Visual Arts

Photography and glass

Wes Bell’s photography and Hope Forstenzer’s sculptures are on display at the Zack Gallery until May 18. (photo by Sarah Dobbs)

The current exhibition at the Zack Gallery is actually two separate shows: Wes Bell’s series of black and white photographs, called Snag, which is part of the Capture Photography Festival, and Hope Forstenzer’s glass sculptures, called If Not Now, When?

The connection between the artists’ works is not immediately obvious.

“I was initially drawn to the idea of colour and black and white and the impact that would have on the visitors to the gallery,” curator Sarah Dobbs explained. “Both Wes Bell and Hope Forstenzer use everyday materials and imagery to explore complex emotional experiences, transforming the ordinary into something deeply symbolic. Their works consider ideas of vulnerability and change, whether through Bell’s weathered landscapes of loss or Forstenzer’s delicate glass forms that capture fleeting human feelings. Together, they create a dialogue about presence, inviting people to consider the fragility and urgency of being alive.”

Bell hasn’t always photographed in black and white. After he graduated from the Alberta College of Art in 1980, he worked as a fashion photographer, first in Milan, then in New York. “I was well known for my colours and my attention to details when I was in fashion,” he said. “I was published in many prestigious magazines, but I burned out after awhile. The commercial freelance roller-coaster hollowed me out.”

In 2008, the global financial crisis was the final straw. He fell into depression. “I felt that my life had too much colour,” he said. “I needed to simplify, but I didn’t know what my new direction should be.”

He went back to school. “I took classes in the history of photography and history of cinema, among others,” he said.

Bell returned to Alberta to say goodbye to his mother, who was dying of cancer. “As I drove back to the airport, my attention drifted to the roadside, to the flapping remnants of plastic bags snagged in barbed-wire fences running alongside the highway,” he recalled. “Mile after mile, the fences lining the ditches were embellished with forgotten shreds of plastic, whipped by the wind. They might’ve been blown off trucks or thrown away out of cars. Frayed, lacerated and punctured, they drew me in. There was melancholy there that resonated, like souls of the people we lost or wings of some fantastic creatures. I stopped the car and took photos.”

He uploaded the photos to his computer and converted them to black and white, to reflect his sadness. “Seven weeks later, Mom passed away. It is in remembrance of her that these images first came to life,” he said.

Bell returned to those ditches and fences. “I came there for three years, from 2015 to 2017, to photograph those bags fluttering in the wind. I photographed 68 different sites, always during the transitional season from winter to spring, when everything appeared dead, when no green vegetation, foliage or flowers distracted from the forms. Every time I took photos, I removed the bags from the barbed wire and put them in the closest garbage bins. I tried to take care of the environment.”

photo - "Snag - 11th Avenue NE, Medicine Hat, AB, Canada, 2015," a photograph by Wes Bell. — “Snag – 11th Avenue NE, Medicine Hat, AB, Canada, 2015,” a photograph by Wes Bell.

For Bell, these images symbolize his grief over the loss of both his parents. His father passed away just a few weeks before the show opened.

“This show for me is about loss and memory, about the universality of grief, not just for my parents but for everyone who dies. There is so much death in the world right now, so much oppression,” he said. “And mourning and funerals in many cultures around the world are often associated with black. That’s why I decided to go with the black and white approach. My original, coloured pictures don’t have the same impact.”

In contrast, Forstenzer’s sculptures are infused with colour. Only one sculpture is white – “Spine.” Every vertebra of that twisty glass spine is inscribed with a negative emotion: despair, trapped, brittle, inferior, inadequate, doomed. The little sculpture inspires profound sadness.

“It is about my sister’s spine,” said Forstenzer. “She has severe scoliosis. She has been grappling with many health issues for years, and this unnaturally curved spine is symbolic of her problems.”

Forstenzer’s road to glass artistry was somewhat convoluted.

“My background is in graphic design, photography and film. I’ve been writing stories since childhood, but I always wanted to have a visual aspect for my stories, too,” she said. “For years, I was the artistic director of a multimedia company in New York. We worked on short avant-garde plays: mine as well as ones written by others. We produced them around New York. It was an amazing job, very interesting and successful, but it didn’t pay the bills.”

For that, she worked as a graphic designer. She also taught graphic design, first in the United States – New York, Seattle, Baltimore – and, later, in Vancouver, after her wife accepted a job at BC Children’s Hospital in 2012 and the family moved here. Forstenzer taught at Emily Carr and Simon Fraser.

After years of working hard but being unable to make a living with art, Forstenzer was burned out. “There is no system to support artists in America,” she said. “We all need a day job to survive. Or a spouse with a paying job, if we are lucky. I’m one of the lucky ones.”

Forstenzer started looking for a new direction.

