Martha Sturdy's One World sculpture installed on West Van waterfront for Harmony Arts Festival — Stir

The installation of artist and designer Martha Sturdy’s One World sculpture. Photos by Raeff Miles, courtesy the artist

AN ICON OF the West Coast design scene has just installed a vibrant yellow public-art piece on the West Vancouver waterfront for the Harmony Arts Festival.

Festival “featured artist” Martha Sturdy’s two-piece sculpture installation, called One World and curated by Hilary Letwin is presented by the West Vancouver Art Museum during the event August 4 to 13.

Measuring around 11 feet tall, the artwork expresses the tension and uncertainty of the Earth, as well as optimism for its future. It also evokes fond memories of Sturdy’s signature, geometric resin jewellery pieces from the 1980s.

One World features two balanced, sun-yellow aluminum shapes, teetering on an axis—suggesting a globe at its tipping point. In the site-specific sculpture announcement, the now octogenarian Sturdy expressed a responsibility to share her lifetime of observations with future generations: “We have one world. Let's take care of it."

Elsewhere during the multidisciplinary arts fest, Sturdy’s new Right or Wrong public artwork features three large sculptures, in the shape of Xs rendered in pink, blue, and yellow. In these works, Sturdy is exploring the meaning of the letter X as a social marker, encouraging a more positive interpretation, in which failure can lead to unexpected opportunity, reinvention, and creativity.

Based in West Vancouver, Sturdy has a long and distinguished career working across resin, brass, steel, aluminum, and salvaged wood. Her jewellery designs, homewares, and other pieces have been featured in Vogue, Wallpaper**, Harper’s Bazaar, and Architectural Digest*. She received her She studied at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, where she was also later granted an Honorary Doctor of Letters in 2006, and in 2002, she was presented with a Golden Jubilee Award by the Governor General for her achievements internationally as a Canadian artist..

Janet Smith is an award-winning arts journalist who has spent more than two decades immersed in Vancouver’s dance, screen, design, theatre, music, opera, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

Local icons Kendall Gender, Jaylene Thyme, and Norma Lize are photographed in the gown made of flags from countries where being LGBTQ2SIA+ is punishable by law

The Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum launches in 2025 at the Burnaby campus

Monumental yellow piece is one of several public artworks that the artist-designer has created for the event

Vancouver’s Olga Campbell, Dorothy Doherty, and Jane McDougall work with wood and paper at Vancouver Civic Theatres show

Unveiled last night, the magic-realist portrait of 15th-century feminist poet was commissioned to celebrate Our City of Ladies concert

Diasporic craft and textile express absence and repair in the artists’ cultural and familial histories

Prizes go to Vancouver’s Hope Forstenzer, Coral Patola, and Carol E. Mayer

Propellor Studio gathers local artisans and designers for an exhibition that spans lighting, a surf board, and a guitar

Vancouver-raised, Berlin-based talent loves that the Polygon Gallery installation “triggers something strong enough in people that they feel compelled to act on it in public”

Esther Rausenberg, Jeanne Bourget, Guntaj Singh, Douglas Smith, and Frances Tiffany among Vancouver nominees

Enjoy art while tasting the most refreshing summer pours at four of eight East Van beer havens

Nash’mene’ta’naht weaver’s work includes ceremonial hand-spun sheep’s wool blankets

Composer-singer Russell Wallace and artist-designer Naomi Yamamoto are just some of the artists on hand for the event at Strathcona Park and East Side studios July 22 and 23

Works curated by Saghi Ehteshamzadeh celebrating women’s resilience and their fight for freedom

Live-action Whistler project with apprentice Brandon Hall is part of Salish Summer Carving Series

Highlights at Canada’s first such venue include The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act exhibition; murals by Marlene Yuen and Susan Point; an interactive immigration map; and much more

The electronic-music and art festival is an outdoor gallery, with dance and movement

Showcasing works by emerging Salish artists and others, exhibit draws inspiration from nearby Bear Creek Park

New exhibition honours families who have thrived 100 years after the Chinese were barred from entering Canada

West Coast marine life-inspired exhibition hones in on declining ocean health

New exhibition celebrates and gives voice to Iranian women

Flowers from the Wreckage is the first solo exhibition in North America by the artist who draws meticulously detailed large-scale works in pen and paper

Order From Chaos: B.C. Binning and Jane Adams illustrates how the work of the former inspired the latter

Guest curator Amber-Dawn Bear Robe spotlights designers who are taking painstaking traditional techniques into the future of fashion

Inaugural event raises $470,959 for the arts-education charity

Kickoff visual-art show spans 3D sculpture, costume design, and digitally altered photography

From Bowen Island installations to Nelson murals to winery concerts, culture vultures have lots to seek out this summer beyond Vancouver

Visual artists recognized by Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation work across disciplines, while Augaitis is best-known for her long tenure as Vancouver Art Gallery chief curator

VAG employees to receive wage increases, provisions around remote work

Documentary profiles the sleek Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where administrators try to change an institution built around white-male artists