LITTLE GEMS Victoria Arts Council in partnership with The Bay Centre 1150 Douglas Street | lower level, across from Winners (wheelchair accessible)
3-22 December 2024
Open Tuesday – Sunday 12-5
The holidays are around the corner … and the VAC is excited to welcome back our Members Exhibition: LITTLE GEMS holiday show + sale!
All VAC members are encouraged to participate in this non-juried opportunity.
We are looking for original works of art, craft, and cards … This is a non-juried show+sale … you decide what you want to include!
The VAC will be open 6 days a week during this special annual members event, and we are seeking volunteers to help with installation, gallery-sitting, wrapping, and clean up.
The volunteer schedule will be prepared shortly, but you can always email if you know you’ll be able to help out this year: volunteer@vicartscouncil.ca with the subject line LITTLE GEMS VOLUNTEER 2024.
You can sign up for a volunteer spot through our calendar on SignUp.com
About the Venue:
The Bay Centre has partnered with the VAC for this special show + sale, and have offered us a gorgeous, remodeled, 2,000+ square foot unit on the lower level adjacent to the info booth right at the foot of the Douglas Street escalators. There is professional lighting, clean floors and walls, with ample room.
The VAC hosted an exhibit in this venue this past September, and welcomed nearly 2,000 visitors… so we know this will be a very high traffic location for Little Gems.
Open to VAC members only, so be sure to renew your membership | https://vicartscouncil.ca/support/membership/
Artwork delivery will take place Friday 29 November and Saturday 30 November from 12pm to 5pm [no earlier / no later]. Please bring your work directly to the exhibition venue (The Bay Centre, lower level, access from Douglas Street… next to info booth / across from Winners)
All artwork MUST be labeled with: Artist Name; Title of Work; Medium; Price [artworks can be NFS if so desired; artworks not labeled completely will not be accepted, no exceptions]
As this is a fundraiser for the VAC, there is an administrative fee of $50 to participate in this show + sale. Greeting cards are welcome at no additional cost for participating artists **
VAC Members are encouraged to bring in up to 3 works presentation-ready No price limits! No size restriction!
Greeting Cards accepted individually or in packages, must be priced as marked, and do not count as one of the 3 entries
Once a work is sold, the artist will have the opportunity to replenish if they so desire
Standard 40% commission to VAC will be retained. Payment to artists for sold work will take place by the end of January 2024. [NB: Cheques will only be issued for sales of $10 or greater.]
Pick-up of unsold work must take place Sunday 22 December between 12PM by 5PM [any remaining artwork will be subject to storage fees: $10 per day per item. NB: VAC gallery and offices will be closed from 23 December 2024 -7 January 2025.]
** If the administrative cost to participate in this opportunity presents a barrier, please contact the VAC as there are a number of artist sponsorships available. **
A window project curated by Kegan McFadden 670 Fort Street
A group show presented sequentially, Shelf Life. is an examination of the finite, of mortality, exhaustion, and the possibility of what’s to come as well as what is left behind. Over the course of our time on Fort Street, we will be presenting the work of one artist at a time in the large windows, viewable any time of day or night.
This project is made possible by the generous community partnership with The Bay Centre, and is supported by the Province of British Columbia, BC Arts Council, CRD Arts, as well as VAC membership.
November 2024: Tracing Tracks by Jane Coombe
Tracing Tracks is a geological installation of found rocks, precious metals, core logs, photographs, paintings and Plexiglas sculptures. The installation is inspired by memories of looking for jet-black stones on the beaches in England, garnets in Scottish outcrops, gold in Wales and my partner’s search for precious metals and mapping in the Saskatchewan Precambrian Shield. Personal geography, space, landscapes and the environment, together with maps, memory and media create the structural basis of the work. Elements associated with places, repetition, aging, re-using, layering, tracing and reworking are catalysts that drive my drawing, painting and sculptural practice.
Jane Coombe is a British born, Canadian artist living in Victoria, British Columbia, with a contemporary art practice in painting, sculpture and 3-D installation. Jane graduated with a Diploma in Art from the Vancouver Island School of Art (VISA) in 2017.
