Art trade made simple

Resisting the attachment of monetary value to art, Lena Tan creates cards that can only be traded for other art cards while opening a non-judgmental space for expression. Tan’s exhibition this October, Micromeditations: Artist Trading Cards, invites people to come and trade cards of art. At the talk, she will explain what an Artist Trading Card…

Illustrator tackles bad luck and Halloween

Flavia Chan wants to lead audiences Down the Eerie Path. The exhibit came together when Chris Bentzen, owner of Hot Art Wet City Gallery, approached her to help him organize a show at Makerlabs. “We knew the opening date would be Friday, October the 13th, and so we decided on a spooky theme to celebrate…

Reinventing Coast Salish art

The six artists featured in the new exhibit Intangible running from Sept. 13–Dec. 10 at the Bill Reid Art Gallery are reinventing Coast Salish art, while staying connected to history. Each work of art tells a story of the artist behind it, confronts current issues and challenges your perception of what Coast Salish art is. Through multimedia,…

Expressions of abstraction

Artist Zhanna Shomakhova will be exhibiting over 50 works in her latest series Motion, a collection exploring the allures of the universe in flux, at the Leigh Square Community Arts Village from Oct. 5–Nov. 28. Born in Nalchik, North Caucasus, Russia, Shomakhova moved with her family to Canada in 2008. Her immigration has had a transformative…

Art shows two kinds of life: virtual and physical

Ying Tan, a Canadian curator, makes her debut showcasing Indonesian art collective Tromarama’s Amphibia exhibition at Centre A from Sept. 8 to Oct. 14. Febie Babyrose, Herbert Hans and Ruddy Hatumena created Tromarama in Indonesia through the ‘Video After School’ music video workshop. The competition required its participants to create a music video for a…

A system in transformation: Aileen Bahmanipour’s Technical Problem

Aileen Bahmanipour, a young visual artist with Persian origins, presents her work in the upcoming exhibition, Technical Problem, at the Vancouver grunt gallery from Sept. 8– Oct. 14. Known for her meticulous artwork and having once made paper from human hair for an exhibition in the Banff Centre for the Arts, Bahmanipour is displaying a mixture…

Artists re-examine historical objects in new exhibition

The Richmond Art Gallery will be presenting the Eternal Return exhibition, which centres on artifacts from the Richmond Museum’s Migration Collection. Curated by Sunshine Frère, the exhibit will examine historical objects from a new perspective. The exhibition runs Sept. 10–Nov. 19. The cyclical nature of objects According to Frère, the Migration Collection has over 2000…

Future wishes for Canada

To commemorate Canada’s 150th anniversary, one organization is collecting wishes across the country – wishes for the next 150 years. Vancouver’s Yaletown Roundhouse will feature some of these wishes from Aug. 1 to 4, 2017. Taking It Global has put together Explore150, which highlights the relevance of Canadian culture and history and provides an opportunity…

Multimedia contemporary artist aims to inspire

Kwakwee Baker, new age free style artist, will be auctioning his paintings July 29 to raise money for his son’s lacrosse trip and make room for his next collection.  Baker’s original designs were paintings, carvings and drawings. His art evolved to 3D sculptures, polygrams, graphic designs and interactive designs where the viewer can be a…

A watercolourist’s search for peace through her art

“I came to Canada in 2009. It was so beautiful. I couldn’t stop thinking about the beauty of nature; it brings me peace and happiness,” says Iranian-Canadian realist painter Afsaneh Roudgar on her source of artistic inspiration. Roudgar was selected by a committee of community members at the Leigh Square Community Arts Village in Port…

Indigenous Two-Spirit artists rebuild identity through art

Vanessa Dion Fletcher offers a dialogue on menstruation, a formerly taboo subject in First Nations communities. Art installation by Alicia Everett. | Photo courtesy of Vanessa Dion Fletcher Every June, rainbow flags fly with pride as the sun shines on Vancouver. This June, however, the ceremony takes on a new look as Adrian Stimson, an Indigenous Two-Spirit…

Kimonos: a gateway to Japanese culture

Kimono Culture, an exhibit on the history and art of this Japanese textile, will run until Sept. 3, 2017 at the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre in Burnaby. A special talk by guest curator Hitomi Harama will be held at the centre on June 24. “Kimono is a core element of Japanese traditional culture.…

REVOLUTION: re-branding artistic practices

The B.C. Alliance for Arts + Culture is hosting their annual conference, REVOLUTION: Engaging Human Creativity, on June 8. With a variety of speakers, panels and workshops, REVOLUTION will explore how the arts can be used to create connections and a better society. Through REVOLUTION, the Alliance hopes to help shift how we as a…