Peter Aspell, “Sudden Love”

In 2016 there were two concurrent exhibitions of Peter Aspell’s work, at the Richmond Art Gallery and the West Vancouver Museum.  In the preface to the accompanying catalogue, Rachel Lafo and Darrin Morrison, respectively Directors of those institutions, pointed to the fact that more than 50 years had passed since a serious examination of Aspell’s paintings had taken place in a public institution. There are legions of art collectors, professionals and enthusiasts that saw this as a significant oversight and last year’s exhibitions were a sizeable effort to remedy this.

Peter Aspell had a unique visual language with which he explored the heights and depths of the human condition. He can be simultaneously seen as a visionary portraitist, capturing archetypes with poetic details, a masterful colourist and an archaeologist of imagery.

This exhibition brings together collected work from the Estate that has not been available for sale since Aspell’s passing in 2004.  Curating it has been an exploration of one of Canada’s most dynamic creative minds from the the last century.