October 2024: Identity by Cedar Walton
I am a differently abled, neurodivergent, single coparent of a 10 year old human, pansexual, trans and genderfluid. I am white with ancestry from Europe with a history of colonialism, I seek to undo harm my ancestors have been for and against in my lineage. I came into being on Blackfoot territory, known as colonized Calgary, Alberta.
I create works from my heart that attest to my spirituality, my integration of the self, self knowledge and my placement in community.
My work is an expression of the inner worlds, I encounter, the people I am in contact with and the interpretation through my experience captured in many forms of visual and performance mediums.
September 2024: Ta’pitj’ij (Little David)
In the 1940s my uncle was abducted from the family yard on Membertou(NS) reservation. I wove thick paper to construct a mi’kmaq basket / wigwam. With accompanying audio, I hope in some way to bring my uncle’s spirit peace and help heal my family and community. Ronnie Montreal
I graduated from University of Victoria with a BFA in 1990. I completed the work for my MFA at Hunter College, City University of New York, in 1993.
I am a Mik’maq person with European ancestry. In the ’50s my grandmother took my mother and her other children out of residential school and moved to Toronto, where my mother hid her identity. In the ’60s my mother had her native identity stripped away and then reinstated in the ’80s by the Canadian Government. Her experiences have left a hole in me and many questions about identity.
August 2024: My Dad’s Keys by John G. Boehme
Keeping objects under “lock and key” was an element of my father’s psyche. As the son of an antiquarian I have early memories of objet d’art, antiquities, and historical artifacts being stolen, which was met with my father’s consternation, and a growing amount of keys, to keep these valuables safe and secure.
John G. Boehme is a multi-hyphenate artist whose work spans performance, education, and curation. His practice is deeply rooted in exploring social and political themes through a multidisciplinary approach, blending elements of visual art, live performance, and critical pedagogy.
A performance of My Dad’s Keys took place Wednesday 31 July; the installation as part of Shelf Life is the culmination of that performance.
July 2024: ENOUGH by Ryan O’Lewis
Enough reflects on the collective resistance Pride initially emerged from as a response to systemic violence experienced by the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and which we continue to navigate. In a seemingly simple sculpture, O’Lewis calls attention to the complex issue of Queer Battle Fatigue many 2SLGBTQIA+ Folx struggle with. The act of existing, being visible, speaking up, and living authentically in one’s queerness slowly carves out possibilities for Queer Joy to emerge without violence.
Ryan O’Lewis (he/him) is a queer, (dis)abled, Canadian artist currently residing on the unceded traditional territories of the T’Sou-ke and Scian’new Nations. His art practice explores sexuality, masculinity, (dis)ability and mental health. More specifically the intricate relationship one has with themselves and how they experience spaces with invisible marginalized identities.
Ryan will present a brief artist talk about this project, in conversation with Shelf Life. curator, Kegan McFadden: Wednesday 31 July @ 5:45PM…
June 2024: Phoenix by Heidi Bergstrom
Heidi Bergstrom brings her take on the Phoenix to the Shelf Life project. This site-specific work created from paper, sinew, moose hide, textile fibres, and vinyl offers a visual allusion to the mythological winged creature symbolizing rebirth and renewal. Bergstrom’s installation incorporates natural and synthetic materials, pointing to a continuum where the viewer is left to decipher whether it is the remains or the reemergence of the Phoenix on display.
Heidi Bergstrom (she/her) is a settler of mixed Euro-Scandinavian (Sweden and Iceland) background, and her family is Michif from Red River in Manitoba. She is a multimedia visual artist in Victoria, BC, Canada. Her fine art practice and exhibitions includes work in painting, printmaking, book binding, textiles, video and photography, and multimedia installations. Heidi has exhibited her work in Canada, the United States, and internationally.
May 2024: Takotsubo, a prelude by Chin Yuen
In response to the death of her mother, Mei Ying Wong (1938 – 2020), Chin Yuen began experiencing Takotsubo cardiomyopathy or “Broken Heart Syndrome.” The syndrome is coined as such since it causes a part of the heart to swell, resembling a Japanese octopus trap, takotsubo. As a way of processing the physical manifestation resulting from this profound grief, the artist turned to her studio and began experimenting intuitively with ceramics, creating a series of hand-pressed pots in the form of takotsubo.
