With the Kumugwe Dancers
There will be unique experience in store for those who attend the upcoming opening reception at the Comox Valley Art Gallery.
The March 14 reception will feature a MAKE ART project starting at 6 p.m., where members of the public will be able to watch the art of print-making. Free copies of prints by acclaimed K’omoks artist Andy Everson and students in the Youth Printmaking Workshop will be provided while supplies last.
Following the MAKE ART project, there will be a welcoming and opening remarks starting at 7:30 p.m.
Admission is free and everyone is welcome to attend the reception, which will mark the opening of several new exhibits that will run from March 15 to May 2.
Everson’s new work Like? Indigenous musings in a Digital Age, will be on display in the CVAG contemporary gallery.
The exhibit will combine prints, mixed-media sculpture and wearable art. His work combines traditional First Nations images with pop culture references, and raises issues around appropriation, ownership, power, resistance and worth.
Many of the pieces in Everson’s exhibition have had a viral existence through social media and thus encapsulate much of what it means to be an Indigenous artist in the world today.
Also showing in the contemporary gallery will be the exhibition Hands of the Next Generation, which will feature the work of students in the Wachiay Youth Art Design and Screen Printing program.
The program focuses on the creation of North West Coast Aboriginal art, and is taught by Everson and local screen-printing guru Andy MacDougall. The program is a partnership between CVAG, the Wachiay Friendship Centre and the Community Justice Centre.
Riverway, an exhibition by Martha Jablonski-Jones, will be presented in CVAG’s newly renovated community gallery. This series of paintings is based on the walking path along the Courtenay River, and emphasizes the flow of the river and the visual impact of human construction where the water meets the land.
Local photographer Ron Pogue will show Maple Pool United in the CVAG’s George Sawchuk gallery. This series of photographs captures dynamic images from the Maple Pool United street soccer team. Note that this exhibition will run only until April 12.
Presented in conjunction with Maple Pool United will be a three-day interdisciplinary community event entitled But Enough Art, Eat! running from March 31 to April 2. This collaboration between CVAG and Dawn To Dawn Society is facilitated by Grant Shilling. It will incorporate hands-on contemporary art making, food production, music, demonstrations, public readings and talks.