Soul Power Catalogue Launch

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Join us for the launch of the highly-anticipated catalogue Jan Wade: Soul Power, produced to accompany the exhibition of the same name surveying Vancouver artist Jan Wade’s rich body of work from the 1990s to the present.

This special event will feature a roundtable conversation with catalogue contributors Daina Augaitis, Wayde Compton and the artist herself. They will discuss Wade’s significant contributions to the history of art making in Vancouver and delve into some of the themes explored in their essays, from redressing Wade’s place in contemporary Canadian art to the importance of sticking with something, sticking with your community and persevering.

Following the conversation, there will be a cash bar and an opportunity to have your catalogue signed by the artist.

This event will take place at the Vancouver Art Gallery in Room 4East and on the Rooftop Pavilion.

Jan Wade: Soul Power—on view at the Vancouver Art Gallery from July 10, 2021 to March 13, 2022—marked the first solo exhibition by a Black female artist in the Gallery’s 90-year history. Co-published with Information Office, the accompanying catalogue both honours and documents Wade’s compelling but underrecognized practice. It is the first monograph to explore Wade’s work and will serve as an important resource and record of her more than three-decade career.

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ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION

If you have any requests, concerns or questions regarding accessibility at this event, please contact Public Programs Coordinator Stephanie Bokenfohr by email at sbokenfohr@vanartgallery.bc.ca.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Daina Augaitis is Chief Curator Emerita at the Vancouver Art Gallery. From 2019–20, she was Interim Director, and from 1996–2017, she worked as Chief Curator/Associate Director, leading the Gallery’s exhibitions, publications, collections and interpretive programs and ensuring the presence of local artists in an international context. Augaitis has also worked as a curator at the Walter Phillips Gallery, Western Front, Franklin Furnace and has curated freelance projects for Museo Reina Sofia, Power Plant and the Johannesburg, São Paulo and Sydney biennales. Having curated well over 100 projects that include performance, spoken word and radio, Augaitis’ major monographic exhibitions with associated publications include those of Rebecca Belmore (with Kathleen Ritter), Douglas Coupland, Stan Douglas, Charles Edenshaw (with Robin Wright), Geoffrey Farmer, Alicia Henry, Brian Jungen, Bharti Kher (with Diana Freundl), Kimsooja, Muntadas, Ian Wallace, Gillian Wearing, among others. Augaitis lives and works in Vancouver on the traditional, unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Waututh people.

Wayde Compton is a Black Canadian writer/poet, DJ and historian, born and raised in Vancouver, BC. Compton has published two books of poetry: 49th Parallel Psalm and Performance Bond. He has also edited an anthology Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and Orature and recently a collection of essays entitled After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing, and Region. He co-founded Commodore Books, the first Black-oriented press in Western Canada, with David Chariandy and Karina Vernon in 2006. He’s also been involved with the recovery of Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver, a historically Black neighbourhood that was removed in the 1960s for a highway. Compton co-founded the Hogan’s Alley Memorial Project in 2002, a grassroots organization that archives the history of Vancouver’s Black community. Along with his published writing, Compton is known for his engaging and improvisational approach to reading his work, often performing turntable–based sound poetry with collaborative partner, DJ Jason de Couto. Currently Compton is the director of The Writer’s Studio, a creative writing program in Continuing Studies at Simon Fraser University.

Jan Wade was born in 1952, in Hamilton, Ontario, to a Black Canadian father with familial origins in the American South and a Canadian mother of European descent. Raised in a relatively segregated but close-knit Black community within the city, her formative years were heavily influenced by her local African Methodist Episcopal Church. She was also greatly influenced by Black culture of the Southern United States and aesthetics from the perspectives of her paternal grandmother and great-grandmother. Wade studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design (1972–76). She moved to Vancouver in 1983 and became part of the underground art and music scene in the city, with its innovative performances, do-it-yourself art shows, anti-establishment ethos and spontaneous happenings. During this period, Wade began collaborating with musicians on poster designs and making hand-painted T-shirts, showcasing her interest in handmade aesthetics and alternative artistic subcultures. During this period, Wade began her research into African diasporic spiritual practices and decided she wanted her art to reflect where she came from and who she is, commencing her unique artistic journey marked by self-sufficiency, empowerment, hope and radical joy. The artist produces a wide range of mixed-media works made entirely from found objects and recycled materials.