Launch Pad

Current projects

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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.

Artist biographies

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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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  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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  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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  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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  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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  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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  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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  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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  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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  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.

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.