“I lived down the street from Urban Glass Studio in Brooklyn. I took a class from them and paid in kind with my graphic designer services. I was 30 years old and I fell in love with glass. I knew it was the medium for me, the way to express myself, to tell my stories. In theatre, in painting, in photography, the artist provides the focus, and his audience accepts it. But with glass, my story might be totally different from the one my viewers see. Everyone sees glass through their own life experience, supplies their own interpretation.”

At first, glass art was a hobby.

“I wanted more glass classes – there is so much to learn,” she said. “We moved to Seattle. I took more glass classes and always negotiated to pay with my designer skills for the studio time.”

photo - "Omen 2" by Hope Forstenzer — “Omen 2” by Hope Forstenzer. *(photo by Olga Livshin)*

After moving to Vancouver, glass became her full-time artistic practice, and she joined the Terminal City Glass Co-op.

“When Sarah [Dobbs] asked me if I would like to share the show with Wes Bell, I agreed. I thought it would be a nice contrast. Wes’s photos are all about grief and desolation. I find my place in between grief and optimism. The world is a mess right now, but I want to believe that we can pull through if we act now. That’s why I called my part of the show ‘If Not Now, When?’” said Forstenzer. The famous saying is attributed to first-century BCE sage Hillel the Elder.

Two sculptures of wings attract the attention of everyone who enters the gallery. Both are parts of Forstenzer’s series Dream of Flight. “I made 12 sets, all belonging to different winged creatures, for a show in 2021,” she said. “You know, every human religion, every system of spiritual belief, uses wings or winged creatures in some way.”

Another memorable work is “Mourners.” Four small glass figurines, abstract depictions of people in mourning, occupy a stand in the middle of the gallery. Their bright, intertwined, yellow-and-blue hues shine against the black and white of Bell’s photographs.

“I don’t think grief is always dark or colourless,” said Forstenzer. “When my mom died, I grieved, but I also remembered her beautiful heart and the colours she brought into my life. Death doesn’t remove the colours of our memories. I think it is a different aspect of grief, just as there are different ways to tell the same story.”

The two shows run until May 18.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Art chosen for new museum

From a specific vantage point, the dispersed lines of Nicolas Baier’s Candelabra – winner of the Montreal Holocaust Museum’s public art competition for its new building – create the shape of a sphere. (photo from MHM)

The Montreal Holocaust Museum (MHM) has selected Montreal-based artist Nicolas Baier as the winner of its public art competition for its new museum opening in 2027.

Baier’s artwork, Candelabra, will be installed on the museum’s rooftop terraces. The sculpture is a luminous, constellation-like network of polished stainless-steel lines and points of light set against the Montreal sky. The work is reminiscent of countless survivor stories about imprisonment in ghettos and concentration camps, where the only form of escape was looking to the night sky. Inspired by the human impulse to connect stars into meaningful patterns, the piece reflects bonds built between individuals, communities and generations.

Rather than reproducing traditional constellations, Baier has created a new network based on astronomical data from the sky above Montreal. From a specific vantage point on the terrace, the dispersed lines create the shape of a sphere, evoking our shared planet and humanity.

photo - Nicolas Baier’s Candelabra — Nicolas Baier’s Candelabra. *(photo from MHM)*

In a museum dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, Candelabra speaks to the fragility and resilience of human connection. The Holocaust was marked by the systematic destruction of Jewish life, the devastation of whole communities and the severing of social bonds. At a time when antisemitism and other forms of hate are on the rise, the sculpture serves as a reminder that societies are shaped by the networks we build and protect, and that, even in darkness, light endures.

The competition was held in accordance with Quebec’s Politique d’intégration des arts à l’architecture et à l’environnement des bâtiments et des sites gouvernementaux et publics, which mandates that approximately one percent of the construction budget of public buildings be dedicated to the commissioning of a work of art.

The selection committee was composed of Marie-Blanche Fourcade (head of collections and exhibitions at the MHM); Adrian Sheppard (user representative); Renée Daoust (architect); Suzelle Levasseur (visual arts specialist); Stéphanie L’Heureux (ministry representative); Martha Townsend (visual arts specialist); and Helen Malkin (observer, chair and consultant for the new MHM).

“Nicolas Baier’s proposal moved us because it expresses the importance of human connection,” said Rachel Gropper, Holocaust survivor and co-president of the museum. “In a place devoted to memory and education, this work reminds us that each individual life matters, and that together we have the responsibility to uphold compassion and hope.”

To contribute to the MHM’s building campaign, Give Voice, go to museeholocauste.ca/en/give-voice.

