Launch Pad

Current projects

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  Ayesha Beg, Where is Home

  

  Artist's statement

  Where is Home is a hand drawn digital illustration that echoes a standard question for drivers at border crossings, while altered versions of this question are more common in small talk and conversations with people we have just met. Whether they are discussed or not, it is a question that can carry with it the weight of unspoken curiosities. This work attempts to materialize that weight, and the layers embedded within the motions of everyday commuters.  

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  Bethany Pardoe, Forest Floor

  

  Artist's statement

  Using mainly gouache, watercolour, and coloured pencil, I create vibrant worlds and characters inspired by nature and personal folklore.

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  Ella Emsheimer, Temperance

  

  Artist's statement

  Temperance: Self-control and restraint; Living in balance and moderation, taking only what one needs. Rejection of consumerism and impulsive consumption. Prioritizing what one recognizes as important, in order to engage meaningfully with the world.

  Temperance was created as part of viincarnate, a series of seven paintings which reinterpret the Seven Heavenly Virtues of Catholic tradition as embodied liberation practices.

  My initial attraction to the Virtues was based in their potential as a framework through which I could examine ways of living that support what Enrique Dussel refers to as a “praxis of liberation”. In Beyond Philosophy, Dussel defines “sin” as a system or action which results in oppression of the other. In this perspective, then “virtue” is by nature the actions which counteract them—the act of resisting oppression.

  While the Seven Heavenly Virtues evolved within the context of the Catholic Church, they have often been individualized and removed from social contexts. By distancing them from their traditionally religious interpretations and contextualizing them within contemporary socio-political specificities, I aim to disrupt institutional understandings of virtue which have been used to uphold the very colonial and heteropatriarchal systems of control that a praxis of liberation seeks to dismantle. This project explores the anti-oppression potential of the Seven Virtues within the context of modern-day British Columbia and seeks to honor everyday displays of virtue in a way that neither idolizes the individual nor renders them invisible but sees each person and their actions as an impactful part of a larger system of action.

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  Solange Adum Abdala, BlowUp on Hasenheiden Park #2

  

  Artist's statement

  I am an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and photographer. My relationship with conceptions of territory and history is influenced by the legacy of uprooting and mobility inherited from my family, which shapes my perception of belonging. With a tight bond to photography and landscape, I began my practice by photographing surfaces, now I dig into them.

  My research oscillates at the intersection of photography, history, and knowledge of nature, both from scientific and sensorial perspectives. I analyze how the system of the photographic apparatus and the technical image have been used by dominant narratives as tools of indoctrination. Through my images, I examine conceptions of space-time, landscape, and the Anthropocene. In my interdisciplinary installations, I combine photography, collage, video, sound, performance, visual archives, and digital tools, articulating the flat and the three- dimensional in space. My artistic practice is presented as a «de/re/construcción», where photography reveals and dismantles surfaces, and then reconfigures the components of the image. This gesture presents itself as an opportunity to question imposed representations of nature and landscape, in order to generate breaks in the narratives that seek to fix the visible and create space for validating multiple experiences.

  In BlowUp on Hasenheiden Park #2, I use a microscope to re-photograph a photo from my own recent archive, tracing silver halides and color couplers on medium format film to extend perception and reimagine the image from within. Both works operate through acts of fragmentation and recomposition, revealing how photography can be both an instrument of authority and a site for speculation.

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  Vanessa Mercedes Figueroa, InFlux 2

  

  Artist's statement

  InFlux refers to a sudden and substantial increase. That increase occurs digitally each time I lay down on top of my flatbed scanner and a new file emerges into my archive.  

  InFlux are a selected pair of scans of thousands, hand selected from the digital debris hidden within my pink laptop. These scanner-based images are works which exist as a by-product of durational gestures enacted alone in my studio, in active practice of tenderness with technology. 

  The body becomes fractured, smeared, multiplied. This fragmentation of the self offers me the opportunity to shapeshift and code switch, walking the fine line between visibility and invisibility, to fit in with clarity where necessary, or glitch backward into a blurry oblivion when I need to hide. The autonomy the scanner offers me to pursue multiplicity, bifurcation and illegibility offers modes of survival for my brown, queer, girl body.  

Artist biographies

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  Ann Siddall

  Ann Siddall is a Cree-Metis illustrator with a primary focus in children's literature. Her work often gravitates towards an earthy palette, as she uses soft textures and organic shapes to tell stories.

