The Bill Reid Gallery presents the powerful solo exhibition Matriarchs Seen and Unseen, featuring the work of Nuu-Chah-Nulth photographer Melody Charlie, on display March 29-June 25, 2023. Aunties, mothers, and grandmothers are pillars in Indigenous communities, leading their families and guiding their community members. Featuring over 20 striking portrait photographs of matriarchs of the Northwest Coast, the exhibition celebrates and honours the work of these women, showcasing their strength, wisdom, leadership and deep connections, while documenting ceremonies and traditional cultural practices. Admission details and information at: billreidgallery.ca

Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art presents the Canadian premiere exhibition of Bright Futures from April 26, 2023–January 14, 2024. Co-curated by Bill Reid Gallery Curator Beth Carter, Assistant Curator Aliya Boubard, and in consultation with Jordan Wilson (Musqueam), Bright Futures examines the lasting influence of Bill Reid’s iconic art on the development and creation of contemporary Northwest Coast art today, 25 years after his death. Alongside a selection of works from Bill Reid Gallery’s permanent collection, the group exhibition showcases a broad variety of disciplines and cultures from throughout BC and the Yukon, including surrealist painting, classic weaving, wearable art, conceptual installation, modern carving, metalwork, and abstract photography.

The work of Nigerian-born artist Abraham O. Oghobase meditates on the legacies of mining across Africa, as well as the resulting displacements and migrations of people. His visual montages lift schematic diagrams of metal-refining processes from A Text-book of Rand Metallurgical Practice, a handbook published in 1912 that heavily informed early extractive industries in South Africa and elsewhere. Presenting these drawings outside of their original context, and super-imposing them upon images of his own body, Oghobase studies the mechanisms of colonial exploitation while also visually disassembling them.

Stém̓xwulh: Woolly Dog Weavings is making two rare Salish Woolly Dog ceremonial robes available for public viewing.

The ceremonial robes will be on view alongside contemporary artworks and reflections on the Salish Woolly Dogs by Salish artists: Senaqwila Wyss (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh), Chase Gray (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm/Tsimshian), Sarah Jim (W̱SÁNEĆ), and Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun (Snuneymuxw and Hupacasath).

Developed by Indigenous Cultural Programmer Senaqwila Wyss in collaboration with MONOVA’s Indigenous Voices Advisory Committee, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation, Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nation, and local Salish artists.

What Moves You is the 7th Annual exhibition organized by ParkerArtSalon. The exhibition will feature over 50 artists who work out of the well-known Parker Street Studios in East Vancouver. The Pendulum Gallery hosts a curated selection of works by participating artist providing an overview of the ideas that artists are exploring in their practices, and a look at what is provoking, inspiring and stimulating the creative talents of local artists .

Waddington’s Auctions will move the exhibition nationwide on its on-line auction platform from June 8 – June 17, with 50 percent of the auction proceeds going to the Beedie Luminaries Foundation’s program.

The sculptural work of Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill explores the fallacies embedded in colonial concepts of property, economy and family. Her works frequently frame Western systems of capitalism and control as both imposed and impermanent, emphasizing the endurance, power and radical potential of other surviving knowledges and economic practices. Often engaging the physical, historical or symbolic properties of the materials she works with, past projects have seen Hill variously use tobacco, found objects and deaccessioned museum artifacts to consider questions of labour, land, value, and reciprocity.

At the Contemporary Art Gallery, Hill presents M*****, a project that deepens the artist’s long-term inquiry into structures of kinship. Bringing together a suite of new works in sculpture, drawing and cameraless cinema, the exhibition sees Hill reflecting expansively on economies of parenting and reproductive labour. Harnessing references ranging from spores and parasites to Nadya “Octomom” Suleman, these works gesture toward an experience of motherhood that is multiplicitous, non-linear and visceral, both bound to and more than the limits and binaries frequently invoked by the word “Mother.”

L.Robertson is an artist who did not go to art school. She studied anthropology instead and is now a professor at UBC teaching the subject.
In 2017, L.Roberston had a life changing car accident that left her with a major concussion which meant she had to stop reading and engaging in many daily life activities.
This exhibition will feature a series of paintings that document a number of significant events that happened “all of the sudden” in the artists life, post concussion. These works depict in detail the visual and emotional turmoil of each situation, through paint on canvas.
This is the first public exhibition of L.Robertson’s artwork.

Everything is Now: Genesis Tramaine Solo Exhibition at CICA Vancouver

CICA Vancouver proudly announces the upcoming exhibition “Everything is Now” featuring the extraordinary works of American artist Genesis Tramaine, opening from June 2 – July 9, 2023.
The exhibition will open with an Opening Reception on June 1, from 5 – 8 pm, wine and refreshments will be served, and the artist will be in attendance.

Featuring a selection of old and new works, this exhibition will be the artist’s debut solo exhibition in Canada. Tramaine’s paintings, scrupulously crafted after deep exploration of biblical narratives, invite viewers into a profound visual experience that transcends boundaries and challenges conventions. Adorned with an unconventional fusion of the divine and the whimsical, these powerful representations take on added layers of meaning through the lens of Tramaine’s identity and experience as a black artist rooted in Brooklyn.

Her works go beyond religious iconography; it becomes a platform for personal and collective introspection. Through the captivating eyes that grace her canvas, Tramaine not only prompts viewers to lock their gaze with the subjects but also challenges social conventions and invites conversations around identity, spirituality, and the human experience. The enthralling works of Genesis Tramaine will transport the viewers into a realm where spirituality, symbolism, and human connection converge.

Genesis Tramaine (b. 1983) is known for her abstract portraits that transcend conventional boundaries of gender, race, and social structures. Her captivating work evokes a sense of déjà vu, intertwining memories of past lives and unexplored futures. Influenced by 1980s urban New York graffiti and imagined gospel hymns, Tramaine’s style fuses familiarity with spirituality.

