We are currently living through a very critical time of recurring natural disasters caused by climate change. Indigenous people and communities are some of the most impacted by these disasters. Our traditional territories are being affected by flooding, fires, drought, and in many areas a decline of the species that we rely on for hunting and fishing. Indigenous people have been at the forefront of environmental activism for generations and continue to actively fight for our traditional lands.

Vital Signs is a group exhibition that features artists who are discussing the impact of climate change through personal experiences and effects on their traditional territories in a variety of mediums. The title, Vital Signs, refers to the measurements of the body’s most basic functions, but is also a reference to how the land is essential to our being and is a living entity itself.

The artists featured in this exhibition are Jade Baxter (Nlaka’pamux), Jasper Berehulke (Syilx/Okanagan), Kali Spitzer (Kaska Dena), Kwiis Hamilton (Hupačasath/Leq’a:mel), Rebecca Baker-Grenier (Kwakiuł, Dzawada’enuwx, and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh), and Sage Nowak (Tahltan).

Just as “Umami” represents the rich and complex layers of flavour in cuisine, this exhibition delves into the depth and richness of nikkei artistic identity. Featuring a diverse range of artists, from emerging to established, including Japanese Canadian Legacies Art fund awardees. From traditional to contemporary art practice, the Umami exhibition shares the rich essence of our Japanese Canadian creative community.

Anchoring the full run of the exhibition is an interactive heritage inspired contemporary multi-media installation by Annie Sumi and Brian Kobayakawa called Kintsugi. Kintsugi is best known as a traditional Japanese technique of mending ceramics with gold. Annie and Brian’s Kintsugi conceptually mends broken and shattered experiences of what it means to be Canadian of Japanese ancestry through original music and spoken word activated by the visitor manually manipulating a Singer sewing machine that survived the era of Japanese Canadian internment and dispossession.

In Part 2, we introduce Molly JF Caldwell, the estate of Yoshiko Hirano, Marlene Howell, Vivien Nishi, and Reiko Pleau.  All of the artists investigate Japanese Canadian experience in their own style and media. Caldwell reimagines vintage textiles. Hirano, a long-term resident of Nikkei Home honed her skill in sumi-e.  Howell paints for the love of her heritage and sometimes dark history. Nishi honours her father’s internment era experience with manga-like illustrations, and Pleau mines the complex history and connection to her maternal ancestors. Artists, and Robert Hirano representing his mother’s work, will be in attendance at the Thursday, May 29,  2025 opening and artists’ conversation. The public is invited to attend.

Griffin Art Projects is thrilled to announce its 10th anniversary program, which offers audiences a unique glimpse into the lives of the private collectors at the heart of the gallery’s programming. Kicking things off is the summer exhibition TENXTEN, on view from May 31–Sept. 7, 2025, which features artworks from the vaults of 10 Vancouver-based collectors.

A companion exhibition titled Christos Dikeakos: The Collectors, on view from Sept. 20–Dec. 14, 2025, will feature intimate portraits by Dikeakos, an eminent photographer who has captured lush images of collectors pictured amongst the artworks they have devoted their lives to collecting.

On the BMO Mainstage it’s a new production of Much Ado About Nothing directed by Johnna Wright, packed with Shakespeare’s wittiest wordplay, romance, and intrigue. It will play in repertory with Shakespeare’s comedy of love and disguise, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, directed by Dean Paul Gibson and performed with a unique ‘80s twist. In the Douglas Campbell Theatre, two productions will play in repertory: the company debut of the global smash-hit The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again], directed by Mark Chavez; and the intriguing new Canadian work The Dark Lady, written by Jessica B. Hill and directed by Moya O’Connell.

Used in photography and painting to illustrate the radiant effects of the sun when it is near the horizon, the term golden hour describes the way light shifts to warmer tones just before sunset and just after sunrise. This exhibition shares views of landscape, light and luminosity from multiple perspectives, investigating the cyclical nature of day to night, beginnings and endings.

Curated by the entire Burnaby Art Gallery team, this exhibition brings forward responses to the collection from the perspectives of those who produce public programs, work closely with the collection and visitors and work towards maintaining the building itself. The exhibition includes audio guides illuminating the works.

With works by Vikky Alexander, Hana Amani, Gillian Armitage, Manuel Barbadillo, Joan Bell-Irving, Marcel Dzama, Gathie Falk, J.C. Heywood, Luke Marston, Gary Lee-Nova, lessLIE, Edna Myers, Hiromi Nakatsugawa, Mary Plumb Blade, Gita Teearu, Arnold Shives and more.

