EXHIBITION
August 8 - September 5, 2026
OPENING RECEPTION + FESTIVITIES
Saturday, August 8, 2026, 6–9pm
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Conceived in the spirit of a summer reunion, One in a Million marks the 40th anniversary of Expo 86 and looks back at a pivotal moment in Vancouver’s history: a city on display, full of optimism, spectacle, and public energy, just before monumental changes reshaped the landscape of the Lower Mainland.
Following the presentation of de Courcy’s work in Surrey Art Gallery’s 40th anniversary exhibition, In the Shadow of the Pavilions: Expo 86 and Contemporary Art, Gallery 881 presents a more intimate encounter with his photographic archive from the world’s fair.
Through Michael de Courcy’s photographs, the crowds of Expo 86 return to public view. Faces, gestures, families, visitors, and fleeting encounters fill the gallery walls, forming a collective portrait of the people who moved through the fair-like atmosphere of Expo 86.
The exhibition features over 860 4×6 photographs from Expo 86, installed across the gallery walls as an accessible archive of images. During the exhibition, visitors may purchase individual 4×6 prints directly from the wall. As photographs are purchased and removed from the installation, new images will periodically take their place. This cycle of removal and return echoes the waves of people who entered, moved through, and exited Expo 86 itself. The photographs are not only pictures of the event; they also stand in for its visitors, briefly appearing together before dispersing again.
Accessible 4×6 archive prints are available directly from the installation: $10 each, 5 for $45, or 10 for $86, plus tax. Purchased prints may be taken home during the exhibition, each certified by the artist.
Larger fine art prints are also available through Gallery 881 as archival pigment prints, with framing options available. These works are produced by PrintMaker Studio and may be ordered through the gallery or on the Gallery 881 website.
OPENING RECEPTION + FESTIVITIES
The opening reception will extend beyond a traditional gallery event, with neighbourhood partners helping create a summer fair atmosphere inspired by Expo 86. Opening-night activities will include frozen custard, hot dogs, specialty cold drinks, limited-edition One in a Million artist T-shirts, and $10 archive photographs available directly from the gallery wall. Guests will also receive free scoop tokens for Lucy’s Frozen Custard, while quantities last. Community partners include Lucy’s Frozen Custard, Prototype Coffee, Mr. Tube Steak, and the Strathcona BIA, with PrintMaker Studio as lead sponsor.
The exhibition will take place primarily at Gallery 881, with an additional off-site presentation at Lucy’s Frozen Custard featuring a selection of larger archival photographic prints.
Join us Saturday, August 8, from 6–9 PM as we extend the gallery into the street!
ARTIST STATEMENT
An anonymous documentary of visitors to Expo 86, Vancouver BC
Expo 86, a World’s Fair, millions of visitors expected — within walking distance of my own backyard. As a photographer I was captivated by the promise of an inexhaustible showcase of parading humanity and I resolved to make the most of it.
A Japanese friend reminded me that in parts of downtown Tokyo it was like this 24/7. How wonderful, a photographer’s dream: having a favourite subject which you found compelling to photograph and which was always accessible to you. Whatever you might have missed yesterday you could capture today.
Over the following months I would enter the fairgrounds through the turnstile and allow myself to be swept along the thoroughfares, becoming part of an ever-changing concentration of faces. Everyone seemed to have a camera, no one would notice mine.
Michael de Courcy, 2026
michaeldecourcy.com
BIO
Artist, educator, printmaker. Michael de Courcy was born in Montréal in 1944. He studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Montréal and the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design). In the late 1960s, during his formative years as an artist, de Courcy was a core member of the Vancouver artists collective known as the Intermedia Society. While there, he produced an extensive Intermedia photo documentary project which he has since developed into a web installation entitled The Intermedia Catalogue (2009).
In the past 60 years, de Courcy, has produced over 40 photography and print making projects, many of which have been long-term. These projects include: Background/Vancouver (1974), Greetings from the Urban Wilderness (1976), The Vancouver T-Shirt Open (1978-1982) and The Wedding Picture Project (1994). While many of his works have been presented as interventions in public places, he has also been exhibited widely in galleries including The Vancouver Art Gallery, The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, The Surrey Art Gallery, and The Museum of Modern Art , NYC.
de Courcy has lectured and given workshops at cultural institutions including: The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, York University, Native Education Centre (now Native Education College), The University of British Columbia and the Emily Carr College of Art and Design (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design).
For the past decade de Courcy has characterized himself as a multi-disciplinary artist and community activist. He considers his work to be closely related to public art. Notable projects include: The Intermedia Catalogue (a 2009 web-installation documenting the Intermedia Society's experiments, experiences and ideas from the point of view of its member-artists) ; and the exhibition/public art project Dead and Buried: The Remapping of the Cemetery at Woodlands, 2010-2012 (a process of redress for the three thousand persons who are at present buried in unmarked graves in the former British Columbia Provincial Asylum site). These projects are at once contemporary and historical in nature. They have been gallery exhibitions and/or are also published in the form of archives, articles and installations on michaeldecourcy.com.
Since 1989 de Courcy has lived and maintained a studio in New Westminster, British Columbia.
SPONSORS + COMMUNITY PARTNERS
One in a Million is sponsored by PrintMaker Studio, Gallery 881’s in-house fine art print studio and custom picture framer. Located alongside Gallery 881 in Strathcona, PrintMaker Studio is a Canson Infinity Certified Print Lab specializing in archival pigment printing, custom framing, mounting, and exhibition-ready artwork.
We are grateful for the support of our community partners, including Strathcona BIA, Lucy’s Frozen Custard, Prototype Coffee, and Mr. Tube Steak. Their support helps bring the exhibition beyond the gallery walls and into the neighbourhood, creating a public-facing summer event connected to Vancouver’s history.