2018

Charlene Vickers’ work investigates memory, territorial embodiment and cultural gesture as connections to her birthplace of Kenora, Ontario. Vickers, who is Anishinaabe from Wauzhushk Onigum First Nation, explores her Ojibwa identity through painting, sculpture, performance and video. In a recent series of watercolour and gouache paintings, Vickers references traditional porcupine quillwork techniques as formal rhythms and patterns, which gain both subtle detail and increased abstraction with each iteration.

Vickers holds a BA in Critical Studies and an MFA, both from Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. She has participated in exhibitions and performances at Urban Shaman, Winnipeg; grunt galley, Vancouver; Artspeak, Vancouver; and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver. Vickers’ work is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Helen Reed and Hannah Jickling have been collaborating since 2006. Their projects take shape as public installations, social situations, and events that circulate as photographs, videos, printed matter, and artists’ multiples. They are currently fascinated with collaborative research, especially in their recent projects with children. Reed and Jickling have exhibited and performed internationally, with both individual and collaborative work appearing in such venues as: The Portland Art Museum (OR), The Dunlop Art Gallery (SK), Smack Mellon (NY), Doris McCarthy Gallery (ON), The Yukon Arts Centre Gallery (YT), YYZ Artists’ Outlet (ON), Carleton University Art Gallery (ON), Dalhousie University Art Gallery (NS), Bästa Biennalen (SE), The Vancouver Art Gallery (BC), The Power Plant (ON) and Flat Time House’s first issue of NOIT (UK). In Fall 2017, they released Multiple Elementary, a book that explores the elementary school classroom as a site of invention and reception of contemporary art practices, published by YYZBOOKS. They are recipients of the 2016 Ian Wallace Award for Teaching Excellence (Emily Carr University of Art & Design) and a 2017 Mayor’s Arts Award for Emerging Public Art (City of Vancouver).