  Born and raised in Treaty no.8 territory, Ann currently works and resides on the unceded and traditional territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Waututh Nations in Vancouver, BC. Having graduated in the Spring of 2024 from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design, she holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration.

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  Antony Slynko

  My name is Antony Ulanov Slynko. I am an illustrator working as a concept, environment and storyboard artist in the film, animation, and video game industries.

  Creating with digital and traditional media, I focus on visual storytelling, atmosphere, and achieving maximum immersion into a fictional world, character, and story.  

  @Slynko_

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  Ayesha Beg

  Ayesha is an emerging visual artist based in what is traditionally known as Turtle Island. A settler on the traditional, unceded, ancestral, and occupied territories of the Hən̓ ̓q əmin̓ əm̓ and Sḵw ̱xwú7mesh sníchim speaking peoples. This includes the xwməθkwə ̓yəm (Musqueam), sə̓lil ̓w ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), kwikwə ̓ƛ əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt, Qʼwa:n̓ ƛʼən̓ (Kwantlen), ̓qícə̓ y (Katzie), SEMYOME (Semiahmoo), sc̓ əwaθən məsteyəxw (Tsawwassen), and Sḵw ̱xwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) peoples, respectively.  

  “My art-making process frequently involves a lot of struggles—both physically and conceptually—almost like a reflection of the invisible labour of day-to-day micro-negotiations, mental gymnastics, and anxieties.” 

  Beg’s practice thus far has been formulated through a composite of materials and practices — from illustrations on paper, scanned, and reworked digitally, collaged with photographed images, text that are layered, to sculptural installation works that use everyday materials like nylon fabric from pantyhose, chicken wire and plaster cloth. Inspired by contemporary ideas of identity, home, and belonging, the artist leans into the struggle of negotiation as they try to challenge the body through their work: the body of the material as well as their own body, both physically and mentally. Their practice draws from narratives such as “both/and” that are present in forms of psychotherapy to investigate the entanglements of intersecting identities and paradoxes within those experiences.  

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  Bethany Pardoe 

  Bethany Pardoe is a traditional illustrator and writer with a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. From picture books to graphic novels, Pardoe writes and illustrates fantastical stories inspired by growing up as an odd duck. Imbued with elements of nature and personal folklore, her art and narratives are for people who feel things deeply. She is currently situated on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations. 

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  Cat Hart

  Originally from the UK, for the last 2  decades Cat has been living on the unceded and stolen homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilw̓ ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations in Vancouver.

  Influenced by decolonial and queer ecologies, Cat’s interest in materiality and place has provoked a focus on more sustainable, accountable, and site-responsive approaches to making. Cat explores themes of good land relations, ecological balance, and colonial ideologies through an engagement with local history, and seeks to develop an art practice that challenges extractive, non-relational orientations to land.

  Cat holds a Masters in Communications from Simon Fraser University, and a diploma in Fine Arts from Langara College. 

  @cathartart

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  Eden Veaudry

  Eden Veaudry is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work spans drawing, painting, textiles, sculpture, and video.

  She lives in Vancouver.

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  Ella Emsheimer

  Ella Emsheimer is a painter and illustrator living and working on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ nations.

  She is plagued by an insatiable desire for knowledge and an inability to keep quiet about matters of justice, which inform her illustration practice. She tells stories through symbolism, packaged into surreal compositions that play with scale and challenge socio-political narratives. Through her work, Ella aims to open critical dialogues about religion, culture, and ways of living.

  Ella holds a BFA in Illustration from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and is currently working on her first graphic novel.
   

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  Emily De Boer

  Emily De Boer is an artist, athlete, and activist. Mastering in Fine Arts, competing on the Canadian Women’s Para Ice Hockey team and volunteering within her community.

  Devoted to inclusion, equitable care, and the building of accessible spaces, whether physical or experiential, she teaches those around her how to better build communities everyone can access and grow within.

  Devoted to her community, she invests her time dismantling barriers and reimagining the spaces that have historically been inaccessible for certain bodies.

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  Francisco Berlanga

  Francisco Berlanga is a Vancouver based textile artist whose practice reflects on his relationship to his Mexican identity as a second-generation immigrant through the lens of Craft.

  He attempts to understand how one can inhabit a culture while being partially absent from it. He engages in discourse with his own identity through the creation of traditional Mexican “manualidades” or crafts. Histories of repetition often produce apparitions of motifs that haunt his works.

  His previous exhibitions include a solo show at Grunt Gallery and group shows at the Morris and Helen Belkin gallery, the AHVA gallery, This gallery, and the Audain gallery.

