The Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC reopens its doors to the public on June 13, 2024 at 5pm, following an 18-month closure that saw the successful completion of cutting-edge seismic upgrades to its Great Hall, coupled with updated interpretations and new displays of Northwest Coast Indigenous art. As part of the reopening, MOA will present the world premiere exhibition of To Be Seen, To Be Heard: First Nations in Public Spaces, 1900–1965, on display until March 30, 2025, in the Museum’s Audain Gallery. The immersive, multi-media exhibition explores the diverse ways that First Nations people in BC represented themselves as Indigenous in urban public spaces, during the period of potlatch prohibition and other forms of erasure in Canada. Looking back through rich archival material reveals the diverse ways that First Nations worked to be seen and heard striving to have their rights recognized—rights to their lands, their laws and their future. For admission details and exhibition information, visit: moa.ubc.ca

Feature image: 1929_Alberni Valley Museum [PN01873]

Co-curated by Dana Claxton and Curtis Collins, the Curve! exhibition will shed light on a lesser-explored facet of Northwest Coast art—women’s contributions to the rich tradition of carving wood and argillite.

The exhibition will feature over 125 works of art that include poles, panels, masks, bowls, and other sculptures all intertwined with traditional knowledge. These works will be on loan from public and private collections across Canada and the United States. The exhibition will focus on a selection of carvers active from the 1950s to present day, highlighting the pivotal role of women artists within the larger tradition of indigenous carving along the coast of British Columbia.

Art in the Community Presents Sande Waters: BOXED

Sande Waters grew up in North Vancouver. She then lived and explored the BC coast on a sailboat for many years, eventually settling on Cortes Island for a decade. For many years now she has resided adjacent to the ocean by Cates Park. Consequently, the ocean has stimulated her senses and profoundly influenced her as an artist, inspiring her to paint intuitively as a method of expression.

The act of creating art is often described as a dialogue between the artist and the artwork. Paintings often speak to the artist about what is needed next in the conversation, as the pigments themselves have the potential to become an influential voice in the direction of the entire composition. Her colourful and fluid abstract paintings represent a fascination with how chaos can emerge in one’s life, no matter how carefully we plan.

Working with acrylic paint and ink on canvas or paper, Waters creates organic forms, by allowing the paint and ink to “do its own thing” layer upon layer. Her intuitive, bold, and energetic paintings reflect a synergistic process of letting go, spontaneous gestural abstractions that are transformed into images of significance by the artist.

Waters is compelled by the process of bringing the uninhibited, undefined, and indescribable, into physical form. By constructing boxes made from her paintings on paper, she juxtaposes the abstract with the tangible. By acknowledging the “Box”, Waters invokes numerous contemporary narratives. She perceives the boxes as a metaphor for diversity as they are various sizes, and each one has a unique painting on the surface. A “Box” is also an object of desire, a vessel of containment and mysticism, which establishes its power. The “Box’ signifies a contemporary form, which speaks to our global economy and prosperity. All these qualities define the concept of my boxes.

Waters received her BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver and MFA from San Francisco Art Institute, California. She currently volunteers as the Assistant Art Curator at Lions Gate Hospital for the Healing Power of Art program. She was the Vice President on the Board of Directors at Seymour Art Gallery, North Vancouver, BC and on the Board of Directors for the Contemporary Art Society of Vancouver as Chair of the Artist Prize. Her work has been shown and collected in Canada, USA and Europe. She lives and works in Deep Cove, North Vancouver, BC as a guest on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw, Stó꞉lō, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

Feature image:
Sande_Waters, Boxes #1, Acrylic on paper 2019 NFS 16x27x20