– Courtesy Montreal Holocaust Museum

Art dismantles systems

“I Betrayed Him and the Fate of Becoming Him” by Yongzhen Li is part of Li’s solo exhibit – Structures of the Unsaid – at the Zack Gallery. (photo from Yongzhen Li)

On March 5, the Zack Gallery opened its first solo exhibition by a non-Jewish artist in years. Called Structures of the Unsaid, it presents the work of Yongzhen Li, a recent immigrant from China. By coincidence, it is also Li’s first solo show, and the show’s name reflects the artist’s feelings about his native China’s patriarchal culture and collectivist society.

“The art committee and I asked Li to be part of the Zack Gallery exhibitions over a year ago,” said Sarah Dobbs, the gallery’s curator.

“His talent, the way he handles the surface of the paper and the themes that we felt resonate with the Jewish community were the primary reasons for selecting him for a solo show,” she said. “The way he works – using ink, rice paper and mugwort water, which stains the surface before the image appears – reflects his deep skills as an artist. This was the primary pull for us to exhibit him. In addition, the water residue acts as a form of embodied memory, recalling the imperative to remember – the surface carries what cannot be seen.

“His practice emerges from absence, where the creation of each piece is a gesture of repair within fracture, like a quiet form of tikkun, a concept found in the Zohar,” she explained. “Painting is how he wrestles, remembers and remakes meaning. So, the conceptual nature of his work, combined with his skills, was a no-brainer. The committee and I just immediately voted him yes!”

Li and his wife, Jiamin, came to Canada in 2024, settling in Oshawa, Ont.

“I like the food here – so many Asian groceries,” he said with a smile. “But language is hard for me. It’s always been so, even before we came here. Language has always felt too thin. The words seem to flatten what I feel, while images allow it to remain alive.” That’s why he asked his wife to act as his interpreter during his interview with the Independent.

Li’s road to the arts was not simple.

“My father is a petroleum worker,” he said. “And so was his father before him. It is traditional in China that a son follows his father’s work. It is a good job, with a decent pay, and it was already arranged for me after I graduated, but I didn’t want to do it. I always felt like an outsider in my family. I didn’t want to know my future for the next 50 years. I knew it wouldn’t make me happy. I wanted to do art. I wanted to be free in my choices.”

That was his first rebellion, his first step against the established routine, but not his last.

“I was about 13 at the time…. By Chinese tradition, children of artists who follow their fathers into art start their artistic training at 6. I was already too old, but I needed to do it. Otherwise, I felt that I had nothing of my own. Fortunately, I had a good art teacher at school,” said Li, adding with a grin: “And I became popular with my classmates.”

photo - “Underground World” by Yongzhen Li, whose solo exhibit at Zack Gallery runs to April 13 — “Underground World” by Yongzhen Li, whose solo exhibit at Zack Gallery runs to April 13. *(image from Yongzhen Li)*

His next step upon graduation was the Academy of Fine Art in Xi’an, one of the largest cities in China, with an ancient history and a long artistic tradition. The famous Terracotta Army, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located just outside the city. The Xi’an academy is considered one of the best art schools in China, but Li didn’t like his time there.

“There was no creative freedom,” he said. “The professors were rigid, wanted me to copy them, to follow their instructions without thinking. It didn’t work for me.”

Once more, Li went against the established mode. He quit the academy and found a job to support himself and his wife. He worked with social media while teaching himself to be an artist.

“People thought I was crazy to quit,” he said. “My parents wouldn’t help financially – they didn’t approve of my actions. Besides, they were getting a divorce. And I was already married – we met at the academy. Jiamin was also a student there.”

When COVID struck, the young couple experienced the restrictions that were placed on people worldwide.

“We became all isolated, had to stay at home,” Li recalled. “But we watched lots on the internet, especially YouTube videos. In China, the world internet is not available – it is illegal there to access YouTube or Google or Facebook. Chinese people have their own limited internet version, allowed by the government, but many young people ignore those restrictions and download apps to watch the real internet. We did too and we learned a lot. We could finally see for ourselves how the world worked. We decided to emigrate to Canada.”

Canada was a revelation to Li. “I’m free here,” he said.

To make ends meet, Li works for a delivery company, but, in his spare time, he continues to paint and learn, and his art evolves. When he lived in China, his themes tended to be narrow, tied to certain events or ideas, but his latest imagery explores more complex issues of identity, memory and resistance.

“Art has become my emotional refuge as well as a method of self-liberation,” he said.

It also allows him to process his inner tension and vulnerability, as he struggles for personal and creative autonomy. His large painting “Underground World,” finished in the past month, is symbolic of his current trend of using traditional Chinese motifs and media to address contemporary and universal topics.

The painting looks like a collage, denoting the artist’s inner journey; many aspects intertwine and contradict one another. Family history versus personal fragility. Government direction versus private uncertainty.

“I am not searching for villains. I am dismantling systems,” Li says in his artist statement. “I refer to structures that appear normal: family control, humiliation disguised as education, and forms of care that carry hidden violence. Tragedy most often happens not through cruelty, but through what is socially justified, well-intentioned and unquestioned.”

