Al Razutis, Catharine MacTavish, and Gary Lee-Nova
Seeing Stars
guest curated by Felix Rapp
September 2026
Thanks to all who visited the exhibition in September, and to all who joined us at the mid-exhibition celebration on Saturday, September 12—Al, Gary, and Felix were touched by the long conversations and big show of support.
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Seeing Stars celebrates a brief yet bright friendship between artists Al Razutis, Catharine MacTavish, and Gary Lee-Nova. From 1974 to 1976 the three occupied a studio building in Vancouver known as the “Granville Grange”—located directly underneath the main ramp of the Granville Street Bridge—where they shared ideas, collaborated on artworks, and drank scotch together. Seeing Stars marks exactly fifty years since Al, Catharine, and Gary were last all together, and their first time exhibiting collectively.
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Downloadable PDFs are now available for the list of works and exhibition text.
Al Razutis and Gary Lee-Nova, Hybrid (1973) installed at OHCE-ECHO. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
Salvaged parabolic mirror from Visual Alchemy studios and an untitled work (1974, assembled 2025) by Gary Lee-Nova—both frames by Alan Miller—installed at OHCE-ECHO. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
“The World is a Hologram in Your Heart” (D. Seeley) (1974) by Catharine MacTavish, and Small Electrical Storm in Element County (1973), a double-sided print by Gary Lee-Nova for Image Bank’s Alphabet series—printed by Randy Gledhill—installed at OHCE-ECHO. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
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Al Razutis (b. 1946) is a multimedia artist, educator, and innovator in film and video, holographic art and technologies, stereoscopic 3D video art, and digital graphics for websites and interactive 3D virtual reality. He is a historian-preservationist of West Coast holographic art history, and, educated in physics and chemistry, he has brought a combination of technological interests to his multimedia practice over five decades. A limited-edition sculptural novel, Ilium Express, and a selection of his critical essays, “Yes” “You” “Can”, were recently published by Death of Workers whilst Building Skyscrapers, an independent art and literary press in Manchester, and he continues to write on historical-critical-biographical media subjects with new publications and interviews added to his previous bodies of work. His works in avant-garde film continue to be exhibited internationally, and in 2024, Gravity wins, Entropy rules, a survey of Al’s holographic assemblages, was presented in Vancouver at Unit/Pitt, with a limited-edition publication alongside. He is fond of saying: “This is far from over.”
Al Razutis and Gary Lee-Nova, Hybrid (1973); courtesy of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Photo: Felix Rapp
Catharine MacTavish (b. 1952) is a Canadian artist living in Toronto. In the 1970s and early 1980s, her work was included in group exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, and she presented solo exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 12 West Pender, Mercer Union, the Surrey Art Gallery, and the UBC Fine Arts Gallery. Drawings and paintings made before 1986 are included in the collections of the Surrey Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Canada Council Art Bank, to name a few. She holds a BFA from York University and an MA in Religion and Culture from Wilfrid Laurier University. Although her vast and ongoing body of work is still relatively undiscovered, she recently held a solo exhibition at Shmorévaz, Paris, accompanied by a new edition of her 1977 catalogue for Self Centred at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. She is currently preparing for a solo exhibition at Kunstverein Bielefeld, Germany, to open in December 2026.
“The World is a Hologram in Your Heart” (D. Seeley) (1974) by Catharine MacTavish; collection of J. C. Scott. Photo: Felix Rapp
Gary Lee-Nova (b. 1943) is a Canadian painter, printmaker, sculptor, and filmmaker, and a frequent collaborator across disciplines. He studied at the Vancouver School of Art and at Coventry College, England, and taught drawing and computer applications for 25 years at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, where he was named Professor Emeritus in 2018. In the 1960s and 1970s, he worked with Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov, as Image Bank, and was particularly influential in the development of the Colour Bar Research. He was also an active participant at the Sound Gallery, the Intermedia Society, and the New York Corres Sponge Dance School of Vancouver under the pseudonym Artimus Rat or Art Rat. He has exhibited across Canada and internationally, and his work is held in collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Canada Council Art Bank, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2021, a survey exhibition, Oblique Trajectories, was presented at the Burnaby Art Gallery, with an accompanying catalogue.
Small Electrical Storm in Element County (1973), a double-sided print by Gary Lee-Nova for Image Bank’s Alphabet series, printed by Randy Gledhill; collection of Michael Morris and Rahmi Emin. Photo: Felix Rapp
Felix Rapp (b. 1993) is a German-Canadian artist, curator, and editor living on Pender Island. He holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and an MFA from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. His artistic and curatorial work stems from the transformative potential of experimental imaging processes, including darkroom printing, holography, and the expanded communities that form around these activities. He is a founding member of the Vancouver artist-run space People, as well as the co-founder and co-editor of Brussels/Vancouver-based magazine Le Chauffage. Together with Salomé Burstein and Emile Rubino, Felix is co-curating a solo exhibition of Catharine MacTavish’s work for Kunstverein Bielefeld, Germany, to open in December 2026.
Parabolic mirror from Visual Alchemy studios, framed by Alan Miller, and salvaged by Catharine MacTavish; courtesy of Catharine MacTavish. Photo: Felix Rapp
The artists’ recent and historic publications—from Unit/Pitt, Le Chauffage/Shmooks and the Surrey Art Gallery, and the Burnaby Art Gallery—sold out in September; a print by Catharine for Coach House Press, remains available in 5 copies at ECHO-ECHO.
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ECHO-ECHO is extremely grateful for the generous support of this exhibition by many in our community:
The artists’ exhibition fees were supported by Project Society (formerly the Canadian Photographic Portfolio Society or CPPS), with enormous thanks for their long-time financial and creative support of artists across Canada.
For this exhibition of Hybrid, a work not exhibited since 1973, many thanks to the Vancouver Art Gallery, with special thanks to Audio Visual Department Supervisor, Adam Hilliker, Senior Curator, Diana Freundl, Associate Registrar, Kim Svendsen, and Registrar of Collections, Susan Sirovyak; and many thanks to Western Front, with special thanks to Technical Manager, Ben Wilson, and Director, Susan Gibb, for making this presentation possible through their digitization services program. Additional thanks to Ben Clark at VIVO Media Arts Centre for renting the television and lending a plinth, and special thanks to artist Peter Bussigel for lending his digital media player.
For lending work by Catharine MacTavish, many thanks to J. C. Scott. For lending work by Gary Lee-Nova, many thanks to Rahmi Emin, on behalf of the collection of Rahmi Emin and Michael Morris.
Thanks too, to artist David MacWilliam, for making connections, and to artist Deon Feng, for installation assistance.
And, thanks, of course, to the artists, and to Felix Rapp, for guest curating this exhibition, and for his ongoing support of the works of Al Razutis and, especially, Catharine MacTavish.
Untitled (1974, assembled 2025) by Gary Lee-Nova, frame by Alan Miller; courtesy of Gary Lee-Nova and Felix Rapp. Photo: Felix Rapp