Celestial Bodies: expanding sexuality and gender
Group exhibition by Cassils, Adrien Crossman, Dayna Danger, Rah Eleh, Brandon Hoax, Zachari Logan, Vivek ShrayaCurated by Genevieve Flavelle and Jenelle Pasiechnik
September 2 to November 11, 2023Celestial Bodies is a group exhibition that examines expanding forms of gender and sexuality through the lens of contemporary Canadian 2SLGBTQ+ artists working across different media.
A CELESTIAL BODY is an aggregation of matter in the universe (such as a planet, star, or nebula) that can be considered a single unit. The exhibition positions this term as an expansive framework for honouring different expressions of sexuality and gender that go beyond binaries and pre-existing definitions. By bringing together the work of seven contemporary artists working with these themes, the exhibition holds together an orbit for diverse bodies and subjectivities, considering how we all exist in relation to one another.
Co-curated by Genevieve Flavelle and Jenelle Pasiechnik, Celestial Bodies is a trans-disciplinary celebration of sexuality and gender through the lenses of love, advocacy, erotics, and the right to safety. The first of its kind in Campbell River and North Vancouver Island, this exhibition aims to be a space of visibility and advocacy for 2SLGBTQ+ people.
This exhibition has themes intended for more mature audiences. Please talk to a gallery attendant before entering the main exhibition space. Families can enjoy recordings and reading material available in the gallery shop’s education space.
Interrelations: A third perspective
solo exhibition by Abdi Osman
curated by Ellyn Walker
June 10 to August 19, 2023
Interrelations: A third perspective is a solo exhibition project by Somali-Canadian artist Abdi Osman, curated by Ellyn Walker, with contributions from local and inter-national artists and cultural workers. Interrelations explores questions of place and place-making through a focus on water. Water brings with it complex histories of global Indigeneity and diaspora, enslavement and indentureship, (im)migration and freedom-seeking. For this project, Osman responds to this complex site and its many histories in a new multi-media work made in situ.
About the Artist
Abdi Osman is a Somali-Canadian multidisciplinary artist whose work focuses on questions of black masculinity as it intersects with Muslim and queer identities. He has shown across Canada and internationally, including as part of the 2022 Berlin Berlinale, at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Gardiner Museum, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Thames Art Gallery, The National Museum of Kenya (Kenya), Goethe Institute, Johannesburg (South Africa) and Iwalewahaus, and The Centre for African Contemporary Art and Culture (Germany). Osman was a Community Leadership resident at the Queer and Trans Research Lab (QTRL) housed at the Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto in 2021–22.
Osman’s artistic practice is concerned with representations of belonging in local, national and diasporic contexts. He has dedicated 15 + years to documenting Black, queer, trans and Muslum individuals and communities, exploring questions of identity, gender, sexuality, and faith. As a queer Somali-Canadian artist, he is implicated in the communities he documents, and as such, is inspired by his own friends, family and communities, of whom he often collaborates with. Osman’s work has been widely shown in Canada and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto and Gardiner Museum in Toronto, both in 2019. Upcoming projects include a public art commission curated by Ellyn Walker by the ArQuives (formerly the Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives) in 2021, co-presented with Trinity Square Video. His work has been widely reviewed and written about. Notable publications include critic Rinaldo Walcott’s chapter “The Works of Contemporary Art (In Black),” in the anthology “Archi-feministes!; Art contemporain, theories feministes/Contemporary Art, Feminist Theories, 2019); the volume African Futures (N. Contact Zones NRB, 2017) based on the internationally touring exhibition; and scholar Christina Sharpe’s essay “Variations in Black Queer Worlds” published by Canadian Art in 2019. He is currently a research fellow at the Mark Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies where his research focuses on representations of pleasure. For this project, he will make new video and photographic work based on his research in and about Campbell River.
Photos of opening reception by Wild Shay Photography, Exhibition photos by BlueTree Photography
Material as Archive
Artist: Marika St. Rose Yeo
Curator: Alexa Heenan
May 13- August 19, 2023
The exhibition Material as Archive, with artworks created by Marika Yeo and curated by Alexa Heenan, will focus on the premise of “search” and how we navigate our histories through materiality. For Yeo, this process consists of the physical interaction with clay as she kneads, moulds, and shapes the organic material with her hands, simultaneously contemplating the intricate relationship between raw material and its role as an archive of knowledge for herself and others. Drawing inspiration from her ancestral roots in West Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and Canada, Yeo pieces together unique vessels from fragments of clay that she adorns with organic, geometric and floral designs found within each cultures’ artistic traditions. As a result, each sculptural vessel embodies Yeo’s process of gathering, layering and stitching together a material archive of knowledge, experiences, culture, and history.
