This is the fifty-fourth issue of The Beat, a free, independent newsletter that brings you up-to-date on the art, artists and events of the First Nations on Canada’s Pacific Coast.
May 2012 is the busiest, richest month of creative art events since the Beat first was published in 2007. Thank you to the artists and their supporters, families, curators and collectors, and philanthropists.
We very much appreciate our readers and their comments.
Read about:
Best wishes to our readers,
Ann Cameron and David Dumaresq
Lyle Wilson is well-known for his art and his collaborative historical research and carving demonstrations at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver. A solo show of the work of the Haisla artist, Paint: The Painted Works of Lyle Wilson, opens on May 5 and will continue until July 28 2012. Maple Ridge Art Gallery is [Read more]
The Vancouver Art Gallery has announced a number of new acquisitions. Among them is a 4.8 m canvas by Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun entitled Burying Another Face of Racism on First Nations Soil. The painting was recently exhibited at the gallery in Shore, Forest and Beyond: Art from the Audain Collection. Yuxweluptun’s work is being exhibited [Read more]
Marianne Nicolson’s work in the Surrey Art Gallery exhibition Vision Machine can be seen until June 10 2012. (See The Beat April 2012) The photograph taken of the installation in the darkened gallery at the SAG, catches the shadow of the Ghost and the Foolmakers overlaid on the projected image of the Alberta oilsands at [Read more]
In 2011, the Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford, British Columbia, exhibited the Stone Ancestor T’xwelatse in a collaborative context with information about the Sto:lo people and their land (see The Beat April 2011). Stone T’xwelatse had been repatriated to the Ts’elxwéyeqw (Chilliwack) tribe of the Sto:lo nation in 2006 from the Burke Museum in Seattle. [Read more]
In Prince George, the city’s Two Rivers Gallery is holding the first Juried Exhibition of First Peoples’ Artwork in British Columbia. Included in the show are works by Carla Aubichon Joseph, Shirley Babcock, Catherine Manahan, Liz Carter, Robert Davidson, Nigel Fox, Keith Kerrigan, Shana Labatch, lessLIE, Jennifer Pighin, Kim Stewart, Dylan Thomas and Connie [Read more]
Indigenous Voices at the UN, a May 10 2012 discussion of current issues, will be webcast from the Museum of the American Indian Heye Center in New York. See http://go.si.edu/site/R?i=hODsrYVHWJW0skDsYeRLMg
The Nanaimo Art Gallery is exhibiting the work of two Kwakwaka’wakw artists from May 18 to September 1 2012. A feast and celebration honouring Ebb and Flow: Sonny Assu/Rande Cook takes place on Friday June 1 2012, from 5 to 9 pm. http://www.nanaimoartgallery.com
The Grunt Gallery at 350 East 2nd Avenue in Vancouver is opening an on-going installation by Emilio Portal, from May 28 through June 23 2012 about the Qiqayt people, the original occupants of the current city of New Westminster, and the only Canadian First Nation registered without a land base. It is a project “honouring [Read more]
This month the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler features its exhibit Elements of the Spirit. Squamish nation carver Aaron Nelson-Moody will be on site at the SLCC carving a new welcome figure throughout the month. Lil’wat Nation’s Jonathan Joe has recently completed carving a river canoe. Both pieces will be blessed on June 4th [Read more]
The year-end show and graduation ceremony at the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art took place in Terrace on April 13 2012. The Northwest Community College created the Freda Diesing School to bring all Canadian Northwest First Nations together in the pursuit of higher education in the visual arts. See http://fredadiesing.nwcc.bc.ca/index.cfm
Vancouver’s Spirit Wrestler Gallery has annually hosted Northern Exposure, art work of students and instructors of Freda Diesing School. The show runs from May 26 to June 16, 2012. See http://www.spiritwrestler.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=2_91
The Vancouver Airport Art Foundation (YVRAF) annually awards scholarships to emerging young artists who wish to engage with a mentor in a major art project. The completed project is exhibited in the airport for a year, and helps establish a professional profile for the artist. In May the names of the 2012 scholarship recipients will [Read more]
The Traver Gallery in Seattle at 200-110 Union Street is showing confluence, sculptural works in glass with Tlingit designs by Preston Singletary from May 17 to June 24 2012. A catalogue is available online. See http://www.travergallery.com
Sotheby’s American Indian Art sale in New York on May 16 2012 includes a number of notable Northwest works, expected to fetch high sales prices. Many are from the nineteenth century, many have an historical provence. The carved bowl above, from a Belgian collection and the Heye Foundation, is estimated at US$100-150,000. See http://www.sothebys.com/ Information [Read more]
Standing Wave, a creative chamber ensemble, is collaborating with the Git Hayetsk Dancers to present a program of dance, visual installations and new music, on Sunday May 27 2012 at 8 pm. The featured work of the program, Raven Tales, is composed by Vancouver Marcus Goddard, Associate principal trumpet with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. The [Read more]
Artist Mike Dangeli, performer and speaker of the Git Hayetsk Dancers, is one of the artists presenting Storyweaving: Weaving First Nation Memories from the Past into the Future, a multidisciplinary presentation at the Aboriginal Friendship Centre at 1607 East Hastings on May 11 to 13 and 18 to 20, 2012. “The production weaves together stories, [Read more]
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May 2012 (pdf)
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