HALCYON FOG
Kelly Richardson
Central Gallery
January 22 to April 2, 2022
Curated by Charo Neville
Using digital technologies, Kelly Richardson creates hyper-real, sublime, and spectacular landscapes that communicate underlying unsettling narratives. Richardson is a Canadian artist based in Victoria, BC, where she is a Professor in Visual Arts at the University of Victoria. From 2003 to 2017, she lived in North East England, where she was a Lecturer in Fine Arts at Newcastle University. Widely recognized internationally, Richardson has exhibited her work less frequently in Canada. This solo exhibition presents a view into Richardson’s longstanding exploration of our relationship to nature and how this relates to climate change.
MARKS IN PROGRESS
Christine Savage // Nathan Skyers // Clement Yeh
The Cube
January 15 to April 16, 2022
Curated by Craig Willms
Drawing is often understood as the preparation for a final work, not a fully realized practice, but over the past 50 years, as contemporary artists continue to explore its possibilities, drawing has been elevated from a supporting role to a primary medium alongside other art forms.
With this theme as the premise, Marks in Progress features work by three Kamloops-based artists who have divergent approaches to drawing. Applying techniques that range from traditional pencil on paper to digital rendering, much of the finished work emerges through preparatory sketches and experimental processes, where a physical artwork is not fully realized until the final stage. The act of drawing is evident in the final work; each artist emphasizes the gesture of lines and marks to capture memory and movement and to infer a narrative or ideas that do not exist exactly as they are drawn.
IDENTITY
Emily Boone // Maddy Chalmers-Owega // Hunter Cook // Eva Dickinson // Kora Ellison // Rowan Jensen // Charlie Lively-Love // Keighan MacNeill // Kira Makela
Open Gallery
November 4 to December 31, 2021
Throughout the months of July and August, ten artists aged 14 to 21 worked with lead artist and facilitator Chris Bose towards the development of a studio program for youth and the creation of their own art work. Themes of self-expression, materiality, and surface design emerged as key areas of interest and exploration, and this exhibition is the culmination of their independent and collaborative efforts to investigate how to express their own identity through art.
INJUSTICE AND IDENTITY
Jana Sasaki
The Cube
October 2 to December 31, 2021
Curated by Craig Willms, Assistant Curator
Injustice and Identity features work by Jana Sasaki, an artist originally from Merritt, BC, and now based in Vancouver, BC. The exhibition includes early photo and text-based works from the Kamloops Art Gallery’s collection that address the history of Japanese internment and the complexities of her family’s mixed-race or Hapa identity.
WHOSE STORIES?
Diyan Achjadi // Naoko Fukumaru // Tomoyo Ihaya // Load na Dito // Mark Salvatus // UJINO
Central Gallery
October 2 to December 31, 2021
Curated by Makiko Hara
Reflecting on the experiences and narratives of "others," Whose Stories? shares the work of six artists of Asian descent. Through video installation, photography, animation, print media, drawing, collage, and restored ceramic works, artists Diyan Achjadi, Load na Dito, Naoko Fukumaru, Tomoyo Ihaya, Mark Salvatus, and UJINO convey personal histories told within a community of artists and woven across generations.
ART IN ISOLATION
Open Gallery
August 23 to September 18, 2021
Curated by Nathan O’Connor and Monique Reiswig
Art in Isolation was a program inspired by how art, while often created in isolation, is a powerful medium that can connect people across time and space. Over the past 18 months, many folks have had to adapt to working in isolation and discover new ways of staying connected within our communities. Throughout the summer, we invited artists of all ages to participate in the creation of a collaborative mural and share their stories with us, answering the question: “How has art given you strength this past year?”
HOLDING A LINE IN YOUR HAND
Azadeh Elmizadeh // Colleen Heslin // Russna Kaur // Lyse Lemieux // Rajni Perera
Central Gallery
July 17 to September 18, 2021
Curated by Charo Neville
Holding a line in your hand presents the work of five Canadian women painters from different cultural backgrounds, at different stages in their careers, and based at opposite ends of the country. Their work contains divergent methodologies, but also strong affinities. The exhibition includes artwork abundant in colour, line, and texture, embedded with and unencumbered by ideas. The focus on a small group of female painters offers a renewed perspective on an historically male-dominated domain and reflects today’s growing number of female artists working in the medium. Exploring and expropriating the idea of the painting in a myriad of ways, these artists share an expanded approach to painting. Holding a line in your hand speaks to a resurgence of painting in Canada and an active dialogue around historical precedents and contemporary approaches.