  Berlanga obtained his BFA at Simon Fraser University and his MFA at the University of British Columbia.

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  Jazmin Erice

  Jazmin Erice is a Manila-born artist now based in Vancouver. She is in continual examination of the foundation of her belief systems that form her identity.

  Erice works with various mediums, including sculptures, installations, and paintings. She frequently repurposes materials to explore the possibilities of abstraction and re-imagination. Her work raises the question: What does it mean to deconstruct material to its purest form?

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  Jen McGowan

  Jen McGowan is an artist, educator, and caregiver living in the unceded Coast Salish territory currently known as Vancouver, Canada.

  She holds a BFA from Concordia University and is a recent graduate of the MFA program at Emily Carr University. She has a Secondary Art BEd from UBC and has taught animation, film, and art at a public secondary school for over 15 years.

  In her interdisciplinary practice, she allows each project to determine the choice of medium and often repurposes the discarded material detritus of caregiving. Her work navigates lived maternal experience and the socio-political systems that weigh upon it.        

  @jenmcgowanart

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  Jesse Ross

  Jesse Ross lives and works in so-called Vancouver, on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səlí̓lwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh), and xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples. He is of predominantly settler heritage (English and Scottish) and also holds ancestry as a member of the Stó:lō Nation with the Skwah band.

  His artistic practice focuses on material choices that emphasize light and challenge visual conventions. He employs the unresolved image as a means of transformation, creating works that invite viewers to engage with the process of seeing in new ways.

  Jesse Ross is a recipient of a SSHRC Graduate Scholarship and the Fred Herzog Award in Visual Art. He is a recent 2024 graduate of the MFA program at the University of British Columbia.

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  Joni Cheung

  Snack Witch Joni Cheung is a grateful, uninvited guest born—and knows she wants to die—on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Stó:lō, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh peoples.

  They are a Certified Sculpture Witch with an MFA from Concordia University (2023). She holds a BFA with Distinction in Visual Art (2018) from the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University.

  As a wicked #magicalgirl who eats art and makes snacks, she has exhibited and curated shows, off- and online, across Turtle Island and beyond. Currently, they are based on the stolen lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka peoples, working as a part-time lecturer in the Department of Design and Computation Arts at Concordia University. 

  They are a recipient of numerous awards, including the Individual Arts Grants—Visual Artists: British Columbia Arts Council; Research and Creation Grant: Canada Council for the Arts; and the Dale and Nick Tedeschi Studio Arts Fellowship: Concordia University. She was waitlisted for the SSHRC - Joseph-Armand Bombardier: Canada Graduate Master’s Scholarship. 

  Aside from art-making, Joni likes wandering down grocery store aisles and drinking bubble tea.

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  Kai Liu 

  Kai Liu is a Chinese-Canadian artist based in Vancouver, BC, known for his expressive portrayals of landscapes. Utilizing painting, printmaking, and mixed media, Liu explores the interplay between observed nature and imaginative imagery.

  Born and raised in China, he honed his artistic skills through extensive training in drawing and painting while studying traditional Chinese art. His work often integrates the aesthetic philosophy of Chinese painting and calligraphy, creating a unique blend of cultural influences that define his contemporary art practice.

  Liu's artistic journey led him to Canada, where he initially worked as a graphic designer in Ontario. Eventually, he found his artistic home in Vancouver, BC, where he pursued printmaking at Langara College. He furthered his education with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from Emily Carr University. His work has been exhibited across Canada, showcasing his distinctive artistic perspective and diverse disciplines.

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  Lauraine Mak 

  Lauraine Mak is an artist based in Düsseldorf, Germany and Vancouver, Canada.

  Her practice investigates philosophy and political theory, both culminating in painting, sculpture, and moving image with an interest in visual cultures produced by late capitalism. Her work often explores the concept of repetition and simultaneous and paradoxical sentiments. She is interested in the exchange of dialogue in the realm of institutional critique as well as the role of the artist as producer in relation to contemporary modes of systemic manufacturing and mass production.

  In 2013, she graduated with a Bachelors in Fine Arts at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and in 2019, she joined the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf as a guest student. She completed her MFA at the Simon Fraser School for the Contemporary Arts in 2024.

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  Maggie Wong

  Maggie Wong is a visual artist based in Vancouver, BC. 

