Category: Visual Art
Visual Art
Scroll down to see all our visual art listings.
FREE EVENTS AT SUM GALLERY
| #425, 268 Keefer St, Vancouver, BC |
Gallery Exhibition | Drag & Burlesque Performances | Spoken Word Celebration
August 1st is Emancipation Day and we’re celebrating with a week of events at SUM gallery!
What is Emancipation Day, you ask? It’s the day in 1834 when the Slavery Abolition Act came into effect across the British Empire. We’re partnering with our friends at Hogan’s Alley to present a week of stirring art and riveting performance, all viewed through a uniquely queer Black lens.
⭐️ August 1 | 7–9 PM
We’re kicking things off with a night of jaw-dropping performances featuring Mx. Bukuru, As*trix Banks, Velvet Ryder, Saint Solstice, Rainbow Glitz, Luna Buckster, and spins by DJ Grooveheart! Join us for a special reception featuring food by local Black-owned restaurants. This event is 18+.
⭐️ August 1–8, open daily 12 – 6pm*
August 1st also sees the launch of our weeklong exhibition, featuring the interdisciplinary work of Valérie d. Walker and the SUM gallery debut of Uzo, a young fashion designer focussing on crochet couture! *Note: SUM gallery will be closed Monday, August 4th.
⭐️ August 3 | 2 PM
Spoken word and poetry take centre-stage on Sunday afternoon as Addena Sumter-Freitag, April Sumter-Freitag, and Siobhan Barker present work that is at turns fearless, moving, and raunchy.
All of our events are FREE to attend but registration is recommended.
RSVP on Eventbrite
Curated Visual Art Exhibition: PORTALS
— Curated by Mark Takeshi McGregor & Diane Hau Yu Wong
| June 21 – August 23 | Wed – Sat, 12 – 6 | Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art | Free |
Our QAF 2025 theme is fully realized in this special exhibition partnership with Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Curated by Diane Hau Yu Wong and Mark Takeshi McGregor, this group exhibition explores “portals” as catalysts for change—points of departure that invite reflection on identity, migration, and the possibilities of reimagined worlds via the works of six Vancouver artists: Arkah, Evan Matchett-Wong, Sena Cleave, Miles Saraswat, Christian Yves Jones, and Naomi Maya Leung 梁珮恩. As anti-trans, anti-queer and anti-immigrant rhetoric intensifies across the world, Portals responds to our increasingly dangerous political landscape while asking us to envision futures grounded in resilience, memory, and hope.
Portals runs from June 21 to August 23, 2025, with our ArtParty! opening reception on Saturday, June 21 from 5 – 8pm, with artists in attendance – and special guest DJ OShow!
About the Artists
Arkah (they/them) is a migrant from Delhi, India, living on stolen lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ peoples. They are a visual artist and writer, trying to map spirit as a method of archival. By creating an opening into other possible worlds, Arkah is seeking answers. How do we trudge on, despite uncertainty? When visiting home, they work as an art teacher and muralist.
Sena Cleave (she/they) is an artist exploring ideas of work, reciprocity, and ongoing change. Their sculptural practice draws on their family history of farming, experiences working day jobs, and participation in domestic labour and care. Often using materials found in these settings, they investigate alternative methods of support and sustenance. Cleave lives in the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations, and was raised between Snuneymuxw and Snaw’naw’as territories and Osaka, Japan.
Christian Yves Jones (he/him) is a Philippine-born, New Zealand-raised filmmaker and video artist based in Vancouver, BC. He graduated with a Bachelor of Communication Studies from Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand), where he was awarded a Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship. His work spans a wide range of formats, including music videos, short films, video art films, and live television broadcasts. Christian’s creative practice often explores stories from the LGBTQ+ community and the Asian diaspora in the West.
Naomi Maya Leung 梁珮恩 (they/them) is a Han Cantonese settler, climate justice education facilitator and organizer, and mixed media artist. Naomi desires to create anti-colonial spaces centering trans and queer diaspora to process intergenerational trauma, grief, and to co-create possibilities and programming for hope and healing. Naomi studies BSc Global Resource Systems and Psychology, integrating climate change studies with global health, climate emotions, and the Asian diaspora.
