The Metro Vancouver Chapter of the RAIC held its second annual Art by Architects Silent Auction and Fundraiser in December at the AIBC Architecture Centre. The event was held in conjunction with the AIBC Holiday Open House, and proved to be a successful pairing as the silent auction raised more money this year than the previous one, with 112 pieces of artwork generously provided by the Metro Vancouver architecture community.
This year’s theme ‘What’s Next?’ was to be realized again on 10″x10″ wooden panels, and included a jury selection of two winners and six honourable mentions. Also the same as last year, partial proceeds from the auction will go to the Architecture for Kids program put on by the Smith Foundation in conjunction with Artists for Kids.
Over 175 people came out to the AIBC to bid on artwork from several local architecture firms, including Henriquez Partners, Perkins+Will and Francl Architects. Stantec again provided a twelve panel mural, which displayed colourful plexi-glass laser cuts of both new buildings coming soon to Vancouver, including the new Herzog & de Meuron art gallery and Vancouver House by BIG, in addition to several futuristic buildings straight out of Blade Runner or an Archigram exhibition. With Stantec’s mural last year taking the top prize, this year’s judges, Pierre Gallant FIRAC and Mauro Vescera, chose a six panel composition by Norm Shearing depicting a man’s face, as well as a series of photos by Rui Nunes taken of the tops of freighters passing under the Lion’s Gate bridge.
Honourable mentions went to Horace Lai, Louis Connery, Jo Darts, Payam Ashjae, Jean Philippe-Delage, and Richard Henriquez FRAIC, the latter of which generously contributed three original paintings and a sculpture.