  Her work often investigates themes of identity, power dynamics, and representation as well as their intersections with queer subjecthood and feminism through a critical theoretical lens, and more recently, through exploring concepts of faith, religious structures, and fandom culture. As a self-proclaimed aspiring femme fatale, she has an ongoing infatuation in fetishism, eroticism, and self-portraiture that consistently informs her work -- she also has a flair for the dramatic.

  She received her BFA Honours in Visual Arts from the University of British Columbia. Her work has been exhibited both locally and internationally.

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  Makena Imthorn

  Makena Imthorn (she/her) graduated from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2024, with a BFA in Visual Arta and a minor in Curatorial Practices.

  She practices in various mediums, including printmaking, painting, illustration, and ceramics, but is passionate about art in all forms, with her pieces often examining nuance within the human condition and individual experience.

  Raised in the Okanagan, she now considers Vancouver home, as her practice continues to develop and evolve in her current location. This is the first time her art is being presented to the public after Emily Carr’s The Show in 2024,

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  Maya Patrich

  Maya Patrich is an Argentinian-Canadian illustrator and animator based in Vancouver, BC. They hold a Bachelor of Media Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, specializing in 2D and experimental animation.

  Drawing on their Latin American heritage and a love for storytelling, Maya’s work combines organic, traditional materials with digital illustration and vibrant colour palettes. Their art captures the surreal and playful aspects of everyday life while reflecting the unease and absurdity of our current times.

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  Nevada Lynn

  Nevada Lynn is an interdisciplinary artist living on the unceded ancestral territories of the Skwxwú7mesh, Xʷməθkʷə ̓yəm, Tsleil-Waututh, and Stó:lō nations.

  Nevada has mixed European and Michif ancestry with historic ties to the Tourond, Courchêne, Beauchamp, and Ladéroute families. She is grateful to have spent her formative years in a cabin in the Yukon and on her grandparent’s northern Alberta homestead.

  Nevada is a citizen of the Métis Nation of British Columbia and a member of the Sea to Sky Métis Association. She is the recipient of the 2024 Lieutenant Governor Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts for her work in reconciliation, democracy, and inclusion, and the 2025 Fred Herzog Visual Arts Award for community service.

  She has a BFA in Visual Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of British Columbia.

  @nevadacreates

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  Noor Ghazal (نور غزال)

  Noor Ghazal (نور غزال) is a Lebanese-Canadian interdisciplinary artist who works primarily with textiles, cyanotype printmaking, and video art.

  Noor’s work explores Arabfuturism and the diasporic experience through modes of divination, soothsaying, and fortune-telling practices, and the retrieving and revival of stories and histories as methods of deciphering and speculating about pasts, presents, and futures.

  She explores how these practices can provide a sense of agency in self-definition and plays with the tensions between control and inertia that are embedded in Arabfuturism.

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  Reggie Harrold

  Reggie Harrold is a contemporary Indigenous artist from the Fort Nelson First Nation in Northern British Columbia, currently based in Vancouver, BC. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia – Okanagan, a diploma in Fashion Design from the John Casablancas Institute, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia, earned in 2023.

  Reggie’s artistic practice primarily explores the interplay of materiality through textiles, photography, fashion design, and craft. Grounded in her Indigenous heritage, she investigates the personal, historical, and material dimensions of textiles, infusing her work with layers of meaning that reflect her identity and cultural background.

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  Skye Tao

  Skye Tao is an emerging multidisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, with a focus on photography. Her work often utilizes staged photography and post-production techniques to create dynamic, narrative-driven images.

  Tao’s artistic vision blends photographic theory with illustrative composition, resulting in surrealistic visuals that challenge the viewer's perception. This distinctive approach offers athought-provoking exploration of culture and humanity through the lens.

  Tao earned a BFA in Photography from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2023), she has honed her skills across various artistic domains, including Vancouver’s fashion industry, events, and exhibitions.

  Her work has gained recognition through showcases and awards: she was selected for the City of Vancouver Public Art Program’s Launch Pad (2025), received an Honorable Mention for the Chick Rice Award for Excellence in Photography (2023), and won the Booooooom Photo Award in the “Things” category (2022). Additionally, she was shortlisted for the Booooooom x Capture Photography Festival Public Art in both 2023 and 2024. Skye’s work has been featured in publications and platforms like BROAD

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  Solange Adum Abdala

  Solange Adum Abdala (b. 1980, Peru). Of Palestinian and Lebanese descent, she is based in Vancouver, on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations, since 2023.