Rarely Seen Masterworks from the National Gallery of Canada—Degas, Klimt, Munch & More at the Audain Art Museum!

The Audain Art Museum proudly presents a landmark exhibition featuring rarely seen drawings from the National Gallery of Canada’s renowned Prints and Drawings collection. Established in 1921 as the first of its kind in Canada, this collection spans the 15th to 20th centuries, showcasing works in graphite, ink, pastel, watercolour, and more.

Gathered Leaves: Discoveries from the Drawings Vault is organized by the National Gallery of Canada (NGC). This exceptional exhibition highlights masterpieces by Edgar Degas, Gustav Klimt, Edvard Munch, Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky, Pablo Picasso, and many other celebrated artists, alongside newly acquired and never-before-displayed works. The selection ranges from preparatory sketches for iconic paintings to striking depictions of history, mythology, portraiture, landscapes, abstraction, and intimate explorations of the human experience.

Accompanying the exhibition is Gathered Leaves: Discoveries from the Drawings Vault, a richly illustrated catalogue by Sonia Del Re with Kirsten Appleyard and contributions by Erika Dolphin. Published to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery of Canada, the catalogue showcases remarkable discoveries from the collection.

Nature’s beauty surrounds us—not just in towering mountains or along the shore, but right in our own backyards. In tandem with Arts in the Garden this year, North Van Arts invites you to step Through the Garden Gates and discover the hidden wonders waiting just beyond our doors. For this exhibition, CityScape gallery will be transformed into a vibrant community art garden with a mix of 2D and 3D artwork inspired by domestic floral and botanical themes. Featuring 38 artworks inspired by flowers, plants, greenery and even pollinators that can be found within home and community garden settings.

Star Witnesses assembles works by a constellation of artists whose insightful observations of the cosmos bring new understandings of exploratory and migratory movements on Planet Earth. The artists involved present fragments of found and newly produced photographic evidence showing planets, moons, constellations in distant galaxies, and the light of our closest star – the Sun – to address earthly concerns.

The title alludes to the artists’ precise visions – honed at the technical limits of photography – and to how encounters with their artworks may transform audiences into ‘star witnesses’ in turn. Certain works in the exhibition evolve in close dialogue with scientific imaging, while others go beyond or deviate from the focus of telescopic cameras, the logic of astronomy, and the path of satellites. Together, they attest to the fact that there is no universal way of gazing at the universe.

Each work offers the image of the cosmos as material evidence for a distinctive perspective, worldview, or imaginary. They give substance to vital histories, which struggle to see the proverbial light of day: one woman’s survival in an internment camp; one man’s narrow escape from a white mob; underexposed connections between a war in the Middle East and peace in a mid-sized German town; an artist’s moment of grace on top of a moonlit mountain, far from home.

Questions of POV are paramount: much depends on where on Earth we – the humans, the stardust – were born and where we have travelled, migrated, settled recently, or remained for generations, if not millennia. Dark matter abounds. And this too is evidence awaiting fresh interpretations.

This 50th anniversary exhibition pairs permanent collection artworks acquired from the first ten years of collecting (1975–1985) and the last ten years (2014–2024) through themes of landscape, architecture, portraiture, and movement.

Works paired under the landscape theme showcase the transformation of Surrey’s cityscape through urbanization, industrialization, and resource extraction. For example, a painting by Abani Sen and a photograph by Dana Claxton consider how traditional art forms can be reinterpreted in a contemporary context. Both artists emphasize cultural meaning and storytelling through representative animals in the landscape.

In architecture, the selected works draw attention to overlooked and unnoticed spaces or places that might feel peripheral but are important to forming the whole of the image. Gwen Curry’s and Karin Bubaš’ works reveal the hidden corners of our everyday life.

Through portraiture, the exhibition considers shifting conversations about identity and the formation of the social and cultural self. A pairing of works by Jim Jardine and Lakshmi Gill questions who is represented in a portrait and how identity is conveyed and interpreted.

The theme of movement considers both time and material. Lyse Lemieux and Gailan Ngan use sculpture to evoke a sense of motion and stillness. A spotlight is given to Sherrard Grauer’s Sky with Swimmers, installed in the lobby of the Surrey Arts Centre, where it complements the movements of all who pass through the space.

