Golya Mirderikvand’s paintings emerge from a place of deep focus, where both her external and internal worlds converge. She explores subjects that draw and hold her attention with the right intensity. The works in this exhibition are part of a recent series inspired by nature, capturing intricate networks of branches—whether through the canopies they form or the shadows they cast.

Her artistic process begins with photographing landscapes that feature compelling patterns of tree branches. She captures scenes from multiple angles, experimenting with light and shadow and zooming in on compositions that balance abstraction and realism. The selected photographs are then edited and carefully chosen as references for her paintings.

Displayed together, this series of paintings creates a lyrical harmony, inviting viewers into a visually rich world of structured yet organic complexity.

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.

Flowers of Resistance brings together a collection recent artworks by internationally well-known architect, artist, and writer, Tony Robins. Currently based in Vancouver with projects and awards from Paris to Japan, Tony is a recipient of Canada’s 1994 Prix de Rome in Architecture, Lieutenant Governor of BC/AIBC’s 2014 Special Jury Award and Western Living Magazine’s 2014 Architect, Interior Designer and Eco Designer of the Year, to name a few.

For over 40 years, Robins has created artwork in parallel with his architectural practice. His works, coined “Narrative Minimalism”, explore the formation, transference, and deformation of meaning in a materialistic, psychological, and socio-historical context. This was the main theme of Robins’ 2018 exhibition Transmediation at the gallery.

From June 21st to August 9th Paul Kyle Gallery will be presenting Robins’ second solo exhibition, Flowers of Resistance. With a bold referential approach, these timely paintings, installation and video works feature floral emblems adopted by resistance movements across the globe and as far back as the 17th Century. These ethereal emblems are often contextualized by way of various tactile interventions; a delicate rendering of a peacock flower becomes obscured by four overlaid sheets of steel, the background of an iris painting systematically laser etched with Base64 computer code. In the artist’s words, “The juxtaposition adds material tactility and weight that relates to the brutality of regimes”.

A catalog with insight by Robins alongside the exhibition’s works is available.

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.

Introspection to Catharsis is a collaborative exhibition by artists Sue Daniel and Robert Karpa. This show explores the intersection of abstract painting and artificial intelligence, creating a powerful dialogue between human emotion and machine interpretation.

Sue Daniel’s deeply personal abstract works are in a constant state of evolution, shaped by life’s ongoing challenges. Her paintings emerge through slow, meditative processes and emotional impulses, layered spontaneously to create a conversation between control and surrender.

In response, Karpa introduces AI-generated interventions that appear to engage directly with Daniel’s visual language. With a background in editorial portraiture, Karpa brings storytelling to abstract art by creating AI-generated faces that reflect his interpretation of Daniel’s work.

Starting with a concept shaped by age, emotion, and atmosphere, he generates AI images, upscales them for large prints, and refines them in Photoshop. This fusion of technical precision and intuitive response creates a new form of portraiture, where technology meets traditional art in a shared exploration of meaning and emotion.

“Transfiguration” is artist Li Ning’s reflection on life—an inner transformation shaped by her search for self and ongoing introspection. Confronted by the turbulence and uncertainty of recent years, she has felt a spiritual heaviness on humans in contemporary society. In response, she began to observe, listen to, and contemplate the world’s realities from multiple perspectives. Within the traditions of Eastern religious philosophy, Li Ning found a path to inner peace and clarity, and she transformed these insights into her artistic practice. Through mediums such as calligraphy, photography, and installation, she captures the often-overlooked details and objects of everyday life, revealing the extraordinary beauty hidden within the ordinary. Her work poses a profound philosophical inquiry: “Who am I? And who is the ‘me’?” This exploration of identity and existence unfolds as a spiritual journey—one she invites viewers to join, offering a space for introspection and quiet awakening.

Emily Carr University of Art + Design hosts its annual Low Residency Master of Fine Arts State of Practice Exhibition featuring work from the 2026 cohort of MFA Low Residency degree candidates. Presented at the midpoint of graduate study, the State of Practice Exhibition demonstrates a culmination of a full year of artistic research, critical exploration and making.

The MFA program comprises an international cohort of artists who work with renowned faculty and distinguished visiting curators, scholars, and artists. This state of practice exhibition showcases the diverse practices of the MFA Low Residency class of 2026.

Participating artists: Dakota Burpee, Joshua deGroot, Samantha Dickie, Emilie Fantuz, Julya Hajnoczky, Ariel K Hill, Alysha Johnny Hawkins, Meredith Jones, Ciara Linteau, Brett Mallon, Carly Nabess, Hitoko Okada, Taalrumiq

The State of Practice exhibition and opening reception are held at Emily Carr University’s Michael O’Brian Exhibition Commons, Zone 4 Gallery on level 1 at 520 East 1st Ave, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Members of the public are invited to our opening reception on Thursday, July 10, from 6–9pm. The gallery is open to the public during regular building hours.

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.

Vibrant Visions: The Art of Black Girlhood in Canada, is an ode to the registers of freedom, refusal, and self-regard that compose Black girl being and belonging in the Great White North. This dynamic assemblage of media and material objects recovers sight lines of Black girl joy and defiance across time and geographies. It illuminates these important modes of agency, which are often obscured by media representations and traditional archival practices that overlook and distort the vibrancy of black life in our shared history, through moving and still images, soundscapes, and memory work.

The exhibition takes its name from the radical imaginings and ways of knowing shared by the teen girl co-researchers of the SSHRC-funded Mapping Black Girl Geographies and Belonging in Canada project, many of whom live in the Greater Toronto and Vancouver areas. A selection of their analogue collages reflects the many ways that Black girls navigate hypervisibility and invisibility in spaces that are sometimes inhospitable.

Visitors will be invited to contemplate how adornment practices offer opportunities for care and alternative worldmaking through hair-based, sun-activated and interactive works. Broadening our field of vision will be a series of historical portraits that confront and refuse the formal erasures of the fullness of black lives in early-20th century Vancouver with imagination, care, and ethical storytelling. Together, these aesthetic accounts offer a reparative unfolding of black lives and histories where futures are conjured, reshaped, and fiercely claimed.

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.