Diane Evans (1954-2023) was an accomplished photographer, a noted expert in the field, and an influential teacher at Emily Carr University of Art + Design from 1996 to 2019. Across her varied subject matter is an attention to place and to form, reveling in figures bathed in soft shadow and natural light. Fellow artist Chick Rice once wrote: “[Diane’s photographs] come from some private universe of drowsy ambience, yet are emotionally charged with acute and compassionate insight… She is brave in her determination not to deviate from a directness, an immediacy, an honesty, and an intuitive balance of grace and tension.”1
Evans used a range of different cameras, favourites being pinhole cameras that she constructed from cardboard and black electrical tape, rudimentary store-bought cameras like a toy Diana camera, and a Clix Deluxe gifted by her grandfather who ran a radio and television store in Kerrisdale. She was attracted by the idea of recording images using “a roll of film, a cardboard box, a pin-prick in a piece of metal, and sunlight”. Through this medium, Evans portrayed the complexity, profundity, and depth of the world around her.
Diane Evans received an Honours Diploma in Photography from the Vancouver School of Art (now ECUAD) in 1978, and participated in the 1979 Master Class Photography Workshop at the Banff Centre, associated with the renowned Banff Purchase project. In 1984, she had a solo exhibition at The Photographers Gallery, Saskatoon. Group shows include the Vancouver Art Gallery (1977, 2021); Artropolis 90, Vancouver (1990); Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa (1992); Presentation House Gallery (2001, touring 2004-05); and Whatcom Museum of History & Art, Bellingham, WA (2006).
Evans was Gallery Manager at The Polygon Gallery, formerly Presentation House Gallery, from 1988 to 2023. She also managed the Gallery’s acclaimed bookstore – now named in her honour – with passionate expertise, and curated several exhibitions at The Polygon, the most recent being Deanna Dikeman: Leaving and Waving (2023). Her photographs are in private and public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Remai Modern, and Vancouver Art Gallery.
Curated by Karen Love and Linda Chinfen
Generously supported by the Yosef Wosk Family Foundation
In-kind support by The Lab Vancouver and Kasko Frame Works
Media partner: North Shore News
Banner Image: Diane Evans, Swing Carousel, 1979
1 Chick Rice, “Diane Evans. Clix Deluxe: A Visionary Box of Grace and Magic”, Blackflash, Fall 1984.
