The Seventh at Or Gallery in Chinatown marks the first solo exhibition by KWÍKWI, the collective name for artists Lauren Brevner and James Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun Harry.

Curated by Or Gallery’s Director/Curator, Jenn Jackson, the exhibition brings together all new works that combine sculpture and portraiture, continuing their decade-long exploration of Indigenous representation and land-based gestures in contemporary art. Through the innovative use of light and materials, the works tell visual stories that bridge the past, present, and future.

Collaborators in life and art, Brevner and Harry’s artistic practice includes exhibitions, public art projects, and large-scale murals. Brevner is a multidisciplinary artist, whose practice combines traditional approaches to portrait painting with themes of cultural identity and female representation.

Brevner’s work is inspired by her Japanese and Trinidadian heritage as well as matriarchal influences. Harry’s practice integrates traditional Coast Salish art forms, including Salish design, with contemporary concepts and materials like light and metal. Together, major recent works include Rememory (2021), a monumental two-storey mural featured in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s exhibition, Disorientations and Echo, several works included in Where do we go from here?, also at the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the powerful mural, Dreamweaver (2020), about standing together through culture, on the West facade at 1055 Everleigh Street in downtown Vancouver.

The works in The Seventh are the result of conversations and time spent with elders, knowledge keepers, and storytellers from their communities. Through conversations with Harry’s Sḵwx̱wú7mesh grandmother, Gwen Mildred Harry, the artists learned that their daughter, Hana, marked the seventh generation since European contact in their family. Knowing this, and the ancestral teachings of seven generations, inspired each piece in the show.

In the exhibition text, Jackson further explains, “Gwen Mildred Harry shared that, in Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh teachings, the number seven holds a significant connection to the vast expression of time—to enact powerful change, one must always be thinking seven generations ahead of one’s own life, and importantly, that it takes seven generations for a past wound or trauma to heal.”

In the gallery’s Pender Street window is an illuminated, 4-foot tall, futuristic, ovoid-shaped sculpture, Sp’akw’us. Visible to passersby, it invites the curious to enter. Moving through the space, a subtle, white-on-white wall painting, Portal, bridges the outer, public-facing gallery-front. In the interior private space, a large-scale, columnar sculpture, Super Natural Eye II, dominates the room. Made of aluminum with carved Coast Salish design elements—crescents, circles, and trigons—the sculpture is lit from within, casting distinctive shadows onto the ceiling above and the floor below. The contrast of striking black on the outside and fiery orange-red on the inside is further heightened by the use of metal and light. Up close, you see that the surface is textured, a nod to techniques in wood carving.

Encircling Super Natural Eye is a series of portraits, and wall sculptures titled Watchers, whose youthful faces gaze inward onto the viewers in the gallery. Ranging in size from small, 12 x 12 inches, to large, 36 x 36 inches, the Watchers are painted portraits of ancestors, representing the collective identities of the artists. Each wears Salish armour made of anodized aluminum, which serves to protect them from the outside world while also protecting their teachings. In the exhibition guide, Jackson writes: “The Watchers offer a dialogue with the viewer, an opening between expanses of geological time and those who came before us. Reciprocally, the guardian Watchers bear witness to the present, honouring the stories that have shaped Brevner and Harry’s collective identity as KWÍKWI. The Watchers extend a vision toward a future of greater understanding and respect for ancestral teachings.”

On opposite ends of the gallery, anchoring the space, are two large, complementing yellow cedar carvings, Transformers: Sna7m Sky and Sna7m Sea, representing movement between sky and sea. The works exemplify masterful portrait painting with intricate carving skills and techniques, such as copper leafing.

The Seventh is an exhibition of profound work, beautifully executed, that you would expect to see in a major museum institution, but there’s something special and meaningful about being able to view these works in such an intimate setting.

The Seventh is on view until February 10th, 2024

Follow @studiolaurenjames for behind-the-scenes into the process behind their work.

As well, check out orgallery.org for updates on public programs related to The Seventh, including an artist talk in partnership with Aboriginal Gathering Place at Emily Carr University, on Thursday, February 1 at 12:30PM, and a closing celebration at Or Gallery on Saturday, February 10 from 2-5PM.”

Or Gallery

236 East Pender St, Vancouver