Evan Matchett-Wong (they/them) is a self-taught hand embroidery artist from Edmonton in Treaty 6 Territory in Canada, now living in Vancouver on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. They are of Chinese (Han), Indigenous (Dene), and Irish descent. They are Two-Spirit and a member of Cold Lake First Nations. They have been doing hand embroidery since 2014, and have brought the use of watercolours back into their artistic practice.
Miles Saraswat (he/him) is an artist based in Vancouver, Canada. His work explores themes of South-Asian spiritualism and the diaspora experience in Canada. Miles is committed to investigating how teachings from Hinduism can be relearned and acted upon through the diasporic lens, creating an understanding through his art impacted by his experience as a queer person. His work often works with imagery of the sun, bodies, environmental change, traditional South-Asian objects, and sunflowers.
VARIED EDITIONS — Curated by Edward Fu-Chen Juan & Cheryl Hamilton
| Jun 6 – 28 | Tues – Sat, 12 – 6 | On Main Gallery | Free |
Now in its third year, Varied Editions celebrates the diversity of printmaking practices within queer communities. Borrowing its name from the printmaking technique where artists alter individual prints within an edition, the exhibition reflects on queerness as a shared yet uniquely expressed experience, as well as printmaking’s long-standing connection to queer activism at pride marches and protests. Varied Editions features works by Paul Wong, Tajliya Jamal, Zoë Grace-Ann Laycock, Juneau MacPhee, and exhibition curators Cheryl Hamilton and Edward Fu-Chen Juan. The exhibit is expanded by a series of printmaking and zine workshops, emphasizing the medium’s longstanding ties to activism, protest, and collective expression. Presented in partnership with Malaspina Printmakers Society.
Varied Editions runs June 6th to 28th at On Main Gallery, launching with an opening reception on June 6th, as well as workshops on June 7th, 8th, and 14th at Malaspina Printmakers Society.
About the Curators
Cheryl Hamilton is a visual artist living on the Coast Salish Territories. Her artwork includes sculpture, painting, printmaking and illustration. She graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1990. Her work has been influenced by her queer identity, satire, humour, surrealism, craft and pop culture. Cheryl has a deep commitment to sharing her artwork in the public realm, and has artwork in public and private collections across North America.
Edward Fu-Chen Juan identifies as a queer Taiwanese-Canadian visual artist primarily working in printmaking and paper-making. Edward’s ongoing projects combine techniques such as copper plate etching, aquatint, silkscreen, and chine-collé. Since 2023, he has been researching the impact of human rights movements in the Taiwanese-Canadian community. The work involves collecting oral histories, portrait sketches, and photo-documenting places in Canada and Taiwan. His intention is to experiment and create work that highlights the democratic discourses and challenges between Taiwan and its Western counterparts.
Presently Edward lives and work in Vancouver, BC. or the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Edward is a Taiwanese person with ethnic roots to the Hakka and the Plain First Nations People of Taiwan.
Curated Visual Art Exhibition
Sat Jun 17 – Wed Jun 28
Mon – Fri 9am – 9pm
Sat – Sun 9am – 5pm
Roundhouse Exhibition Hall – 181 Roundhouse Mews
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Zandi Dandizette, Curator
bumfuzzled monachopsis: innerspace out
Free Guided Curator Tour with Zandi Dandizette
Featured Artists:
Eda Birthing
Helena St Tearer
JAIK PUPPYTEETH
Judah Kong
Kale Roberts
Kali Fish
Leby Le Morìa
Levi Nelson
Makoto Chi
Odera Igbokwe
Moozhan Ahmadzadegan
Parisa Rafat
Pastiche Lumumba
Rachel Britton
Raven John
Romi Kim, Kendell Yan & Chris Reed
bumfuzzled monachopsis: innerspace out reflects the uncertain times in which our collective world does not ascertain belonging to those occupying it. Our parallel universes of experience, never quite overlapping, seeking out an idealized community, that “me-shaped” hole in which inclusion is touted. A confused subtle space of emotion as the external world points at what we are and who we are, yet never quite where we are welcome to be.
The present state in which queer artists take up space, share space, and embody the ownership of it. Sharing our inner worlds out visually via developed characters, worlds, or visual language that provides safety in exploring identity or the relation to the spaces around them.
Zandi Dandizette’s curation asks viewers to “wander the maze of our hearts and open them to the multiplicity of being.” We are not a homogenized whole, but many individuals all seeking that future space in which belonging can be achieved.