About the Artist
Marika St. Rose Yeo is a visual artist from Treaty 4 territory, Saskatchewan. Her artistic works and research are concerned with healing, justice and transformation through creative practice. St. Rose Yeo examines how creative practices allow us to generate possibilities for alternative options and worlds to be imagined, outside the systems of harm we find ourselves in. St. Rose Yeo works primarily using both fired and unfired ceramics, creating forms that are constructed with fragile layers and cracks. Marika St. Rose Yeo has a BFA with a major in ceramics from the University of Regina and a PhD in Critical and Creative Social Justice Studies through the Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, at the University of British Columbia. She has been part of a number of exhibitions across the prairies and most recently her work has been displayed in the Vancouver area including at the Vancouver Art Gallery’s exhibit Vancouver Special: Disorientations and Echo.
Photos by BlueTree Photography
41st Annual Members’ Show
April 8 to May 27, 2023 in our Main Gallery
Presented by the Campbell River Art Gallery and the Campbell River Arts Council
It’s a favourite time of year when the gallery is filled with the exciting variety of artwork that comes from local imagination and experience. Join us for the Members’ Show, the time honoured tradition of celebrating the many talented artists that live in Campbell River and the region.
Photos by Wild Shay Photography
Mu’la || Gratitude
John Albert Sharkey (Guy), Chuck Jules, Shawn Decaire, and Jennifer Joseph
Curated by: Nadine Bariteau
January 28 to April 29, 2023 in our Satellite Gallery
Mu’la means Gratitude in Kwakwala. This state of appreciation fosters a sense of our collective responsibility and shared humanity. Each artist’s work is a manifestation of their gratitude. Chuck Jule’s gratitude goes to the people of the Hive, the space where he practices his art. Jennifer Joseph is truly grateful for the teachings passed down from her ancestors, particularly those shared by her mother and grandmother with whom she learned to weave. Guy Sharkey’s gratitude goes toward Beau Dick, his mentor for 30 years, who taught him the traditional way of carving. Finally, Shawn wants to pay tribute to the late Jorge Lewis who taught him 20 years ago to make his very first Manat’si (drum).
This exhibition is a reminder that everyday we can be thankful for someone or something that has come across our path, and this makes room for the power and possibility of change.
Programs
Drum Making Workshop series with artist Shawn Decaire. The four part series taught participants to build, design, paint, and play the drum.
Traditional Brain Tanning of a Hide demonstration with artist Shawn Decaire. In connection with the current exhibition Mu’la, Decaire wishes to create a space of knowledge sharing and community connection. At this demonstration Decaire discussed the traditional, pre-contact, way of processing raw hide to tanned leather, while discussing Indigenous historical and ceremonial uses of the finished material.
Ceremonial Fire and Community Feast: The event started at the Campbell River Spit for a ceremonial fire to send off Shawn’s drum ‘Goliath’ made with Jorge Lewis, who has since passed away. Decaire said the ceremony will “pay respect to Goliath and the relationship with Jorge Lewis and myself, and to send Goliath back to the spirit world.”
Following the ceremony everyone was invited to gather at the gallery at 4 p.m. for a feast. People were encouraged to carpool to the Spit from the Gallery.
nothing we do is worth getting hurt for.
Eleanor King solo exhibition, curated by Jenelle M. Pasiechnik
January 14 to March 25, 2023
Eleanor King’s solo exhibition nothing we do is worth getting hurt for at the Campbell River Art Gallery examines the history of heavy industry and its relationship with the lands and waters of Ligwiłda’xw and Huu-ay-aht territories. The artist brings together multiple media such as: video, Google Earth mapping, sound, composite photography, screen printing, and sculpture in a site-specific installation to hold a conversation about our treatment of the environment, the sustainability of that treatment, and the future.
About the Artist
“Combining music, sound art, social practices, improvisation and other modes of creation, the art of Eleanor King is difficult to classify, but remains reliably enjoyable. Whether stacking reams of vinyl records skyward in a sculpture, creating a working bar as part of an art installation, tracing old tape reels to make a drawing, amplifying the sounds of underground streams for a public artwork, or playing in Halifax-area bands, King and her art often provide new ways of connecting with the present moment—as well as with ideas about music, sound, memory, community and technology.” – From Canadian Art