Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art presents the Canadian premiere exhibition of True to Place: stímetstexw tel xéltel from June 15, 2022–March 19, 2023. Curated by artist and muralist Xémontalót Carrielynn Victor (Stó:lō), True to Place: stímetstexw tel xéltel examines the artistic practice of 10 Northwest Coast Indigenous artists, whose expanding boundaries and embracing of contemporary styles and techniques are informed by personal and collective traditions of form, story, and place. The group exhibition explores a spectrum of colour palettes – from bright neons to muted ochres – and features painting on a variety of mediums, including canvas, wood, paper, sculptural forms, traditional basketry, as well as digital creations.

“This exhibition offers a compelling perspective into the artistic process of many Indigenous painters from across the Northwest Coast,” says Victor. “Indigenous artists have historically and persistently seized any new tools at hand as a means of expression, moving forward in their practice from a place of history, tradition, and storytelling. Through the preservation of culture and principles of traditional form, artists use these grounding elements as a springboard to take their art expression further. Through the examination of process, quality, colour, and transformation, visitors are welcomed to explore new approaches, ideas, and innovations in painting that are place-based and story-rich.”

The exhibition’s subtitle – stímetstexw tel xéltel – was chosen with assistance from artist and language keeper, Thomas Jones, in the Upriver Stahlo, Halq’emeylemqel dialect. Translated as “Keeping the pencil moving forward,” the subtitle offers an essential and complementary element to the exhibition’s theme of moving forward from a place of history and tradition.

True to Place: stímetstexw tel xéltel features a striking collection of works from many emerging and established painters from across the Northwest Coast, inspired by contemporary issues, urban environments, and ancestral stories. Contributing artists include Atheana Picha, Corey Bulpitt, Crystal Worl, Eliot White-Hill, Luke Parnell, Ocean Hyland, Robert Davidson, Shawn Hunt, Steve Smith, and Thomas Jones.

In the early 2000s, Tobias Wong (1974–2010) took the design world by storm. Born and raised in Vancouver, Wong was a brilliant and prolific artist whose career was all too short. Defying easy categorization, his work was wide ranging, pushing and dissolving disciplinary boundaries between conceptual art, performance and product design. Wong’s international career took off and developed in New York City, where he resided until his untimely death in 2010.

Wong’s work was irreverent, witty and thought provoking. He edited pieces by famous designers, appropriated brand imagery and tweaked everyday objects to give them new status and meaning. His work questioned notions of authorship, originality and the value we assign to objects in our lives.

All We Want Is More: The Tobias Wong Project is an invitation to revisit Wong’s artistic contribution with fresh eyes. Recent social, environmental and technological events have transformed the way we see the world and inevitably the way we see Tobias Wong’s work. The title of the exhibition refers not only to his interest in conspicuous consumption but also to what we, the exhibition team, felt as we worked on this project: the more we delved into Wong’s work, the more we wanted to know about him. We know you’ll want more too!

The Vancouver Art Gallery is pleased to present: NEXT: Provisional Structures: Carmen Papalia with Co-Conspirators, a new project by Carmen Papalia and his co-conspirators that centres disability cultures within the Gallery.

For Papalia, the process of making spaces accessible to a broader cross-section of the public is inherently creative and works created by the artist are often a means to test, model and share his ideas about accessibility. At the centre of the exhibition is an ambitious architectural installation created by the artist in collaboration with local architect Michael Lis. The piece is comprised of a large acoustic dome that visitors can enter, encircled by tall, wooden towers. The structure appears to be temporarily and briskly constructed, giving tangible form to Papalia’s notion of a model for accessibility that can rise spontaneously in response to the given needs of a group.

In the artist’s words, “Provisional Structures is at once an installation, an institutional intervention and a call to action that serves as a platform for disabled artists, curators and cultural workers by requiring the institutions that exhibit it to dedicate time, space and resources to the development of the systems necessary to hold disability culture and artistry in its wholeness.”

In keeping with the principles of Papalia’s practice, the artist has also invited a group of co-conspirators to support and generously share ideas that resonate and relate to disability justice and social cohesion. Works by participating artists including Sharona Franklin and Heather Kai Smith complement and poetically extend some of the themes and ideas within Papalia’s practice. Rebel Fayola Rose and the collaborative duo, The Curiosity Paradox, both access advocates and artists will be participating in the exhibition through a series of public programs and performances. Details on the activities and dates will be available in the coming weeks.

Public engagement and programming are key components of the exhibition and workshops, talks and discussions will be held during the exhibition throughout its duration. Additional resources are also available on the Gallery’s app.

“In working with Carmen Papalia and Co-Conspirators, the Vancouver Art Gallery welcomes audiences to consider the possibilities of art as a non-visual experience,” said Anthony Kiendl, CEO & Director of Vancouver Art Gallery. “This exhibition is an example of contemporary art as a language that exceeds the visual – it is clearly about challenging ways of thinking and ideas. At the same time, the project introduces other voices and narratives from the contemporary disability movement. This creates not only an important but vital and relevant environment for the public to experience. We are very excited to be a hub for people to gather over the coming weeks of the exhibition.”