  She recently completed the MFA in Visual Arts at the University of British Columbia. She holds two undergraduate degrees, a BFA in Visual Project Direction and Photography, and a three-year Technical Diploma in Photography, both from Centro de la Imagen (Lima, Peru). Solange has had five solo shows, primarily in academic spaces, cultural centres and independent galleries. Also, her work has been exhibited collectively in group shows and festivals in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

  Among some relevant distinctions, in 2011 Adum Abdala received First Place at the ICPNA Photography Salon, and more recently, her work has been featured in Collage: Women of the Prix Pictet since 2008 (2023). In 2024, she was awarded the Affiliated Fellowships Master’s Program Award for academic excellence in research for international students at UBC. She was selected in 2025 for the Launch Pad project organized by the Public Art Program in Vancouver for recent graduates of arts and design programs.

  Alongside her artistic practice, Solange has teaching experience in undergraduate and continuing education programs in Photography and Visual Arts. She has been constantly involved in non-profit community-based cultural and curatorial projects. In 2020, she co-founded Galería Pública, an independent self-run virtual platform dedicated to promoting contemporary photo-based arts production in Peru.

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  Tiffany Law

  Tiffany Law is a Hong Kong visual artist living and working on the unceded and ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷə ̓yəm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations. Her practice explores drawing and printmaking as conceptual and material tools for creating personal archives that reflect loss and existence. She focuses on how grief resists standardised temporal structures, embracing the inherent fragility of being and challenging finality through cyclical, reciprocal processes. Tiffany is drawn to the entangled realities and kinships between humans, non-humans, the land, and the body. Through mark-making, she externalises the self and engages with time woven by labour, pain, and gesture.

  Her recent exhibitions include solo exhibitions back of a drawer at Access Gallery (2025), Vancouver, and sedimented sentiments at WURE area (2024), Hong Kong. Group exhibitions include Aqueous Nerve: UBC MFA Graduate Exhibition 2024 at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and Solitarium at AHVA Gallery, UBC, Vancouver. Tiffany is a recent MFA graduate from the University of British Columbia and was the recipient of the Audain Travel Award in 2023 and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council Project Grant for Emerging Artist in 2021. 

  @midnightdrawer_

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  Vanessa Mercedes Figueroa

  Based in Vancouver, Canada, Vanessa Mercedes Figueroa’s practice delves into an exploration of labour, especially that undergone by feminized bodies, and is evaluated through her lens as a racialized woman and working-class individual. Navigating labour, she works through photography, scanography, collage, sculpture, installation and performance. Figueroa works to reflect on the multiplicity of her identity and troubling normative expectations of legibility and knowing under hetero-white capitalist patriarchy.

  A graduate of Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and a Master of Fine Arts graduate of the University of British Columbia, Figueroa has exhibited and presented her work across Canada.

Past projects

Series 1 

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  Reggie Harrold, Intuition

  

  Artist's statement

  This design originated from a painting I created in 2018. While unfolding a long-neglected canvas, I discovered intricate, beautiful creases that sparked my creativity. Intuitively, I began to paint these lines in green, developing an interesting design around them that resonates with my Indigenous roots. This pattern has been a significant part of my artistic journey for many years.

  In 2020, I incorporated this design into a small fashion collection at the John Casablancas Institute, and I am excited to revisit it now as I expand into a new collection, which I hope to unveil soon. This design feels like a constant companion in my work, deeply connected to my identity, and I anticipate it will remain a part of my artistic expression for years to come.

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  Lauraine Mak, Wave of Gummy Bears

  

  Artist's statement

  Conceived in Germany while studying Gustave Courbet’s series of Wave paintings, this work depicts the iconic Haribo gummy bear synonymous with German sweets tumbling through a turbulent wave.

  The image was born as a satirical nod to classical painting in a contemporary context; each gummy bear thrashes in the water ignoring formal perspective and logical depth, competing against each other to claim the forefront of the picture plane. The wave of green gummy bears swell as they culminate in the upper centre of the painting, conveying a sweeping dramatized formation of gummy bears against a stylized backdrop which references Courbet’s realist seascape paintings.

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  Eden Veaudry, Lunar Pool

  

  Artist's statement

  With Lunar Pool, I wanted to capture the sensation of moving through watery liminal spaces. Watercolour painting naturally conveys this, with its transference of movement from hand to paper through pigmented water. The process is mysterious, with unexpected results. The combination of pigment, water, and movement produce oneiric landscapes for the mind to wander through.