As for his life in Canada, Li said, “I’m thinking of taking some art classes here. There is so much choice, so much freedom for an artist.”

Structures of the Unsaid is on display until April 13. To learn more about Li, visit his website, yongzhenli.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Tapping into their creativity

Sidi Schaffer (standing) has been leading an art class at the Weinberg Residence since last October. (photo by Vanessa Trester)

Sidi Schaffer, a well-known Vancouver artist and art teacher, moved to the Weinberg Residence last August. “My husband passed away in June, and I didn’t want to be alone in our big house,” she told the Independent. “Here, I’m not alone.”

No matter where she lives, Schaffer is an artist at heart, and her art always finds an outlet. In this case, it is a class for Weinberg residents.

“I approached Vanessa [Trester, manager of the Weinberg Residence], and suggested I start an art class,” Schaffer said. “I’ve been an art teacher for decades. I have so much to share with my students.”

Trester agreed with the suggestion and Schaffer’s sessions started last October.

“The official name of the class is Fun Exploring Art with Sidi Schaffer,” said Trester. “Besides the opportunity to learn about art and artists, the students can tap into their creativity with Sidi’s direction. The class provides the residents with joy, lifts their spirits, and brings connectivity through their shared stories.”

Participation in the Monday classes fluctuates between eight and 12 people. “Not everyone can come all the time,” said Schaffer. “The residents here are not young. Someone has a headache or a doctor’s appointment, or their family is visiting. But people come when they can. We put on classical music in the background. I bring some art supplies – I have a lot of brushes and paper and paints – plus what Vanessa bought, and we have fun. As long as my students are happy, I’m happy.”

Her class makes many attendees happy. One of them, Helen Sankoff, told the Independent: “I don’t have any prior experience creating art, but I used to knit, do needlepoint and make jewelry as a hobby. Now, I attend Sidi’s class because she is a wonderful artist and teacher. She introduces us to many different artists and ways of painting, and I find her art class very relaxing. We have classical music playing in the background, and it’s my favourite time of the week.”

As an experienced teacher, Schaffer doesn’t set impossible goals for herself or her students. “I’m not trying to teach them deep painting techniques,” she said. “They don’t have to create masterpieces. I’m trying to show them how to express themselves through artistic means. Creating art is not a focus in this class, it is a side benefit. The focus is to enjoy it.”

She enjoys it too and uses famous artists and art history as inspiration. Her artistic education is extensive: first in her native Romania, then in Israel and, finally, in Canada. She has lived, studied and worked in all three countries.

Schaffer shares her love for various art movements with her students.

“We started with Van Gogh. I brought Van Gogh’s reproductions to the class, and some sunflowers,” she said. “First, I told them about Van Gogh, his life and his art. Then, I set up the sunflowers and the students painted them.”

From Van Gogh, she proceeded to Paul Cézanne. “He painted landscapes and still life, and I brought apples to the class to paint,” said Schaffer.

One class was an introduction to Claude Monet and his waterlilies. “I had some photos, and some of the students saw those paintings when they visited Paris years ago,” she shared.

After French impressionists, Schaffer decided it was time for Canadian art, particularly the Group of Seven. But, she started with Ted Harrison and his Northern Lights, bringing in his books. She had her students imitate his style.

“I want us to have a field trip to the Vancouver Art Gallery, to see Emily Carr’s paintings. It will probably happen as soon as we have some volunteers available,” she said.

In the meantime, Schaffer has switched to Australian aboriginal art, where every image is comprised of dots. “It is amazing what can be done in this technique,” she said. “It is very suitable to my students, an easy technique, as each one of them is over 80 years old. Some suffer from arthritis and have trouble holding a brush.”

One participant’s paintings “are similar to each other, no matter which artist I tell them about,” said Schaffer, but they enjoy the class, “and that is the most important outcome.”

Schaffer’s classes are eclectic, covering a variety of styles, materials and methods. In one class, she concentrated on First Nations artist Daphne Odjig. Another time, she talked about avant-garde artist Georgia O’Keeffe. She has focused on the importance of perspective in painting.

“I want to have a class about painting body and face. I want to buy some clay for a sculpture class and we’ll have a mask-painting class for Purim,” she said before the holiday. “I push my students not to be realistic – to express their inner world, not copy the street outside. Art should be playful.”

One of her favourite techniques is collage that uses dry flowers and leaves. “They are so beautiful, so transparent, like visual poetry,” said Schaffer, who has albums of material. “I’ve always wanted to preserve their beauty, have done it since childhood. The designs on each leaf are unique. Some of them remind me of a place or a time.”

Schaffer has “no end of ideas for new classes.”