International award-winning Canadian painter, Chin Yuen, was born in Malaysia. She studied in Singapore and England before moving to Canada for further education. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors from Emily Carr University of Art and Design and a Master of Arts from the University of Victoria. After graduation, she moved to Japan and Italy, where she taught English and Fine Arts for several years before returning home to Canada. Yuen continues to travel extensively for work and pleasure. She sees her diverse cultural exposures as an artistic asset that, combined with her love of imaginative inventions, inspires and shapes her creations. For over 25 years, she has exhibited internationally. Her dynamic abstract paintings are on the covers of international textbooks and the walls of residential homes, hotels, health care centres, and corporate buildings.
With the ever-increasing costs to operate, the VAC is in the very unfortunate circumstance where we now need financial help from our core supporters — the community of artists, educators, and arts enthusiasts we’ve served for decades.
If you’ve enjoyed our programming, or have been one of the hundreds of artists we’ve uplifted through exhibitions and other opportunities, we’re now calling in the favour.
Please donate to the VAC today … no amount is too little or too much!
{charitable tax receipts issued at time of donation}
Though we have been able to increase and diversify our revenue stream over recent years, it just isn’t enough to cover costs anymore.
We’ve been there for you since 1968, and together we’ve built something incredible and unique to Victoria … please help us raise the much needed funds to keep the VAC going!
31 October 2024 – 21 January 2025 GVPL Emily Carr Branch 3521 Blanshard St #101, Victoria, BC MTWFS 10am-6pm / Th 10am-7pm
About the Artist: Shelley is a lifetime artschool dabbler, having completed courses in photography, sculpture, life drawing and painting. She is a former music teacher and sings in a classical choir in Victoria, BC. She first called herself an artist in 2018 when she embarked on her original series: “Unreal Birds”, which are beautifully outrageous bird-like portraits inspired by chickens. Since 2018, disciplined practice and free play in the studio, along with focused study have led her towards abstracted nature paintings that have a tinge of reality, intense colour, and whimsy mixed with sadness.
Is there beauty in a melting polar mountain, or flowers just a bit beyond their prime? Shelley says yes, definitely. Beauty mixed with sadness is how life often is. Her imagined landscapes and expiring flowers are joyful, colourful and textured; and moody but hopeful.
Shelley is inspired by street art, nature, the birds in her own back yard, and by simple things like the colour of a stormy sky or the droop of a tulip.
The past two years have been very busy for Shelley, having been involved in numerous shows in 2023 and 2024 along with winning three Jurors choice awards in that time. Her work was recently hung at BC’s Government House, and she has upcoming shows at the Gallery Splash! (September), and the Fairmont Empress Hotel (December).
AWARDS:
Saanich Peninsula Arts and Crafts Society – A Bath Walk – Jurors Choice 2023
Saanich Peninsula Arts and Crafts Society – Riff on a Thomson Pine – Jurors Choice 2024
Saanich Peninsula Arts and Crafts Society – Polar Melt – Jurors Choice 2024
Artist Statement:
Historically, paintings were an important method of documenting life. Landscape paintings served as the backdrop to religious and mythical stories and scenes of life.
In the late 19th century, cameras became accessible and prevalent; and this was a major factor in the unleashing of landscape painters. Painters began to paint their impressions of landscapes, expressively, with movement and with colour and without concern for realism.
Imagined Landscapes
I am grateful to those who have come before me, who have given me so much to learn from, and for the freedom to plunge into the world of imagined landscapes. When I am in the zone, I work quickly with fast drying acrylic paints, pastels and sometimes collage, sometimes a dab of oil stick here and there. I am a bit messy, but always very free.
I have really delved into the world of Imagined Landscapes, where boundaries of reality are blurred and nature’s essence is reimagined. I love a tree that couldn’t possibly exist, oran impossibly coloured sky. I love to exaggerate what is already there, or to express my imagination.
Through my art I hope to draw attention to the beauty around us and evoke a sense of wonder and respect for our planet. Our Ice is melting, mountains are crying, trees are bending under the force of climate change. We are hot and dry, or covered by a deluge of rain, yet our landscape, our life force, remains a source of hope and beauty.
Through my paintings, I hope to inspire a sense of connection to the environment while celebrating the power of imagination.
