Confronting and shaping our experience with refugees

Refuge Canada, an exhibition at the Museum of Vancouver, details the experiences refugees have faced from deciding to leave their home country to settling in Canada. Denise Fong, curator of urban cultures at the Museum of Vancouver, says the exhibit is meant to help visitors connect with the individual stories and challenges of refugees –…

Dion Smith-Dokkie at Gallery Gachet: Diving deep into maps and their meaning

Gallery Gachet hosts an exhibit from Vancouver-based artist Dion Smith-Dokkie that investigates maps and their meaning, from Nov. 24 to Jan 20. In This Will Be the First of a Thousand Worlds We Give Life To, Smith-Dokkie modulates various maps, including locations of northeastern British Columbia, transforming them artistically through overlays and modulation. The resulting…

“Durational, monumental, and archival in nature” – From Slander’s Brand explores history, transformation and trauma

From now until Feb. 4, 2023, the Polygon Gallery will host a three-person exhibition titled Slander’s Brand, showcasing the works of artists Rachel Khedoori, Ron Terada and Hannah Darabi who engage with trauma and history in their artistic medium and whose work focuses on themes of duration and archive. Khedoori’s work assembles historical news articles…

Marchand’s Florescence – Art that holds time

Art is alive with Mount Pleasant’s poppies. From now until December 12, North Van Arts is showcasing Métis, Franco-Ontarian artist, Nathaniel Marchand’s Florescence, an exhibit with living mediums at Lynn Valley’s District Library Gallery. Featuring foraged petals and leaves, the pieces of Florescence highlight Marchand’s use of pressed materials from BC’s coastal landscape – which are then vulnerable…

Artists explore mental health today using a glimpse of the past

On September 28, Coquitlam Heritage holds its opening reception to a new artist-led exhibit on the defunct mental health institute of Riverview. The exhibit sees local artists, Lolu Oyedele, Nadine Flagel and Haley Perry, as well as Coquitlam Heritage staff Naomi Fong and Markus Fahrner, reflecting on the challenging history of Riverview, drawing links between…

A Latin American Heritage Month celebration – Remembering Chilean history through art

Celebrating Latin American Heritage Month, the Vancouver Latin American Cultural Centre (VLACC)’s second annual Latin Expressions program shines a spotlight on Chilean culture with Remembering the Future: Chile 1973-2023: An Evening of Music, Poetry and Art, a vibrant series of film, music, theater and dance performed by Chilean artists in the Vancouver arts community. “In…

Classification Crisis – A retrospective of Sonja Ahlers’ work

Zines, poetry, installations, excerpts from her personal archive and a decade-plus worth of as yet unseen works are what awaits visitors at Sonja Ahlers’ Classification Crisis exhibition. For the past 30 years, Ahlers has been an influential voice for generations of feminists through her D.I.Y. approach to collage art, poetry, zines, mail art and other publications. Classification Crisis will…

Hands-on, family friendly and accessible art making for all

Eastside Arts Society calls all artists and creatives to participate in their two-day summer art making event CREATE! Arts Festival, a youth-friendly space for learning, discovering and creating. “I’m so thrilled that there is an art-making festival that happens outside and in the summer. It provides many people who are unable to get out of…

Parviz Tanavoli – a retrospective

Heritage and progress: national artistic identity or heavily influenced by Westernization. Parviz Tanavoli, recognized as the only Iranian artist to fully capture the duality and interplay of Iran’s pre-Islam and Islamic cultural identities, showcases his six decade-long career at The Vancouver Art Gallery, July 1–Nov 19. Parviz Tanavoli: Poets, Locks, Cages is the first major Canadian…

MOTHLIKE/silvery-blue – Celebrating nature with artist Amy-Claire Huestis

Protecting biodiversity in ecological areas currently under threat, due to human development and expansion, is an important focus for artist Amy-Claire Huestis and her collaborators. Huestis displays MOTHLIKE/silvery-blue at the Richmond Gallery, June 29–Aug 20. The exhibit draws particular attention to the proposed expansion of the Roberts Bank Terminal in Delta, B.C., adjacent to Brunswick…