SPOTLIGHT is a new collaboration between the Art Rental & Sales Program (AR&S) and the Curatorial Department of the Vancouver Art Gallery. AR&S is a not-for-profit program operated by the Gallery with a mandate of supporting emerging artists based in British Columbia.

In this collaboration, Gallery curators invite an artist represented by AR&S to create a mural on a feature wall in the Gallery Lobby. This special initiative aims to provide new opportunities for emerging artists, as well as to activate the lobby space for thousands of visitors each year.

The project launches with a new work by Vancouver-based visual artist Sandeep Johal, whose colourful geometric forms and intricate black and white line work is aesthetically and conceptually inspired by her South Asian heritage. Johal believes in the power of art to create awareness around issues related to cultural identity, gender equality and human rights. Her art practice is an expression of her social and cultural concerns, with a focus on gender justice. Johal has been represented by Art Rental & Sales since 2018.

The Imitation Game surveys the extraordinary uses (and abuses) of artificial intelligence (AI) in the production of modern and contemporary visual culture around the world. The exhibition follows a chronological narrative that first examines the development of artificial intelligence, from the 1950s to the present, through a precise historical lens. Building on this foundation, it emphasizes the explosive growth of AI across disciplines, including animation, architecture, art, fashion, graphic design, urban design and video games, over the past decade. Revolving around the important roles of machine learning and computer vision in AI research and experimentation, The Imitation Game reveals the complex nature of this new tool and demonstrates its importance for cultural production.

The Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC and The Americas Research Network (ARENET) present the world premiere of Xicanx: Dreamers + Changemakers / Soñadores + creadores del cambio, May 12, 2022–January 1, 2023. The exhibition will showcase, for the first time in Canada, the rich traditions of 33 Xicanx artists whose art practices draw on their Mexican-American heritage and generations of activism that began as part of El Movimiento, the Chicano civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s in the U.S. The exhibition is a celebration of the many Xicanx artists who have and continue to combine art and activism in the vital, ongoing fight for social justice for all.

The Bill Reid Gallery presents the Canadian premiere of Beaded Nostalgia, an exhibition exploring the use of contemporary beadwork as a way of honouring the past, on display May 18 to October 23, 2022. Featured artists Audie Murray, Serena Steel, Nico Williams, and Hazel Wilson reshape and reimagine beadwork, acknowledging their connection to home, cultures and expressing feelings of nostalgia—in particular for those who have been displaced and separated from traditional ways due to colonialism. Beaded Nostalgia will also celebrate the recent revival of beadwork through the internet and social media, giving Indigenous peoples accessibility to tutorials, to network with other beaders, and to showcase beaded work in new ways beyond adornment. As part of the exhibition, and in recognition of the flourishing of beaded earrings as symbols of identity, an installation of 50 pairs of earrings by 50 different artists will highlight the diversity of beading techniques and the contemporary creativity of the artists across North America.