Ian Wallace – Artist or Art Historian? Or Both?

Name: Ian Wallace – Artist or Art Historian? Or Both?
Start: 2025-10-01T17:30:00-07:00
End: 2025-10-01T19:00:00-07:00
Location: Frederic Laserre Building

Schedule

Wed Oct 01 2025 at 05:30 pm to 07:00 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

Frederic Laserre Building | Vancouver, BC

Artist or Art Historian? Or Both?
A public lecture by Ian Wallace as part of the Joan Carlisle-Irving Lecture Series
5:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 1, 2025
Room 102, Frederic Lasserre Building
6333 Memorial Road, University of British Columbia
Having developed a career as an exhibiting artist regionally, nationally, and internationally for sixty years, as well as having simultaneously held academic positions at the university level as an instructor in art history for three decades, Ian Wallace will present an illustrated talk examining the common interests and conundrums that affect the related fields of art and art history. With direct reference to the accomplishments of his professional practice as both an artist and an art historian, he will open a discussion of his experience concerning the significance of bridging the gap between the analytic processes of art historical research and the innovative and imaginary creativity of artistic production.
Ian Wallace was born in Shoreham, England, in 1943. After completing his studies at the University of British Columbia and graduating with a master’s degree in art history, he taught art history at UBC from 1967 to 1970 and at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design from 1972 to 1998. Wallace received honorary doctorates from Emily Carr University of Art and Design (2007) and University of British Columbia (2010).
Wallace has been active in the creation, promotion, and appreciation of innovative processes in contemporary art practice through writing, teaching, and exhibiting his work. He has been an influential figure in the development of an internationally acknowledged photographic and conceptual art practice in Vancouver.
Wallace is the recipient of the VIVA Award from the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation for Visual Arts (1977); Governor General’s Award for the Visual Arts (2004); the Molson Prize (2009); and the Audain Art Prize (2022). In 2012, Wallace was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada, and was awarded the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Ministry of Culture of France in 2016.
We acknowledge that the UBC Vancouver campus is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam).
Image: Ian Wallace, At Work (Or Gallery) 1983, 1983