Zandi Dandizette, QAF 2023 Visual Art Exhibition guest curator
Zandi Dandizette is a nonbinary settler-immigrant interdisciplinary arts and cultural worker that likens their medium as space whether 2D, 3D, or 4D. Their work vacillates between focus shifts on identity, dis/connection, and collective problem solving. Zandi’s practice attempts to investigate and share the lessons they’ve absorbed in navigating the complexity of existence by utilizing repeating shape and colour motifs. Zandi has a BMA in Animation (2014) from Emily Carr University and has shown varied new media and installation works over the last decade across Canada and internationally. They balance their artistic practice with supporting arts advocacy and community building. Zandi Dandizette co-founded and leads The James Black Gallery (2014) which is located on the stolen unceded ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. They are a current board member of CARFAC National, and chartering member of the Arts and Cultural Workers Union (ACWU local 778-B).
Preston Buffalo AR works
Sat Jun 17 – Wed Jun 28
9am to 9pm daily
Roundhouse Exhibition Hall – 181 Roundhouse Mews
Augmented Reality artist Preston Buffalo secretly brings the Roundhouse to life with Indigiqueer pasts and futures – including a creation story of how the Cree People originated from the Pleiades star cluster. Buffalo’s AR images are invisible and inaudible to the naked eye and ear – but revealed when your phone scans a QR code! Presented in partnership with Little Chamber Music.
Preston Buffalo
Preston Buffalo (he/him) is a Two-Spirited Cree man residing in the unceded Coast Salish Territories in British Columbia. His interdisciplinary practice is centred around exploring personal Indigenous iconography and symbolism through the use of photography, alternative photo processes, digital illustration and AR. Preston’s work is informed by pressing issues faced by Indigenous communities, including mental health, harm reduction, loss of culture and language resulting from displacement and the residential school system. By intersecting traditional material practice with contemporary techniques, his work seeks to challenge viewers’ perceptions of contemporary Indigenous Identity.
Mon Jun 19 – Sat Jul 8
Exhibition open Tue thru Sat, 12 – 6pm
The James Black Gallery – 144 E 6th Ave.
Opening Reception: Mon Jun 19, 7pm
Long regarded as the bedrock of the Queer Arts Festival, the Pride in Art Community Show honours the legacy of founder, activist, and Two-Spirit artist, Robbie Hong. Each year, QAF opens submissions to artists of all skills levels to submit their work, preferably centred around the festival theme. For the second year running, QAF has teamed up with queer partner-in-crime, The James Black Gallery, to showcase the otherworldly artwork of our local 2SLGBTQIA+ communities.
Featured Artists:
Ale Cabiddu
Avery Chace
B Malinsky
Caden Lane
Dana Ayotte
Delaney Yvonne
Dmitrii Severov
Ilena Lee
lisa g
Pari
Nico McGiffin
Rafael Zen
Sunny Nestler
Thomas Anfield
Viviana (Ming) Ni
Wilson S. Wilson
Odera Igbokwe solo exhibit
Thu Jun 22 – Fri Jul 28
Exhibition is open Tue-Sat, 12 to 6pm
SUM gallery – #425-268 Keefer St.
New Yams Festival
Opening reception with Odera Igbokwe
Thu Jun 22, 7pm
SUM gallery – #425-268 Keefer St.
SUM gallery presents a solo exhibition by Odera Igbokwe, an illustrator and painter who celebrates the magic of the African Diaspora and QTBIPOC. New Yams Festival is a direct reflection, response, and Queer reclamation of The New Yam Festival of the Igbo people. Traditionally, it is a celebration of abundance, ancestral veneration, and protection. In referencing The New Yam Festival, Odera seeks to create a visual lineage between Queer Afrofuturism and ancestral rituals.
Igbokwe’s colourful, sensuous visions of Queer Black Futurisms opens with a reception on June 22 and will remain on display at SUM gallery until July 28.
Odera Igbokwe
Odera Igbokwe (they/them & he/him) is an illustrator and painter located on the unceded and traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Odera loves to explore storytelling through Afro-diasporic mythologies, Black resilience and magical girl transformation sequences. Their work explores the magic of the Black imagination, and responds to the fractures that occur via diaspora and displacement. Ultimately their paintings celebrate joy, mundanity, and fantasy coexisting alongside pain and healing. As a freelance illustrator, Odera works with clients and galleries to create work that is deeply personal, soulful and intersectional.