“Other artists – Chagall, Picasso – and other techniques,” she said. “I want to get some old magazines and art books to cut for collages. Perhaps the Waldman Library has some for sale. We’ll have fun in that class.”

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Artists explore, soar, create

Theresa Kinahan’s “The Fallery Garden That I Love Like My Friends” is part of the Roots and Wings exhibit at the Zack Gallery until March 2. (photo from Zack Gallery)

The eighth annual Inclusion Art Show returns to the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver in celebration of Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month (JDAIM). The exhibit’s theme, “Roots and Wings,” reflects the grounding strength of heritage and community alongside the freedom to explore, soar and create. The displayed works highlight inclusion, diversity and the creative talents of artists at every stage of their artistic journey.

This year’s Roots and Wings exhibit features Theresa Kinahan, Kevin Lee (Kevo), Mark Li, Gabriel López Demarco, Mariane Stifelmann and Matthew Tom-Wing.

Art has always been a part of Kinahan’s life. She started to draw when she was just a little girl, and her media have included photography, acrylic, fabric art, enamel, wood-cut printing, charcoal, pastel, watercolour, metalwork, welding and pottery. She taught art in Vancouver high schools for many years, but epilepsy and an ensuing brain injury forced her to retire early. She turned to painting for therapy, drawing inspiration primarily from nature, notably for her acrylic fern series. She signs her paintings with her initials and a heart, which is reflective of the love she feels all around her.

Kevo was born with Trisomy No.18 and was unable to make a sound until he was 6 years old. Art became a way to communicate and express his creativity and emotions; a way to share his delight with the world. Today, Kevo channels his creativity and love of art into painting, music, dance and clay work. He loves colour and the physical act of painting. Every one of his pieces has a thoughtful story or a kind wish.

Li, who creates at the Art Hive, is a visual artist whose narrative-focused work creates a whimsical world filled with colour and imagination. Every one of his paintings is a tale of friendship and depicts acts of kindness: a bear might be best friends with a cat; a T-Rex smiles with shy humour and sweetness at the viewer; a ladybug and a cat might go dancing in the sunlight; a walk in the park with a friend and his dog is a delightful adventure.

photo - Gabriel Fernando López DeMarco’s “I Am Born from Desire” — Gabriel Fernando López DeMarco’s “I Am Born from Desire.” *(photo from Zack Gallery)*

López Demarco, who was born in Buenos Aires, joined his first art workshop at the age of 5. At the age of 13, he entered the Villa Mecenas art school and, at 18, the National University of Art.

During university, López Demarco continued attending painting, sculpture, engraving and printed art workshops, making artistic and conceptual trips through Argentina. In 2013, he traveled through South America and, in 2015, he went to Mexico, where he studied fresco painting. At the same time, he expanded his studies of engraving and printed art.

Since then, he has traveled around Central America, the United States and Europe, carrying out murals and other artistic activities. In 2023 and 2024, he worked as a muralist on the public art team of the municipality of Morón, Argentina. In 2025, he went to China to study calligraphy and Chinese painting. He currently works as a freelance muralist around the word.

Stifelmann was born in Brazil and moved to Vancouver in 2000. She is a former kindergarten and Grade 1 teacher, and studied at the Pan-American School of Arts in São Paulo.

photo - Mariane Stifelmann’s “The Couple” — Mariane Stifelmann’s “The Couple.” *(photo from Zack Gallery)*

On display at the Zack is Stifelmann’s “The Couple,” one of her first paintings. It is created in a caricature style with acrylic paint, and expresses her deep love for her family – the work depicts her grandparents, Eda and Jacob Koin, who emigrated from Poland.

Over the years, Stifelmann has evolved her technique and style and has worked with artist Nati Saidi for more than a decade. Her art embraces vibrant colours and evokes feelings of joy, freedom and nostalgia. Through her work, she invites viewers into a world where light and happiness are always in season.

Tom-Wing is an active member of the Bagel Club and part of the JCC Art Hive. “I am an artist and have sold paintings and ceramic pieces,” he said. “I love music. I play the drums and am also the drummer in the Vancouver BFF band.”

Tom-Wing also enjoys acting and being involved in the theatre world. His roles have included the character Magwitch in the play King Arthur’s Night.

Roots and Wings is on display until March 2. One hundred percent of the proceeds from artwork sales goes directly to each artist.

– Courtesy Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery

Different concepts of home

The current show at the Zack Gallery – Finding Home – unites three very different artists: Jeannette Bittman, Andrea Dillingham-Lacoursiere and Eri Ishii. Sarah Dobbs, the gallery curator, told the Independent how the show came together.

