Exhibit of Jeff Wall photos will open Audain Art Museum

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When Michael Audain was looking for an artist to mount the opening exhibition at the gallery he is building in Whistler, Jeff Wall was a natural choice. A superstar contemporary artist who is world-renowned for his photographic work, Mr. Wall was born in Vancouver and still lives and works here.

"Given the fact that the collection is all about B.C., Michael thought we should open with a contemporary B.C. artist, and after much discussion felt that Jeff Wall was the first artist for the exhibition," says the museum's executive director, Suzanne Greening. "He's probably one of Canada's most well-known artists internationally. Looking at the timelessness of his art, the edginess of his art, we approached Jeff and he was very pleased to be asked."

The Audain Art Museum will open Nov. 21 with Jeff Wall: North & West in the museum's temporary exhibition space.

The exhibition will include about 21 pieces from the collections of Mr. Audain and Mr. Wall, split between lightboxes and large-format opaque photographs, all of which relate to B.C. in some way.

"I've done pictures in other places," Mr. Wall said from Los Angeles, where he is currently working. "But we didn't think that pictures from other places were appropriate for this show because it's so much about British Columbia and Michael's museum is about British Columbian art. So we picked pictures that were made in Vancouver or nearby Vancouver."

Mr. Audain, a Vancouver homebuilder and philanthropist, announced he would build the museum in late 2012 to house the large collection of work he and his wife Yoshiko Karasawa have amassed – including works by Emily Carr, Lawren Harris, E.J. Hughes, Jack Shadbolt, Ian Wallace and Mr. Wall.

Now the museum is set to open, just a little over three years from that announcement. The project is on target following what Ms. Greening calls "an amazing winter for construction." The roof is nearly done, drywall is going up and so is the siding on the exterior.

"We're finally able to announce our opening date which is very exciting, because we just want to get in and make it happen," Ms. Greening says.

The 56,000-square-foot museum designed by Patkau Architects includes a permanent gallery of just over 10,000 square feet, and a temporary exhibition space over two floors totalling just over 8,000 square feet. Designed to complement the wooded landscape in which it is being built, the museum will be open year-round.

The project had been budgeted at $30-million, but Ms. Greening says she believes the final figure may wind up a little higher.

"I think what Michael's doing is interesting; sort of unexpectedly interesting," says Mr. Wall, who was excited at the prospect of mounting a show created around his work in Vancouver and B.C. He was also interested to learn from Mr. Audain that many visitors to Whistler – of which there are about two million annually, according to Tourism Whistler – don't ever make it to Vancouver.

"[It's] a really unique way to show British Columbian art and culture to a worldwide audience who may not see anything in Vancouver," Mr. Wall says.