Dog-friendly exhibit featured at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver this summer

Photo by Hannah Lim on Unsplash

Does your furry friend have a taste for fine art?

As we head into those long, warm dog days of summer, it’s fitting that North Vancouver’s Polygon Gallery is hosting a photography exhibition featuring work based on our favourite canine companions.

Dog Days is a new exhibit at the Polygon Gallery that focuses on the relationship between canines and humans through photography, and video works. And yes, dogs on leashes are welcome to join you in the gallery itself!

First opened in 2017, the Polygon Gallery is considered one of Canada’s most internationally acclaimed public art galleries. With a mandate to exhibit and disseminate photography and media art, the Gallery emphasizes contemporary Canadian artists within a context of historical and international art.

Image: Art Perry, Lou Reed and Lolabelle, NYC, 2009
Sourced from The Polygon Gallery | Facebook.com

For the Dog Days exhibit, work feature contemporary works, classic images, and vintage photographs from several local archives and collections, considering how dogs have shaped, and are shaped by, human society. Together, these pictures reveal how dogs have remained an enduring metaphor and a potent symbol in human history, an integral part of everyday life, and a favourite subject of the camera.

If you have a spare $1,000 to spend, you may also consider booking an exclusive pet portrait by award-winning artist Shari Hatt. Hatt has created portraits of dogs owned by the Duke and Duchess of York and the late British fashion designer Alexander McQueen.

Shari will be available to shoot portraits of your prized pets on August 11 and 18, but it’ll cost you $1,000 for a dog portrait session and a unique 16″ x 16″ signed chromogenic photograph.

If you’d prefer to stroll the gallery with your pet in tow, admissions to the gallery are by donation. The show will run every day (except Mondays) until September 1, 2019.