Tag: SUM gallery
Events held at the SUM gallery located in the Sun Wah Centre in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown District.
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
Long Live Kings
— Directed by Romi Kim
| June 22, 1pm | SUM gallery | Free |
Long Live Kings is a multi-episode series that puts a much needed spotlight on the vibrant Drag King scene on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples (aka Vancouver). Created as a response to the isolation Drag Kings often experience within drag spaces, this series uplifts the artistry and resilience of this art form with humour, heart, and fierce performance. Situated in the comfort of SUM gallery, this special screening of Long Live Kings offers a glimpse into a powerful community that has always existed—challenging norms, redefining drag, and making space on their own terms. Made by Drag Kings, Trans people, and Queers—FOR Drag Kings, Trans people, and Queers!
This screening is free but due to limited space registration is recommended.
About Romi Kim
김새로미, Romi Kim or SKIM in drag is a nonbinary, trans masc, second-generation Korean interdisciplinary artist, drag king, filmmaker, and founder of King Sized, Vancouver’s only Drag King-focused show.
Romi’s artistic approach is characterized by a playful, DIY-inspired methodology that invites audiences to ponder the intricacies of identities and their construction. With a keen focus on complicating the notion of a singular queer racialized identity, Romi challenges the mainstream narrative while giving space and visibility to trans and racialized identities.
Kim holds a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia (2022). They have screened their video work at Seoul Indie-Ani Festival (2019), Vancouver’s Queer Film Festival (2023) Polygon Art Gallery, SUM gallery and Vines Festival.
Their work aims to think through affective belonging and placemaking as potent avenues for creating meaningful connections.
QAF Community Art Show
| June 14 – 28 | Tues – Sat, 12 – 6 | SUM gallery |
OPENING RECEPTION: June 14, 5 – 8pm | Free |
It’s no exaggeration to say the QAF Community Art Show is the backbone of our festival. It was the original event, begun in 1998, that would grow into the Queer Arts Festival as we know it today. The QAF Community Art Show showcases and celebrates some of the outstanding artists and artwork from our local 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. Over the years the name and location may have changed, but the spirit remains the same.
The 2025 QAF Community Art Show is supported by the Parachute Fund.
Artists
Jasper Berehulke
Kaila Bhullar
Ash Boan
Brandon Cotter
JC Fung
Danya Gorodetsky
Marina Levit
Rowen Lobo
Nicole Mandryk & Margaret August
Liz Oakley
Jai Sallay-Carrington
Niloufar Samadi
Suze Shore
Malina Sintnicolaas
Taryn Walker
Valerie d. Walker
The QAF Community Show runs June 14th to 28th at SUM Gallery.
Join us for the opening reception on June 14th 5 – 8pm!
Night Owl: Erica Roozendaal, accordion
| Sunday, June 8 @ 7pm | SUM gallery | Pay-What-You-Wish |
We’re thrilled to present the QAF debut of Dutch accordionist Erica Roozendaal. Visiting us from the Hague, Roozendaal shares an intimate program at SUM gallery that includes music by the iconic Pauline Olivieros, plus Erica’s own autobiographical showpiece, Night Owl. This beautiful and moving performance subtly addresses the theme of abuse and growing up in an unsafe environment. Erica Roozendaal—performer, visual artist, and accordionist—created the script and performs the monologue in a restrained, captivating manner while alternating with playing the accordion. Presented in partnership with Vancouver InterCultural Orchestra.
About Erica Roozendaal
Within the versatility of all art forms, Erica Roozendaal sees herself primarily as a “storyteller”: expressing a story, an experience or emotion, using the medium that best serves that purpose. As a classically trained accordionist, music is her biggest focus and always plays a role on stage, though she is equally at home in the worlds of visual art and theatre.
As a musician, Erica enjoys collaborating with composers, which has resulted in dozens of new solo pieces and chamber music works. After studying classical music, she further developed in folk and improvised music. Curiosity about (still) unknown music, culture, history, brings a broad musical palette, which she also likes to interconnect. So she prefers to play concerts in which the common thread is a theme or a story, with music from all sorts of angles and eras. In 2016, she founded Roadrunner, an ensemble that sits between contemporary, folk and improvised music with an emphasis on her own written work. Every year they organize the Roadrunner Academy week, a week for young composers concluding with a concert featuring the new pieces.
In addition to being a performing artist, Erica has been affiliated with the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague since 2020. Among other things, she teaches accordion within PI: a program designed specifically for preschoolers, and Young KC, a preliminary program for children ages 6 to 10. Empathizing with young children’s experiences, teaching aurally, stimulating curiosity and creativity: these are the key elements of her teaching practice.
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.