Rio Theatre owner delivers new gallery to Vancouver arts scene

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A new cultural venue is set to join the Vancouver arts landscape.

After almost two decades of running the Rio Theatre, owner Corinne Lea is opening the Rio Grindhouse, a contemporary art gallery and eventual cafe/bar space, next door to the theatre on East Broadway.

Lea said she has been “keeping an eye” on her neighbours for years, waiting for a space to become available. A space opened up just over a year ago, and Lea made her move.

“As soon as I saw this space was available, I jumped on it, and then, thankfully, for the first time in my life, I was happy that the city took a long time to give me a building permit because we were so busy doing The Park,” said Lea, who took over running the refurbished Park Theatre in October 2025.

The Rio Grindhouse Gallery officially opens on Oct. 17 with the Graeme Berglund-curated and Tyshaya Smith-produced show Scenes That Steal Themselves, an exhibition of work from 25-plus Vancouver artists that “examines the erosion of Vancouver’s cultural infrastructure and the spaces that have shaped the city’s creative identity.”

“It’s intentional irony,” Berglund said when asked about a new gallery opening with a show focusing on the loss of art spaces. “It’s all about all the cultural institutions that we’ve lost in the last 30 years.”

Berglund, an artist and a longtime advocate for the arts in Vancouver, says the city has lost 350 dedicated cultural spaces over the past 30 years.

“I’ve asked all of the artists to basically focus on a place that was meaningful to them from their past and do a dedicated work to that piece with it no longer being in existence,” she said.

The group show, which will run until Nov. 15, includes work from Maya Fuhr, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Michael Turner and Paul Wong, who this month was announced as Canada’s first Parliamentary Visual Artist Laureate, alongside younger lesser-known artists.

“I’ve always been trying to kind of knock down the lines of division between different communities in Vancouver in the arts,” said Berglund, who has run galleries in the past. “We’re really trying to have deeply established artists showing alongside emerging artists in order to support and lift that talent.”

The show is multi-dimensional in scope with paintings, photographs, journalism as contemporary art, installations and performance pieces all under one roof — something Berglund says really fits the Rio’s indie brand.

“You’ve got this audience that’s going to be next door (at the theatre) that’s going to come in and might not know what to expect, which I think is a really fun thing, especially with such a multi-person or multi-artist show to open it up,” said Berglund. “I think it’s going to be a real cabinet of curiosities to a certain extent … We need new models like this in the city in order to help the local art proliferate.”

The plan is to have guest curators put together new shows monthly.

“One of my complaints about galleries in general is that sometimes they have such a specific vision that can become kind of snobby or elitist, and so I like the idea of just inviting different curators,” said Lea. “(The curators) could do something out of the box, something different. The same way the Rio appeals to lots of different crowds and cultures, I would like the gallery to be that way as well, instead of it being a narrow, single vision.”

Starting off, the Rio Grindhouse will be operating solely as a gallery space. But Lea says once a liquor licence clears in six months or so, the venue will expand to a cafe, bar and event location.

“I’ve wanted for a long time a space where people can just go and reflect,” said Lea. “At the Rio, we do everything else … We’ve got all the movies, the live shows, drag, spoken word, everything. I am wanting this space to be a bit different than the Rio. The Rio’s got kind of a pop culture, loud punk rock edge to it, whereas this space, I want it to feel more tranquil and calm, peaceful and contemplative.”

Free to the public, the opening reception for the Scenes That Steal Themselves show runs from 6 to 11 p.m. on Oct. 17 and includes DJ sets by My!Gay!Husband! and The Ryze.