UBC Okanagan’s Public Art Collection has grown over the past year, and a new collection of Indigenous art—including printmaking, photography, carving and video—is being exhibited until January 27.
What: Medicine Prints, Whale Dreams, and Dancing Coyotes: New Works from the Public Art Collection
Who: Featured artists include Michelle Sound, Taylor Baptiste, Krista Belle Stewart, Nadya Kwandibens, Chief Henry Speck, Jim Johnny, Lyle Wilson, Robert Davidson, Roy Henry Vickers, Trevor Angus and Rupert and Barry Scow.
Opening reception: Friday, January 16, 4 to 6 pm at UBC Okanagan’s FINA Gallery
Artist talk: Monday, January 19, 3 to 4:30 pm via Zoom
Exhibition dates: Weekdays until January 27, 9 am to 4 pm
Where: FINA Gallery, Creative and Critical Studies building, 1148 Research Road, UBC Okanagan
UBC Okanagan Gallery is celebrating the new year by showcasing a new collection of Indigenous art.
On January 5, the gallery launched its latest exhibition, Medicine Prints, Whale Dreams, and Dancing Coyotes: New Works from the Public Art Collection.
The exhibition celebrates new donations and acquisitions to UBC Okanagan’s Public Art Collection over the past year. The collection features contemporary printmaking and lens-based practices by Indigenous women, and explores the relationship of photography to land and culture.
Through printmaking, photography, carving and video, the exhibition brings together Indigenous artists who use their work to challenge social issues and pass on ancestral stories and knowledge, explains Tania Willard, Director of the UBC Okanagan Gallery and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery.
Curated by Willard and Curatorial Assistant Ryan Trafananko, with support from programming assistant Kelly Yuste, visitors will see new acquisitions from Michelle Sound, Taylor Baptiste, Krista Belle Stewart and Nadya Kwandibens.
The exhibition also includes contemporary prints by Chief Henry Speck, Jim Johnny, Lyle Wilson, Robert Davidson, Roy Henry Vickers, Trevor Angus, as well as brothers Rupert and Barry Scow. The works, by artists of different west coast nations, were donated to the Public Art Collection last spring by Milton and Della McClaren.
“We are excited to present the growing collection at UBC Okanagan,” says Willard. “This is a collection for all, that we carry into the future. A future that includes art, because art is for everyone.”
UBC Okanagan’s Public Art Collection includes more than 800 works displayed both outdoors and inside buildings across campus. These pieces provide opportunities for learning, exhibition and critical discussion, highlighting the role of art in public life.
Medicine Prints, Whale Dreams, and Dancing Coyotes: New Works from the Public Art Collection runs until Tuesday, January 27. The exhibition will be celebrated with a reception on Friday, January 16, from 4 to 6 pm. Featured artist Michelle Sound will deliver a public talk via Zoom on Monday, January 19, from 3 to 4 pm. Both events are free and open to the public. To find a registration link for the public talk, visit: events.ok.ubc.ca/event/medicine-prints-whale-dreams-and-dancing-coyotes-exhibition-opening-reception
Acquisitions featured in this exhibition were made possible with funding from UBC’s Indigenous Strategic Initiative Fund. For more information about the UBC Okanagan Gallery and the collection, visit: gallery.ok.ubc.ca
