskett has long been highly collectable. Prior to the artist’s death in 2014, he was still painting, exhibiting on two continents, and collecting awards including Officer of the Order of Canada and several honourary doctorates. Plaskett exhibited extensively in Canada as well as in London and Paris. His work is included in every major museum collection in Canada from Victoria to Charlottetown.