Visual Arts 2023

WINDOW DISPLAY

CULTURAL TRIBUTARIES OF CHINATOWN IN THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE
Beginning Wednesday October 25
Union Cooperative Initiative Studio, 525 Carrall Free

Once bordering the edge of False Creek - home for herons - this Carrall Street window design pays homage to the historical significance of the Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Association Building. Here former tenants Terry Hunter and Savannah Walling founded Vancouver Moving Theatre, and were inspired by their environment to create “Drum Mother” and “Heronwoman”. Their experience living in Chinatown was among the foundational planks that contributed to the establishment of the DTES Heart of the City Festival. The artwork, illustrated by Kyla Yin James, was commissioned by Love Intersections in collaboration with Vancouver Moving Theatre to honour the neighbourhood’s cultural tributaries and bridge the past, present and future of this cherished locale.

EXHIBITION

CHANGING FACES Scotty Colin
Until October 28
Outsiders and Others, 716 E. Hastings Free

“Life is very different for me than it was one year ago. After living in Vancouver for over 18 years, I decided to move back to California where I am from. I now live in Humboldt County, in the Redwoods and on the coast of northern California. I have had the inspiration to move into using wood/sculpture in my art. It seems as though my experience with joinery has given me a unique perspective as an artist. It's as if a new door has opened. The result has been a huge flood of new ideas, feeling more inspired and focused than ever.” Gallery hours: Wed to Sat, 11am - 4pm. www.outsidersandothers.com

EXHIBITION

REFLECTION Col Urrutia
Until October 28
THIS Gallery, 485 Main Free

Reflection is a series of oil paintings by Col Urrutia that focus on the mystical phenomenon of life itself, and the resilience of nature flourishing against forces of opposition. The floral subjects thrive in artificially lit and inorganic environments, alluding to nature’s triumphant ability to overpower human imposition. These florals are presented in a way that is unabashed and glorious: a transcendent state where they are blissfully unaware of the world in which they find themselves. Captured at the peak of their bloom, they bring attention to the ever fleeting present and the mystery to be found therein. Gallery hours: Thurs to Sat 12pm - 5pm. www.thisgallery.org

EXHIBITION

Art in the Park Project
Until October 31
Artist Talk, Friday October 27, 3pm
Carnegie 3rd Floor Gallery, 401 Main Free

View blankets and community artworks installed along the walls throughout the Carnegie Centre and in the display cases on the 3rd floor. The work was created during this summer’s Art In The Park: a creative three month artist residency in Andy Livingstone Park led by artist Jenie Gao in collaboration with Carnegie Elders in Residence Elder Marr Dorvault and Elder Leslie Nelson. Jenie facilitated free art workshops centred on play, outdoor enjoyment, and pattern-making that became the basis of The Community Blanket. Fifty community blankets were given away at the residency’s closing reception, plus t-shirts, tote bags, and buttons printed with community artworks. Now in its third year, the project was hosted by the Vancouver Park Board in partnership with Carnegie Community Centre with support by Vancouver Moving Theatre. 

EXHIBITION

COMMUNITY OF WORK: Twenty Years of Photos by David Cooper, C.M.
November 1 to November 29
Artist Talk, Wednesday November 1, 4pm
Carnegie 3rd Floor Gallery, 401 Main Free

Community of Work is a retrospective exhibition of photos by David Cooper for the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival since the first days of the Festival. The exhibit features photos of festival artists along with twenty years of festival posters with photos by David. One of North America’s top dance and theatre photographers, David has opened his studio doors each year to the festival’s artists – one of the many ways that he supports the neighbourhood where he is based. In 2020, David was appointed to the Order of Canada for his contributions to Canadian performance photography and dedicated mentoring of emerging artists. 

EXHIBITION

16th Annual Oppenheimer Park Community Art Show
Until November 10
Gallery Gachet, 9 W. Hastings Free

Gallery Gachet is pleased to present the 16th Annual Oppenheimer Park Community Art Show, featuring artwork and insight of artists and community leaders connected to or displaced from the Park. This green space is known as Lek'lekí, the Powell Street Grounds, Paureu gai; the backyard of the Downtown Eastside; the unceded land of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. For some artists, participating in the show is an annual tradition, while others are contributing for the first time. The artwork on display offers compelling insights into the state of cultural production in the DTES and the diverse residents, visualized through multiple perspectives and viewpoints that each speak to their individual state of being. Gallery hours: Tues to Sat, 12pm - 6pm. gachet.org

EXHIBITION

INTIMACY AND DISTANCES Maiko Jinushi
Until November 10
Centre A, #205 - 268 Keefer Free/by donation

