Public art is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse and is visually and physically accessible to the public. Join to hear artist, author, innovator and ECU alum Douglas Coupland as he provides insight into his experience with public art.

This event is open to the public and students online though Zoom or in-person at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Attendees in-person must bring proof of ticket with them. This lecture will not be recorded. All must register.

“Public art is like the nonfiction version of art. Instead of working in a private personal universe, public art is tethered to the real world in some way. Public art is also an amazing way to learn about new ways of making objects, as well as meeting new people along the way. My goal has always been to make life feel like art school, and public art has been an enormous part of this drive.” - Douglas Coupland

About Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist, designer, and visual artist. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularized the terms "Generation X" and "McJob". He has published 13 novels, two collections of short stories, seven non-fiction books, and several dramatic works and screenplays for film and television. He is a columnist for the Financial Times, as well as a frequent contributor to The New York Times, e-flux journal, DIS Magazine, and Vice.

In 2000, Coupland amplified his visual art production and has recently had two separate museum retrospectives, Everything is Anything is Anywhere is Everywhere at the Vancouver Art Gallery, The Royal Ontario Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, and Bit Rot at Rotterdam’s Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, and Munich’s Villa Stücke. In 2015 and 2016 Coupland was artist in residence in the Paris Google Cultural Institute. In May 2018 his exhibition on ecology, Vortex, opened at the Vancouver Aquarium.

Coupland is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy, an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Officer of the Order of British Columbia, a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and receiver of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence.