Roy Arden
Nationality: Canadian
Born: 1957, Vancouver

Roy Arden was born in 1957 in Vancouver, British Columbia. He graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design with a diploma in 1982 and received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia in 1990. Since the early 1980s Arden has exhibited extensively in national and international exhibitions.Over the past two decades, Arden has become one of Canada's most respected photo-based artists. Since the early 1990s, Arden has been photographing Vancouver's urban environment, which has become the conduit by which he explores his interest in local history and modernity. Describing his work from this period, Arden states that it "has been my attempt to register the transformative effects of modernity as they are revealed in any everyday experience of the landscape. Through this work I have also sought to explore and articulate a Realism which is informed by my understanding of tradition. I have drawn on artists as diverse as [Albrecht] Durer, [Christen] Kobke, [Eugene] Atget, Walker Evans, Robert Smithson, and [Per] Pasolini. I see this art history as a toolbox of tropes, strategies and devices with which I can interpret my experience." Arden's photographs of Vancouver streets, houses and industrial lots are perceptive images that investigate the impact of modern and contemporary economies. His work often presents images of the present that evidence both traces of the past and the abrupt appearance of the new. Arden is interested in documenting the "the landscape of the economy" by which he means the social and economic history of Vancouver and its surrounding areas. In 2000, Arden began producing video works, concerned with many of the same themes as his photographic work.

Source: Acquisitions Justification