CEL-CELA BASKET PATTERN
Chris Bose
Open Gallery
July 17 to August 21, 2021
This huckleberry basket pattern is based on one from my great granny from way back and is part of a collection of baskets we used for ages and were passed down in the family from granny to daughters and sons. Baskets were incredibly strong and woven from red cedar root and red willow as well as indian hemp and other fibrous plants to create the intricate patterns and colours that told stories and family history. Each matriarch had their own patterns and each family as well, just like our songs and names, it was regional and the nlaka’pamux territory was mountainous and held a lot of stories and important history.
HOW HAVE YOU BEEN?
Amy Modahl
The Cube
June 26 to September 25, 2021
Curated by Craig Willms, Assistant Curator
Amy Modahl interweaves explorations of the vocabulary of space, visual-translation, and human and material gesture into her visual language. In her recent project developed for The Cube, Modahl worked with the Kamloops Art Gallery to circulate a call for letters in response to the question “How have you been?” She invited contributors to consider the changes and challenges of the past year and to share their experiences and thoughts. With the limitations of social interaction during the pandemic, our ways of interacting have been greatly altered. Physical interactions and movement in public spaces has to be consciously navigated, often adding stress to previously low-stress outings. Limited travel to see friends and family and the need to avoid comforting physical interactions and in person conversations has further contributed to our stress and general well-being.
STOP ASIAN HATE
Open Gallery
May 19 to July 3, 2021
Curated by Craig Willms, Assistant Curator
In response to the recent rise in anti-Asian racism the Kamloops Art Gallery is using the Open Gallery as a space to create awareness and generate dialogue. People of Asian descent are the largest racialized community in Canada. The Canadian government has a long history of anti-Asian policies, including the Chinese Head tax, the Chinese Immigration Act, the Komagata Maru incident, and Japanese Internment. The past year has seen an alarming rise in Anti-Asian racism in Canada, most noticeably in British Columbia.
SOUNDINGS: AN EXHIBITION IN FIVE PARTS
Tania Willard // Peter Morin // Maggie Groat // Olivia Whetung // Ogimaa Mikana // Garry Gottfriedson // Greg Staats // Tanya Lukin Linklater // Camille Georgeson-Usher // Heidi Aklaseaq Senungetuk // Aaron Leon // Sebastian De Line // Diamond Point and Jordan Point // Kite // Raven Chacon and Cristóbal Martínez
Central Gallery
April 29 to July 3, 2021
Curated by Candice Hopkins and Dylan Robinson
How can a score be a call and tool for decolonization?Curated by Candice Hopkins and Dylan Robinson, Soundings: An Exhibition in Five Parts features newly commissioned scores, performances, videos, sculptures, and sound by Indigenous and other artists who respond to this question. Unfolding in a sequence of five parts, the scores take the form of beadwork, videos, objects, graphic notation, historical belongings, and written instructions. During the exhibition, these scores are activated at specific moments by musicians, dancers, performers, and members of the public gradually filling the Gallery and surrounding public spaces with sound and action.
THE SENSE ECONOMY
The Laboratory of Spatial Bemusement
The Cube
April 10 to June 19, 2021
Curated by Craig Willms, Assistant Curator
Through their collaborative practice, The Laboratory of Spatial Bemusement, Megan Dyck and Tia Halliday have focused on presenting a series of kinetic sculptures and dance-based performances that incorporate design and accoutrement reminiscent of 18th-century French furniture and textiles. The Sense Economy invites viewers to engage in a tactile and movement-based consideration of luxury and hybridized domestic objects while being encouraged to think about our own relationship to these objects.
OMNIUM GATHERUM | A COLLECTION OF MISCELLANEOUS THINGS
Kelsey Blokland // Ashya Cross // Sophia Dodic // Marisa Drayton // Tenessa Gagnon // Sara Hall // Kalene Michalovsky // Sue Miller // Christyn Rebmann // Lyn Richards // Carol Schlosar // Elizabeth Spike // Emily Wood
The Cube
January 30 to April 3, 2021
Curated by Craig Willms, Assitant Curator
This exhibition celebrates the work of the Thompson Rivers University Bachelor of Fine Arts 2020 graduating class. The COVID-19 global pandemic has disrupted many events, including how students participate in university classes, resulting in the shut down of many public and private spaces, including the University.
A MARKER TO MEASURE DRIFT
Scott Massey
Central Gallery
January 22 to April 3, 2021
Curated by Charo Neville
Canadian artist Scott Massey (b.1971) explores the confluence of art and science through multi-media projects that accentuate natural phenomena by fabricated means. Drawing on research into quantum physics, cosmology, astronomy, and other scientific disciplines, Massey’s practice examines cosmological subjects as a way of understanding our place in this greater context.