Ian Wallace receives Order of the Owl award for lifelong dedication to the arts

Accolade presented by Artists for Kids and Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art recognizes Wallace’s profound impact on arts education

By emily lyth

Ian Wallace wearing the Order of the Owl medallion in front of Jack Shadbolt’s Birds in the Thicket II-IV. Photo by Khim Mata Hipol

ARTISTS FOR KIDS and the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art have just awarded celebrated Canadian artist Ian Wallace with the Order of the Owl, an accolade that acknowledges his exemplary leadership in championing the arts as a transformative tool for local communities.

Born in Shoreham-by-Sea, England and raised in West Vancouver, Wallace has built a respected reputation over the past five decades as an awe-inspiring talent in painting, photography, and installation. He was a driving force behind Vancouver’s photo-conceptualism movement beginning in the ’60s, and spent years teaching art history at UBC and the Vancouver School of Art (now the Emily Carr University of Art + Design)—accomplishments that have profoundly impacted B.C.’s arts scene, and continue to shape it today.

Among Wallace’s more recent exhibitions are the solo endeavour Home and Away, which provided a comprehensive look into his earliest years of artmaking at the West Vancouver Art Museum this spring; and the group show Prevailing Landscapes at the Gordon Smith Gallery, where his 1988 diptych piece In the Street (Lyse) from his “Heroes in the Street” series was displayed along with works by several other prominent names in Canadian contemporary art.

Wallace’s accolades are numerous. He received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2004, was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2013, and won the prestigious $100,000 Audain Prize for Visual Art in 2022.

The Order of the Owl also celebrates Wallace’s steadfast commitment to young artists in Canada through Artists for Kids, a unique venture that fosters opportunities for arts education with support from the North Vancouver School District. He is a board member of the Artists for Kids management committee and of the Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation for Young Artists, which provides art-enrichment opportunities for children and curates high-profile exhibitions at the Gordon Smith Gallery.

Wallace was awarded the striking Order of the Owl medallion in person during a ceremony at the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art on November 14.  

Order of the Owl medallion. Photo by Khim Mata Hipol

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