“All three artists submitted independent proposals for solo exhibitions,” said Dobbs, adding that, in their own unique way, all three artists “engaged the ideas of place, displacement, immigration and the evolving notion of home.… Their works differ significantly in style and approach, but their practices intersect conceptually. Andrea’s work is rooted in a specific geographic place. Eri’s practice explores internal and emotional landscapes. Jeannette’s work centres on the table as a focal point of Jewish life and tradition, and as a site that reflects the dynamics, rituals and emotional complexities of gathering. Together, their works expand and complicate the idea of home, from the physical to the psychological and to the communal.”

photo - “At Work” by Jeannette Bittman — “At Work” by Jeannette Bittman. *(photo by Olga Livshin)*

Bittman’s images are all domestic scenes. People, young and old, gather around a table, eating and chatting. The colours are muted, the faces indistinct, less important. The table and the food are the points of connection, the common joy and purpose.

“A table is of great significance in everyone’s life,” Bittman told the JI. “It is the place where we eat, but, maybe more importantly, where we meet others and ourselves. The table and gathering around it are critical to Jewish life and culture. Family meals are crucial for family and child growth. Gathering with friends often occurs around a table. Self-reflection, recollection and reminiscence, as well as dreams, occur around a table.” For her, a table is the essence of home.

photo - Jeannette Bittman — Jeannette Bittman (photo courtesy)

“As an artist, I’m intrigued by human emotions and want to represent them through my art,” she said. “Initially, I focus on the realistic expressions of the models. Then, I explore, using colour, shade and form to go deeper. I try to capture the feeling rather than reality … I search for the mood. I rarely have a finished product in mind and become fascinated with the multitude of possibilities. It’s often challenging for me to stop at one.”

Ishii, meanwhile, ponders the outdoors in her paintings. A girl is running along a forest trail in “Runner.” Three girls are gazing across a river in “Three.” A young woman contemplates a peaceful pond in “Bridge,” while dappled sunlight plays all around her, and water ripples beneath the pilings of a little bridge.

All of Ishii’s images are quiet and introspective, uplifting in their tranquil greenery. One could almost hear the breeze whispering in the boughs and the wavelets muttering at the shore. “I am essentially a figurative painter,” said the artist. “My main interest is the inner world of my figures. I want to create works that have emotional resonance.”

For Ishii, home is a complex concept, an inner rapport rather than a particular geographic region. “To me, home means belonging, community and a sense of identity. As an immigrant, I have experienced that these things are fluid and shifting. I have two homes: the place where I spent my formative years – Japan – and the place where I chose to build my life – Canada.”

photo - “Runner” by Eri Ishii — “Runner” by Eri Ishii. *(photo by Olga Livshin)*

About her pieces in the Zack show, she said, “I made them at different points of my life. ‘Bridge’ and ‘Three’ are parts of a series that explores storytelling in paintings. They were inspired by film stills from a British mystery. ‘Runner’ and ‘Picnic’ are made more recently. ‘Runner’ revisits the running series from 20 years ago. The series investigated the transient nature of life and posed questions concerning where we are running to, as well as what we are running from. ‘Picnic’ is the most recent of my works. It explores family relationships. It was inspired by a photo I saw in a recipe book that showed a family enjoying a feast.”

photo - Eri Ishii — Eri Ishii *(photo courtesy)*

Like many artists, Ishii is fond of mentoring others. “Teaching is rewarding in more external ways, as opposed to painting,” she said. “I love being part of people’s journeys, as they tackle challenges of making paintings. It is my way of giving back what I learnt, whereas painting is more internal, as I try to explore what is going on inside of me.”

Ishii’s creative explorations could happen anywhere in the world. “I deliberately made them non-specific,” she said. “I wanted to keep them open to viewers’ imagination.”

Dillingham-Lacoursiere, on the other hand, dedicates her landscapes to one very specific location: Lasqueti Island in the Strait of Georgia, an off-grid, ecologically conscious community, and her home. Her panoramic vistas are bright and intense. The sharp colours of land, ocean and sky echo the lines of nature and emphasize the artist’s fierce emotional link to the place. While Ishii’s paintings are murmurs of lyrical fulfilment and Bittman’s delve into the kernel of her Jewishness, Dillingham-Lacoursiere’s paintings are screams of defiance, a rebellious statement of the artist’s soul.