Through all these comparisons and contrasts, the exhibition shares a re-telling of the collection’s stories. Interspersed amongst the permanent collection artworks are written reflections from Surrey-based artists Ying-Yueh Chuang, Kiranjot Kaur, Manjot Kuar, Chito Maravilla, and Helma Sawatzky. Their material practices and perspectives introduce new conversations with the works in the collection.

Alongside the exhibition, a timeline featuring archival markers forms a visual narrative of the Gallery’s past and present. A ten-year span is often considered a milestone and, looking ahead, the hope is that in the next ten years, new stories will continue to unfold.

This exhibition brings together the work of longtime friends Brittney Appleby and MV Williams. The artists’ practices inform one another and build upon each other’s growth. The mediums and processes they work in are time-based and are often done alone, like with the development of film in a darkroom or with the temporal and slow process of cyanotype photography, where one is subject to the intensity and longevity of the sun’s rays.

Appleby’s and Williams’ work grows from the unexpected and everchanging nature of their mediums. The allusion of control over these experimental processes relates to the subject matter of their work: Appleby often refers to experiences with chronic illness and disability and Williams reflects on memory and the relationship to place and home.

Appleby, in particular, often incorporates their background in painting, printmaking, and drawing into their film and photographic works. Williams leans into process-based methods of making, experimenting with fibre works, image transfers, and collage. As part of the exhibition, there will be a large-scale window installation looking out to the Arts Centre courtyard of the artists’ collaged photographic negatives and analogue film cells.

Join Surrey Art Gallery for an afternoon of artmaking and performances on Saturday, July 12 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the theme of Imagining our Stories inspired by the artworks in the summer exhibitions 10 and 10: Story of Stories running until August 9 and Experiments in Solitude running until August 16. All are welcome at this free drop-in event—children must be accompanied by an adult.

10 and 10: Story of Stories celebrates the Gallery’s 50th anniversary by pairing permanent collection artworks acquired from the first ten years of collecting (1975–1985) and the last ten years (2014–2024) through themes of landscape, architecture, portraiture, and movement. Experiments in Solitude is a two-person exhibition by Brittney Appleby and MV Williams featuring works in a range of materials and photographic processes. Visitors are encouraged to playfully experience the exhibitions, answer questions, and try activities in the Art Monster Booklet guided by the Gallery’s Youth Docents.

In response to Lyse Lemieux’s mixed media sculpture Mexico, visitors will make their own colourful wire sculpture. Artist Kiranjot Kaur will help participants create their own abstract fabric collage. Guests will also create their own mixed-materials collage wearables inspired by MV Williams’ textile and collaged work around memory, home, and environment.

Spakwus Slolem (translated: Eagle Song Dancers) will present a glimpse of “Chiax,” the protocols and laws of the canoe culture of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation, through song and dance. Pick up free tickets on arrival for the presentation in the Studio Theatre at 1:30 p.m.

If you’re lucky enough to have your visit to Surrey coincide with the annual Surrey Fusion Festival, be sure to make time to head to Holland Park and join in the celebration. This kaleidoscope of culture is a true feast for the senses and a perfect way to soak up Surrey’s diversity in one colourful weekend. In 2024 Special Events Magazine awarded their Gala Award for Most Outstanding Spectacle, Fair, or Festival to the Surrey Fusion Festival.

The two-day celebration unites cultural and community groups from across the globe, along with over fifty recording artists and performers. Since its inception, Fusion Fest has experienced remarkable growth. What initially comprised only twenty-five modest pavilions has expanded to almost fifty, with additional ones introduced each year. Each pavilion represents a different country, mirroring the diversity of cultures showcased at the event.

Film noir, that uniquely American cycle of mid-century crime movies positively dripping with style and the depravity of human behaviour, returns for another cruel summer here at The Cinematheque. Last year’s season leaned into the first half of noir’s classic corpus, drawing the majority of its roster from formative 1940s fare. Our 2025 lineup offers a more generous distribution: a collection of eight exemplars from which to trace the trajectory of noir, from bedrock (1944’s Double Indemnity, in a glistening new restoration) to burial ground (1961’s Blast of Silence, arguably the agonal gasp of the original era). Along the way, we’ll be serving up some pearl-clutching premieres (including, gasp, our first ever 3D noir!), resurrecting a favourite or two long-unseen at The Cinematheque (Curtis and Lancaster punch-out Sweet Smell of Success anyone?), and, in the case of André de Toth’s pithy, pulpy Crime Wave, providing the exceedingly rare opportunity to experience a newly minted 35mm print. Oh, and bah-humbugs take note—there’s a surprising amount of Yuletide violence in the proceedings too.