Author: tempadmin
AIR SJ
AIR Rafael Kahlil
Go Home Yuppie Scum—Preston Buffalo
Apr 11 – Jun 6, 2024
Taking its title from graffiti that appeared on empty/sold Vancouver houses and lots in the 1980s as part of the local anti-gentrification movement, Go Home Yuppie Scum is an irreverent take on the “Welcome to Vancouver” View-Master reels popular in the 1960s to 1980s, which featured 3D images of Vancouver landmarks as a means of enticing tourists to visit.
By making use of vintage View-Masters and modern stereoscopic viewers stationed around the interior of SUM gallery, Buffalo creates a series of stereoscopic reels that showcase the city from a very different perspective: crumbling, graffiti-adorned structures in the Downtown Eastside, disused rail lines, and thickets of overgrown flora, all eerily devoid of inhabitants. Buffalo applies infrared filters to much of his photographic work, transforming familiar Vancouver scenes into vibrant alien landscapes. The result is a series of urban snapshots that subvert the stereotypical “Beautiful British Columbia” postcard tropes by presenting quasi-dystopian scenes that are unsettling, otherworldly, and beautiful.
This exhibition is part of the 2024 Capture Photography Festival Selected Exhibition Program.
Preston Buffalo, a Two-Spirited Cree artist originally from Treaty 6 Territory, currently resides in the unceded Coast Salish Territories of British Columbia. His interdisciplinary practice involves the exploration of personal Indigenous iconography and symbolism, utilizing photography, alternative photo processes, and digital illustration. Motivated by the challenges faced by Indigenous communities, Preston’s work touches upon themes such as mental health, cultural and linguistic loss due to displacement, the impact of the residential school system, and the process of assimilation. His overall objective is to create visual expressions that encourage new perspectives on Indigenous art, emphasizing its significance in contemporary society and its contribution to an ongoing dialogue.
DRAG BINGO @ Carnegie Centre
Mar 4, 2024 | 5:30 – 8pm
Hosted by Continental Breakfast & Jas Minh
This Monday, March 4, we team up once again with the Carnegie Community Centre to present a very special Drag Bingo, hosted by Continental Breakfast and Jas Minh! Monday night bingo is a much-loved highlight of the Carnegie Centre’s many activities and we’re thrilled to bring the Queer Joy for this event.
Presented in partnership with Queer Arts Festival + SUM gallery
Artist Panel—Generosity of Abundance Carousel
Performance—Flowers for MeToo Carousel
A Generosity of Abundance—Valérie d. Walker and Jack Page
Feb 22 – Apr 5, 2024
OPENING RECEPTION: FEB 22, 6 to 8 pm
PERFORMANCE by JACK PAGE & THEO BLUE: MAR 16, 2 pm
As our community navigates a world of unprecedented environmental and political upheaval – all transpiring against the backdrop of a lingering pandemic –Transmedia Fibres-rooted artist and Indigo Griot Valérie d. Walker has responded by transforming SUM gallery into a sanctuary of Queer Joy: a place where “Queer reality is infused with self love and the power of environmental transformation.” Walker, whose work is shaped and informed by her African Diasporic, Scottish, Japanese, and Indigenous Hawaiian heritage, has envisioned A Generosity of Abundance as an immersive exploration of the restorative power of Water. Finding inspiration in the metaphysical transformations caused by traversing a Labyrinth, Walker’s large-scale indigo-dyed fibre pieces invite the viewer to explore and flow along an uninterrupted sensorial path towards meditative and therapeutic relief, much like water’s uncanny ability to seek out a path of least resistance; while fibre-art sculpture/installations create interior “indigo refuges”.
In keeping with the spirit of Queer, joyous transformation, on March 16 the exhibition expands to include the work of Vancouver artist Jack Page, whose practice encompasses illustration, altered book art, papermaking, printmaking, photography, musical performance art, and Dis/Ability, Mad/Neurodiverse and 2SLGBTQIA+ community-based projects. His multimedia triptych, Flowers for MeToo, speaks to how all genders experience gender violence, especially trans and nonbinary people, using gold leaf to mark the healing body as divine and flowers as a form of healing and transforming trauma. Like Walker, who is well known for her enviro-conscious dye work, Page’s material art practice focuses on minimizing waste by incorporating used, natural, and foraged materials, and upcycling waste products, such as paper and medical waste.
Running from February 22 to April 5, A Generosity of Abundance spans two key events in the QTBIPOC calendar: Black History Month (February) and International Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31). To this end, the exhibition is punctuated by an opening reception on Thursday, February 22, from 6 – 8pm and a musical performance piece by Jack Page and guitarist Theo Blue on Saturday, March 16 at 2pm.
Join artist Valérie d. Walker for a discussion with April Sumter-Freitag and Addena Sumter-Freitag on Queer Black history in Vancouver.
Join us at SUM gallery on Saturday, March 9 at 2pm for Black Every Day of the Year: a special discussion panel featuring A Generosity of Abundance artists Valérie d. Walker, Addena Sumter-Freitag, and April Sumter-Freitag. As seventh- and eighth-generation Black Canadians, Addena and April Sumter-Freitag hold a special place in Canadian Queer Black art and history; with Walker, they will imagine, joyously laugh, celebrate Historical Black Strathcona, and create Afro-Futuristic visions that extend well beyond Black History Month. The afternoon includes a special screening of April Sumter-Freitag’s short film, Out, Black + Proud in BC, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
A musical performance piece by Jack Page and guitarist Theo Blue, Flowers for MeToo speaks to how all genders experience gender violence.
Join us at SUM gallery on March 16 for a special musical performance by Jack Page and Theo Blue, marking the expansion of our exhibition, A Generosity of Abundance.
As we transition from Black History Month to International Transgender Day of Visibility, our duo exhibition featuring the work of Valérie d. Walker and Jack Page expands to include Page’s beautiful triptych, Flowers for MeToo. We celebrate the arrival of Jack’s work with an in-gallery performance of the song Flowers for MeToo, composed and performed by Jack, with his musical collaborator Theo Blue.
Be among the first to experience the final manifestation of our exhibition and hear this intensely personal performance by Page and Blue.
KING SIZED—A Drag King Show
Feb 9, 2024 | 9:30pm
SUM gallery is proud to be official sponsor for KING SIZED: A Drag King Show!
Join us at the Bird House on February 9th, 10pm-2am, for a special King Sized to celebrate SKIM’s 30th Birthday. This show will feature the biggest cast yet, with a majority of Black performers in honour of Black History Month. King Sized will be hosted by @mx.bukuru and @velvetryderdrag; with performers @levi.thrust, @kingkundo_ , guest DJ @softieshan and the birthday King himself, @skimisking. And as it’s an extra special birthday celebration there will be two token Drag Queens….who can they be?
We are excited to be partnering with SKIM once again and wish him a very happy birthday! LONG LIVE KING SIZED! @longlivekingsized
Get tickets today!