  In this instance, I specifically wanted to recall a memory of swimming in the water off Jericho Beach at sunset. The diminishing rays of sunlight mixed with the sky, turning the water pink and blue. There was little distinction between water and air. My body dissolved in liquid colour and I felt a sense of belonging to something bigger and more universal, a sensation I strive to duplicate in my work.

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  Jesse Ross, Common Nitrogenous Waste (Detail 1)

  

  Artist's statement

  This piece was created over several weeks using a unique dyeing and painting technique involving ammonia and acrylic paint.

  By leaving the imagery unresolved, my paintings invite viewers to actively participate in exploring the latent forms and shapes throughout. This approach encourages the audience to engage their own visual memory, ensuring a unique experience for each viewer.

  I believe these moments of focus, reflection, and interruption offer opportunities to re-evaluate our relationship to form, painting, and ourselves in relation to the work and the surrounding space.

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  Kai Liu, Coastal Hills Overture 

  

  Artist's statement

  Coastal Hills Overture, a painting that developed after my MFA studies at Emily Carr University, contributed to my solo exhibition, Coastal Reverie.

  This piece furthers my exploration of landscapes and nature, merging intuitive expression with the fantastical elements I observe in my surroundings. It continues the emotional connection with the theme of nature from my MFA studies, emphasizing the dynamic relationship between nature and human perception.

  This painting underscores my dedication to creating art that fosters a deeper understanding of our environment. As an artist and a guest of this land, it is my way of appreciating the beauty and complexity of nature and the space it provides us for living.

Series 2

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  Joni Cheung, Paint Swatches for a Home (5 of 10)

  

  Artist's statement

  Connected by the Pacific Ocean, Vancouver and Hong Kong are both fluid gathering places. These 2 port cities have long been intertwined. On May 1,1983, the Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific landed at Vancouver’s YVR International Airport for the first time. The migration of not only people and objects, but sounds, smells, textures, tastes, temperatures, and languages have flourished through dedicated flight paths back-and-forth.

  Paint Swatches for a Home seeped out of a family emergency that led me back to Hong Kong after being unable to return since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. Reflecting on the paint swatch-walls found in home renovation shops—transient locations for dreaming and imagining one’s future home—these colour fragments were sampled from personal photographs taken during an emotionally tumultuous time of frustration, joy, and melancholy.

  Originally created as a digital response to an invitation for the 50^th anniversary of the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC).

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  Maya Patrich, Summer Loving

  

  Artist's statement

  Summer Loving explores summer's duality as both a time of empowerment and ecological reckoning. Inspired by the cultural phenomenon of "Hot Girl Summer," this work contrasts vibrant, scorching hues with cool-toned figures grappling with heat. These colours evoke the joy and energy of summer while also highlighting the struggle for relief under an increasingly harsh climate. 

  Through this piece, I wanted to reflect on the resilience and confidence of the human spirit while inviting contemplation of our environment’s fragility. By balancing whimsy with more ominous undertones, Summer Loving captures summer’s beauty and complexity and our shared experience within it.

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  Noor Ghazal (نور غزال), Samaka

  

  Artist's statement

  Samaka belongs to a series of cyanotype prints I made while researching the significance of fish as symbols, particularly within the MENA/SWANA (Middle East/SouthWest Asian & North African) region. They can represent eternal life, be considered messengers or travellers, and can act as protectors from evil spirits. I work with cyanotype for its akin to apparitions and its rich blue colour that is reminiscent of the same blue found across the region.

  The fish has become a significant symbol for me as well, reminding me of my coastal upbringing on the Atlantic in Nova Scotia, and my current coastal home on the Pacific in British Columbia, as well as an ode to the Arabic phrase I often grew up hearing from my mother that translates to “I love you as much as the sea and all of the fish in it". 

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  Francisco Berlanga, Telar

  

  Artist's statement

  Attempting to learn weaving practices that replicate the textiles Berlanga is most familiar with hopefully lead to understandings of his own tangled histories such as in the work Telar (2023).

  His work makes connections between traditional Mexican aesthetics and contemporary visual language. His practice engages with concepts of inaccessibility and the role memory and language can play when some one is distanced from their own culture. He attempts to bridge the gaps between his personal and cultural identities by forcing connections between them and trying to understand the limitations that these identities impose upon each other.

  In this work Berlanga inhabits a naive weaving practice, the cloth is a first pass at attempting to recreate the familiar. In its inexactness, in its failures new familiars are created that continue to inform Berlanga's identity.