Tokyo-based interdisciplinary artist Maiko Jinushi's first solo exhibition in Canada consists of four short video works and preliminary drawings. For over a decade, Maiko Jinushi has been creating video works internationally, as a visual form of literary experience, exploring the relationship with others in unique ways through dialogue and collaborative performance with various artists. The relationship between self and others are unraveled through the seemingly contradictory keywords "Intimacy” and “distances”. Reflecting the physical and emotional distance experienced during the Corona pandemic, Maiko explores intimate relationships through digital communication with others. Gallery hours: Wed to Sat, 12pm - 6pm. centrea.org

EXHIBITION

PORTMANTEAUS / PERSISTENCE OF VISION Wade Comer
Until November 12
Bothkinds Project Space, #1 - 140 E. Cordova Free
NOTE: Bothkinds has moved to a new location at 602 East Hastings 

Persistence of Vision presents images using in-camera multiple-exposure techniques to capture architecture and nature, and to highlight ways the camera allows us to see differently. A camera is not just a means to capture a definitive moment. It is also an illustrative tool that facilitates the layering of time and the superimposition of perceptions. Portmanteaus is a portrait series based upon wordplay and repurposing found images. It plays with ideas of celebrity, popular culture, and our ability to recognize patterns. The initial inspiration came from the blending of the names of two Vancouver artists: Stan Douglas, and Douglas Coupland. bothkindsprojects.ca

EXHIBITION

TAKING FLIGHT: THE MAKING OF CROW GIRL
jaye simpson and Valen Onstine
Until November 23
Massy Arts Gallery, 23 E. Pender Free

Taking Flight: The Making of Crow Girl, by Indigenous artists jaye simpson and Valen Onstine, shares the creative process behind Crow Girl, an Indigiqueer YA Graphic Novel set in East Vancouver. This exhibition provides space to showcase the work in crafting a narrative that embraces representation and actualization for Indigenous youth. Crow Girl is not just simpson and Onstine’s story, but a reflection of the diverse Indigenous 2SLGBTQIA+ community: a celebration of those who exist in the loud, the quiet, in the flutter of a crow’s wing, the ones who shapeshift and sing many parts of the song. Gallery hours: Wed to Sun, 12pm - 5pm. massyarts.com

EXHIBITION

GODS AND MONSTERS Rojina Farrokhnejad
Until December 1
SUM gallery, #425 - 268 Keefer Free

Gods and Monsters, the SUM gallery debut of Vancouver artist Rojina Farrokhnejad, uses figurative art to explore themes of queer sensuality, religiosity and isolation. Employing elements of animation, painting and sculpture, Farrokhnejad blurs the line between the representational and abstract, the religious and the mythological, the grotesque and the divine.

Gallery hours: Tues to Sat, 12pm - 6pm. sumgallery.ca

EXHIBITION

TURN TOWARD Kasper Feyrer
Until December 16
Audain Gallery, 149 W. Hastings Free

Vancouver-based artist Kasper Feyrer unfurls a series of works that connect creative research in mycology as a means to understanding care, more-than-human relations, and queer intimacies through visibility and embodiment. Feyrer’s long-standing material engagement in filmmaking uses the camera as an extension of the human sensorium: a “device through which one can feel time and mirror perception, expanding one’s embodied experience of the world.” Curated by Kristy Trinier. Gallery hours: Wed - Sat, 12pm - 5pm.

VISUAL ART

PHOTOGRAPHS Rudolf Penner
Until December
Washington Community Market, 179 E. Hastings Free

Gallery Gachet partners with the Washington Community Market to bring colour to the walls of this community food hub. Until December, they exhibit large format photographs by visual artist Rudolf Penner who uses Nikon and cell phone cameras to portray his neighbourhood subjects. The project supports artists with funding for materials, installation assistance and artist fees, as well as project management. It engages with Downtown Eastside artists for opportunities to create, exhibit and sell their artwork. Funded by the Community Impact Real Estate Society. Hours: Mon to Fri, 9am - 6pm, Sat 10am - 5pm.

EXHIBITION

THE SEVENTH, KWÍKWI: Lauren Brevner and James Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun Harry
Until February 10
Or Gallery, 236 E. Pender Free

The Seventh marks the first solo exhibition by KWÍKWI: Lauren Brevner and James Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun Harry. The discursive project explores a pivotal moment in the artists’ decade-long collaborative practice and builds upon their significant contributions to intersectional conversations around Indigenous representation and land-based gestures in contemporary art. Gallery hours: Wed to Sat, 12pm - 5pm. orgallery.org