“I used to equate home with a soft place to land, with treasured collections and memories that serve as reminders of our lives, our ancestors,” she said. “When I moved from Alberta, I left a five-bedroom house, my family, most of my friends, a community that had taken me a lifetime to build, but it wasn’t easy [there]. Reconciling the beauty of the prairies with a mindset and values that never fit meant it was an uphill battle. I was tired of trying to make myself fit into the place I called home but had never felt like it.”

photo - “Home” by Andrea Dillingham-Lacoursiere — “Home” by Andrea Dillingham-Lacoursiere. *(photo by Olga Livshin)*

Here, in British Columbia, she said, “Now, home for me exists in small ways. It’s my favourite tree. It’s reading poetry on a Sunday morning, with coffee in my favourite mug…. I’ve worked with First Nations communities for over a decade, and it was in those circles, around those fires and in those sweat lodges, that I learned women are the keepers of the home. In that sense, I am my home, and I can offer refuge, perhaps especially to myself.”

photo - Andrea Dillingham-Lacoursiere — Andrea Dillingham-Lacoursiere *(photo courtesy)*

Dillingham-Lacoursiere has been painting landscapes for about 10 years. “I had avoided painting landscapes my whole life, until 2016. At the time, I was in the throes of a crisis of conscience, at the confluence of my job and my community,” she shared. “I had spent a year at the helm of a project that was deeply honouring the unfinished lives of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls of this country. The next project I was asked to lead at the museum and art gallery where I worked was the Canada 125 celebrations. The cognitive dissonance I felt pulled me in ways I could not have expected.”

Her response was artistic.

“It led me to an exhibit focused on landscapes of our national parks system. It is a system constructed to outwardly give a sense of national pride, but, at the same time, to commodify some of the most beautiful natural spaces … as escapes for those that could afford it,” she said. “That exhibit was called Reflections on My Reconciliation. People really connected with my art and my message. And it began the unravelling of what I thought it meant to be Canadian for me.”

Finding Home opened Jan. 7 and runs until Feb. 2. Every visitor will be confronted with the question, “What does home mean to you?”

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Explorations of light

Into the Light – featuring the art of Gillian Richards, left, and Pilar Mehlis – is at the Zack Gallery until Jan. 5. (photo by Olga Livshin)

The current show at the Zack Gallery, Into the Light, introduces two artists: Pilar Mehlis and Gillian Richards. Both explore light and air in their paintings – though with very different approaches.

Mehlis was born in Bolivia. Her family moved to Canada when she was 12. Since then, she regularly travels between the two countries: for study or work. “I’ve lived in Vancouver since 2001, but I still visit Bolivia every year,” she told the Independent. She feels that she belongs to both cultures, the same way she belongs to art.

“I didn’t choose art as a profession,” she said. “It chose me. I always liked doing art, but, in Bolivia, art is not considered a serious profession. Not stable enough. In the beginning, I tried to deny it, found various jobs in other fields, but I couldn’t stay away from art. When I was young, I had a romantic view of the artistic life – you know, an artist in her studio. I know better now, but it is too late for me.” She smiled.

Richards is local. She studied fine art in British Columbia and Alberta, starting in high school. “After I graduated from a fine arts program, I worked for years in the film industry here, in Vancouver,” she said. “I was a scenic artist. It was a good job, with a steady income, and I learned a lot, but it wasn’t creative enough for me. I was always working on someone else’s concept. About 10 years ago, I decided to step back from film and pursue my own artistic ideas. I wanted to express myself, my vision.”

Both artists have known each other slightly for a long time, as their studios are in Parker Street Studios and both have participated in the Eastside Culture Crawl for years, but the shared exhibit is due to the efforts of Zack manager and curator Sarah Dobbs.

“Sarah brought us together,” Mehlis explained. “I applied for the show at the JCC, but I didn’t have enough new works to fill the gallery. Sarah visited several other studios in our building to find the second artist.” Richards picked up the story: “Sarah approached me with the idea of a two-artist show, and here we are.”

For Mehlis, her Latin American roots inform her paintings and sculptures. “Magic Realism is very popular in Latin America,” she said. “It fascinates me: the idea of mystical and mysterious in everyday life. My grandmother’s stories were full of magic embedded in the ordinary. And we have many street festivals in Bolivia. The performers wear colourful costumes of fantastic beasts, with only their human legs showing.”

Similarly, the birds in Mehlis’s paintings all have human legs and bright plumage. They are flying in the same direction, through the luminous light, towards goals only they know. The artist calls this series the Ornithrope Collection.

“The idea of migration of humans and animals intrigues me,” she said. “For fish and birds, there are no borders, they follow a pattern in the world. But humans – we have borders. Borders complicate things, and still people migrate. My birds are modeled on a swallow, a migratory creature. Swallows fly between North and South America every year, like me. They are my travel companions.”

image - “Riding on the Wings” by Pilar Mehlis — “Riding on the Wings” by Pilar Mehlis.

Most of her pieces were inspired by Caroline Shaw’s music, set to the words of psalms, and the titles reflect those inspirational, poetic phrases: “The sparrow found a house…” or “They pass through the valley…” or “Riding on the wings…” All the pieces are focused on fantastic, anthropomorphic birds: at rest or in flight. They are the protagonists of Mehlis’s stories.

Meanwhile, Richards’ paintings are of scenery, with succinct titles: “Commute,” “Ferry Deck,” “Tree Fort.”