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  Emily De Boer, Of Course You Can, but You Gotta Go Around the Massive Obstacle to Get There

  

  Artist's statement

  I make work that responds, to place, to chance, to my body’s vulnerability. I am a physically disabled worldbuilder.

  Existing in a body that is often not considered within the urban landscape, I grapple discriminatory architecture daily. Social attitudes and the materiality of the world contribute to the misfitting of bodies; in using photographic evidence of these structures and barriers to collage new places, my work highlights architectural barriers and rethinks the nature of what it means to fit or misfit in our own communities.

  By dismantling the structures themselves through college I point out the absurdity of attempting to conform to the societal structures that don't suit our needs. By cutting up and manipulating the barriers I encounter, these fragments are reconstructed to create a place that defies the conventions of hostile architecture.

Series 3

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  Ann Siddall, Mahihkan

  

  Mahihkan, is a small piece nestled within a series of illustrations entitled “Cree Animals”. Having spent the majority of my teen years suppressing my Indigeneity in order to “fit in”, I now, as an adult, feel this sense of responsibility toward my younger self. To show and prove to her that as an Indigenous person, there is no such thing as being “too native” or “less native” than those around her.

  In this illustration entitled Mahihkan, we see a wolf depicted atop a steep hill, standing strong and proud. The series in which it stands within features a wide variety of woodland creatures, each translated into Cree syllabics. With the initial purpose of making my younger self proud, this project was created with the intention to assist and perhaps encourage others in reconnecting with the language.

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  Jazmin Erice, Onsensenay epeatedray epeatedlyray

  

  Onsensenay epeatedray epeatedlyray abandons traditional script, transforming letters into form. It reflects my evolving relationship with language - how it shapes my presence in spaces where articulation feels inadequate. Through the lens of colonization, Tagalog, my native tongue, retains echoes of the colonizer, claiming liberation yet carrying their speech, while theirs will never carry mine.

  This work reimagines text beyond communication, inviting reflection on cultural identity, linguistic colonization, and the layered complexities of self-expression. 

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  Makena Imthorn, Fireweed

  

  Fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium) is a plant native throughout the province of British Columbia. It is recognized for its resilience, often appearing after significant ecological disruption, whether natural or manmade. Named for its abilities to prosper in the aftermath of wildfires, Fireweed is notable for appearing in areas of excessive mining and otherwise exploited areas. In these disturbed environments, it is evidence of natural healing. We often neglect indigenous flora and its importance goes unnoticed, while our apparent need for environmental remediation remains. Restoration of our landscape is an ongoing process, but reincorporating sustainable plants into our attempts ensures a more sustainable fate.

  Through this piece, Fireweed (2024), I wish to represent its miraculous abilities to rehabilitate our environment and focus on its continuous, beneficial impact within our local ecosystems.

  As the artist, I also feel responsible for acknowledging that this piece was conceptualised and created on the land of the unceded, ancestral, and traditional Indigenous nations of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

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  Maggie Wong, Untitled Shrine (Neutrality)

  

  Untitled Shrine (Neutrality) is, essentially, a digital shrine. It is a 3-dimensional model of a space that resembles an altar, though the place for the subject is left empty, leaving the viewer's projections to be elevated to sainthood.

  Incorporating text taken directly from the Song of Songs, an erotic poem that is unique to the Hebrew Bible and is understood to be an allegory for the love between Christ and the Church - the work questions and blur the lines between religious idolatry and obsession, between divine love and lust, between our identities and our politics, between the virtual and the physical, between the spiritual and the mathematical.

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  Skye Tao, Lotus Roots

  

  "The Eight Immortals" is a still-life photography series celebrating Suzhou, China, through eight seasonal water vegetables. In 2023, I returned to China to explore their cultural and ecological significance, inspired by the limited varieties seen in North American markets. The series features lotus roots, water caltrops, Euryale ferox seeds, and others—transformed into sculptural compositions inspired by a Jiangnan folktale. In the legend, the Daoist Eight Immortals gifted these plants to the people as both food and medicine, symbolizing purity, wellness, and harmony with water.

  Beyond their culinary use, these vegetables carry deep cultural meaning and reflect generations of cultivation. This project honors the labor-intensive practices that sustain Suzhou, bridging past and present to highlight nature’s abundance and enduring traditions. Lotus Roots, a piece that anchors the series with its rhythmic form and symbolic weight. Revered for its layered structure, it embodies memory, continuity, and inherited wisdom. Through this work, I hope to honor Suzhou’s agricultural heritage and the legacy of these ingredients.