Using confrontational and provocative colours, Tramaine employs an urban-inspired, mixed-media approach. Her subjects, with exaggerated features, capture the vibrant emotions of the untapped soul of Black individuals with acrylic, oil paints, and a variety of spiritual and natural substances as mediums. Influenced by Bible verses and church readings, her compositions explore profound human themes such as ethics, insanity, spirituality, and sexuality.

Tramaine has exhibited nationally and internationally, including an inaugural solo exhibition with Almine Rech in London, ‘Parables of Nana’, a solo exhibition at the Rubell Museum, as well as exhibitions at Richard Beavers Gallery, Brooklyn, NYC; The Tree House, Governors Island, NYC; and more. Her work resides in prominent museum collections including the Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina, USA; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas, USA; The Bass Museum of Art, Miami, USA; Rubell Museum, Miami, USA; ICA Miami, Miami, FL, USA; and the Contemporary Art Foundation, Tokyo, Japan and more.

Please join us for the Opening Reception on Thursday, June 1, 5 – 8 PM.

Yuri Arajs is a formally educated Canadian artist who works and lives in Vancouver BC. He creates minimal landscapes focused on details of land and sky.

“I love spending time getting lost in the sky. There are so many places to go and things to see up there.
Most of my art is landscape based in its simplest form. Horizon lines and objects filling space with intention help me create works of absolute silence with an under current of misunderstanding.
I use lots of vintage paper and book pages as well as found metal and scraps to introduce the discussion of history and experience within the specific work. My colour palette is fairly limited and my appreciation for graphite is huge.”

THIS Gallery is excited to present a new solo exhibition by Vancouver based artist Meg Shaw.
In Strange Familiars, Meg Shaw explores the psychological forces in human relationships. Her interest is
in the shift of power dynamics based in our physical relationships with each other. She has had a lifelong
interest in narrative work and its ability to capture the broader truth in the articulation of a single moment.
She reflects on the state of being clothed, or not, and how it changes power dynamics based on gender,
age, and body type. There is an uncomfortable interchange between exposure, expectation and being
observed.

Shaw uses colour relationships to consider the specific emotional spirit of an interaction. In this body of
work, she uses bright colours contrasted with pure black to explore the balance of joy and malevolence.
She uses fantasy to explore personality and mood, and constructs patterns to build on that feeling.

Gruff Goat Dance is a contemporary performing arts company that recognizes the healing power of dance while consciously building the transformative components of personal expression.

Mountain Meets Cloud explores the mythic relationship between people and landscape. The performance captures the romance between the steadfast mountains and the ever-changing clouds, using the unique language of movement to take you on a journey through depth, death, and intimacy.

So put your burdens down and experience the top of the mountain, the magic of dance, and the archetypical characters of mind-blowing theatre as they stretch their bones and stand tall.

Celebrate poetry videos and video-poetry by coming out to the award ceremony and screening of imaginative and evocative poetry videos by the finalists and winners of the Vancouver City Poems Contest, an innovative collaboration between local poets and post-secondary student media artists!

Student teams from Simon Fraser University, Critical Indigenous Studies (UBC) and Emily Carr University of Art & Design created a compelling array of poetry videos based on notable poems about Vancouver’s diverse historical, cultural and ecological sites, including English Bay, Coal Harbour and the Komagata Maru memorial, Commercial Drive, Hogan’s Alley, Chinatown, Hastings Park,Vanier Park, former Musqueam village sites and more.

Vancouver Poet Laureate Fiona Tinwei Lam will be your host. Contest judge Heather Haley will comment on the prize-winning poetry videos prior to the screening.  Student media artists will be awarded their prizes.

The Polygon Gallery presents the North American premiere of Jeremy Shaw’s Phase Shifting Index from June 23–Sept. 24, 2023. Created for a solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the immersive seven-channel video installation is Shaw’s most ambitious project to date. Phase Shifting Index uses various outmoded 20th-century media — from 16mm film to Hi-8 video tape — to depict an imagined future in which human beliefs and survival are at stake. Seven distinct subcultures are seen engaging in embodied, movement-based belief systems that range from modern dance to hardcore punk skanking. Their gestures coalesce in synchronized movement before dissolving into sound and light. The exhibition marks the North Vancouver-born artist’s return to the West Coast

Feature image: Jeremy Shaw, Phase Shifting Index, 2020, 7 channel video, sound and light installation. Courtesy of the artist and Macaulay & Co Fine Art.

Manabu Ikeda seeks inspiration from his surroundings to bring attention and awe to viewers, as a way of sending warnings about the painful reality of environmental disasters. Central to his practice are metaphors of human grief and undeniable aspects of life that are often beyond society’s control, including the fundamental forces of Mother Nature. Ikeda’s drawings also reveal human resilience and the ability to rise above devastating situations when it appears impossible.

The artist’s emotional engagement with the impact of natural and human-caused disasters eventually led him to produce Rebirth, his most significant work to date. In this large-scale drawing, Ikeda depicts a collision of humankind, nature, and an environmental disaster, while emphasizing an ensuing regeneration. The artist’s sensitive observation of microscopic worlds in the wake of Japan’s natural disasters addresses inevitable catastrophes, as Ikeda blurs the boundaries between reality and his vision of hope for the future.

Manabu Ikeda has exhibited his work widely, including Japan, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Russia, and the United States. Curated by Kiriko Watanabe, the AAM’s Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Curator, Flowers from the Wreckage is Ikeda’s first major solo exhibition in North America featuring over fifty works from national and international public, private and corporate collections.

As a special feature, Manabu Ikeda will be on site over the course of this exhibition and set up his studio in the AAM’s upper gallery to draw his new work.