Series 4

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  Antony Slynko, Great Distances

  

  Artist's statement

  Great Distances is one part of a several-foot-long mural I drafted during my later years while studying at Emily Carr University of Art and  Design.

  The original mural was a reflection of warm and nostalgic feelings about my hometown, the people I used to know, my grandparents' home on the edge of town, and the great distances beyond. Leaving the familiar is a difficult process. Although with time people assimilate to their new environment, it is easy to give in to nostalgia, which suddenly makes every memory sweet, the smallest of details that you always took for granted. I made this piece for myself and my friends. 

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  Nevada Lynn, Listen to the Birds: Raising Awareness for MMIWGT2S

  

  Artist's statement

  I recently ordered Reclaiming Power and Place, the final report of the National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

  I wanted to review the report in order to better understand what the calls to action are, so that I can weave them into my graduate studies at UBC in the fall.

  The report is lengthy and in order to prepare myself for the task I pulled a Métis wisdom card from a deck called Seeds From The Sacred Feminine created by beloved Métis artists, Andrea Menard and Leah Dorian. The card titled, Listen to the Song of the Birds reads, “Listen, Grandchild. You are being sung to. Can you hear them? Turn off your distractions and take a moment to listen to the natural world. Your ears have been blessed with the ability to receive beautiful messages for you…Did you know that birdsong heals you?…Watch for them. Listen to them…The birds are your Relations and they love you. Honour them with your attention.” 

  This is the Métis wisdom that inspired my image. The golden eagle, raven, and chickadees remind us that our Indigenous sisters, Two-Spirit and trans family members need our care and protection. Looking over them is a strawberry grandmother moon. The image includes four sacred medicines: tobacco, sage, sweetgrass, and cedar. Four butterflies represent family members who have been disappeared and are in transition. The number 4 is repeated in the image to represent the 4 cycles of life, 4 seasons, and the 4 directions. 

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  Cat Hart, Progress

  

  Artist's statement

  Influenced by decolonial and queer ecologies, my interest in materiality and place has engendered a focus on more sustainable, accountable, and site-responsive approaches to making, including alternative photography, wild or locally based ceramics, and low-resolution small-file digital media.

  This hands-on, laborious approach is an opportunity to slow down, explore the ways that the origins of materials evoke meaning, and to celebrate the unexpected results of site-specific materials.

  As I explore themes of good land relations, ecological balance, and colonial ideologies through an engagement with local history, I seek to develop an art praxis that challenges the ways that capitalism encourages an extractive, non-relational orientation to land. 

  The image recorded on the leaf shows passengers in 1908 boarding the Lulu Island-Eburne Interurban tram at False Creek. Original photograph courtesy of City of Vancouver Archives, Reference Code AM54-S4-: Out P680.

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  Jen McGowan, Neverending Bagel

  

  Artist's statement

  The work I make begins with the autobiographical and considers how my lived experience intersects with the broader societal forces acting upon motherhood.

  Neverending Bagel is a still capture of the frames of an animated loop. It is part of my graduate project, Invisible Labour Loops.

  For this body of work, the loop represents the never-ending domestic tasks that keep a family maintained. The digitally drawn line abstracts my hands, transforming them into a symbol representing anyone who mothers.

  The form of the project reflects its content; the never-ending loop symbolizes the ongoing demands on a caregiver's time and energy, as well as the historical and persistent undervaluing of domestic and care labour.

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  Tiffany Law, Sheetrock

  

  Artist's statement

  Surrounded by walls and drawing directly onto them with graphite, I became attuned to the supposed stillness and artificiality of architectural surfaces.

  Sheetrock emerged from this inquiry—a work that peels back the skin of a finished wall composed of 2 drywall sheets, exposing the geological time compressed within its surface. Beneath the smooth, paper-wrapped exterior lies gypsum: a white mineral earth formed through the evaporation of water in ancient, mineral-rich marine environments that once carried skeletal remains and decomposing matter.

  Each carve into the wall ruptures its paper membrane, wounding the strata of drywall mudding and layers of sanding beneath, slowly revealing a hidden materiality: layers of sediment, minerals, and pigments mined and extracted from the earth’s crust.

  The laborious process of undoing the surfaces recalls the often-forgotten kinship between body and land—the notion that we internalise our environment, just as the minerals in our flesh and bones will one day return to dust and form rock fragments.

  Through its voids and fractures, Sheetrock traces a poetic, non-linear journey of becoming. It reflects on the transitory nature of form and presence, gesturing toward the porous boundaries between human, material, and geological time.