“Urban spaces always interested me,” she said. “We pass them. We touch them. We change them. I take lots of photos when I walk around, and my photos often serve as a base for my paintings, something I want to explore, a starting point. Light and shadows create a mood, an atmosphere. That’s why there are no people in my paintings. People change the mood, but I don’t know who they are. As it is, the viewers are the participants. They can walk into my paintings and make up their own stories.”

Light suffuses Richards’ cityscapes, be it the pink sunlight on a ferry deck, the lamplight at night on a street corner, or the yellow sunlight peeking through a tangle of boards of an abandoned tree fort. In Richards’ paintings, we are the people driving in the cars or traveling on the ferry through the lights of ocean and sky. We might have built the fort.

image - “Tree Fort” by Gillian Richards — “Tree Fort” by Gillian Richards.

“That tree fort is such an expressive structure,” she said. “I have several paintings of it. It is in that liminal space between a residential area and a forest. There is a mystery there: who built it? What for? It’s human architecture, fragile but enduring.”

Like Mehlis, Richards finds mystery.

Another similarity between the artists is that both are cautious about commissions.

“I have only one client – a poet,” Mehlis said.

“I have done some commissions,” Richards said, “but it wasn’t really for me. It resembled too much my work in film: executing someone else’s ideas.”

Mehlis and Richards represent a generation of creative people finding their way, one step at a time, between the old brick-and-mortar gallery system and the new internet marketing world.

“I don’t know how to promote myself anymore,” said Mehlis. “It used to be all galleries, but now it is all online, and I don’t understand those algorithms.”

Richards agreed: “The gallery system is in trouble now, competing with the online sales. But Eastside Culture Crawl is still going strong. Most of us make our yearly income during Culture Crawl. Hundreds of visitors come every year to our studios. It is a huge artistic event, the most democratic art sales in Vancouver. Nobody curates it. People buy what they like.… I remember in 2021, just after COVID, there were still restrictions in place of how many people could visit at a time. I looked out the window and there was a lineup of people in front of the door to our studios. It stretched out for blocks. They all wanted our art. It was very heartening.”

Into the Light opened Nov. 13 and will be up until Jan. 5. For more information, visit the artists’ websites, pilarmehlis.ca and gillianrichardsartist.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Raising existential questions

Yuri Elperin’s solo show, Cycles of Being, opened at the Lipont Gallery in Richmond on Nov. 15. The show consists of Elperin’s large abstract mixed media paintings of the last few years. The art is powerful, eloquent and elegant, reflecting the artist’s personal voyage across Europe, Asia and North America, but also humanity’s collective journey. Memory, history and spirituality merge and interplay.

Elperin was born in Riga, Latvia, a year after the Second World War ended. Unable to pursue his artistic goals inside the limits prescribed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he emigrated in 1977. Searching for artistic freedom, he lived in Rome for about a year while waiting for his Canadian immigration papers.

“During his time in Rome, and his subsequent travels and research across Spain, France and Italy, he immersed himself in Western modern art,” notes the Lipton Gallery’s site.

In Vancouver, Elperin has had a decades-long career as a commercial photographer and in film, and he became dedicated to being a full-time artist in 1998, according to the gallery. His current show explores Eastern and Western philosophies.

Many religions and philosophical tenets of both Eastern and Western cultures throughout time are concerned with common questions: What is life? Why are we humans here? What is the purpose of life? How does everything link together? Elperin’s art contemplates possibilities, and the show’s name, Cycles of Being, underscores the cyclical nature of our unending chain of existence.

The paintings in this exhibit are three-dimensional, a fusion of paint and sculpture, golden leaf and marine plants. Paper, wood, metal and fabric combine and emerge as more than a sum of their parts.

The images tell stories, convey legends. They inspire questions and personal responses. Every title card in the gallery is a mini story, and the abstract artistic style suits the complexity of the philosophical exploration.

No reflection of the outside world manifests. No photographic likeness. Just meditations on the timeless themes of life, death and rebirth, which lead to further associations on the part of viewers.

The first painting that meets our eyes upon coming into the gallery is “Phase One” – a golden spread on the dark background. Does it reflect evolutionary theory or the world’s divine beginnings? One will interpret it according to one’s own beliefs.

photos - “Beginning of Endless Knot,” left, and “Impermanence” by Yuri Elperin, whose solo exhibition, Cycles of Being, is at the Lipont Gallery in Richmond until Dec. 4 — “Beginning of Endless Knot,” left, and “Impermanence” by Yuri Elperin, whose solo exhibition, Cycles of Being, is at the Lipont Gallery in Richmond until Dec. 4. *(photos by Ning Li)*

“Beginning of Endless Knot” continues the viewer’s journey, with its contrast of blue and gold, a simple circle versus a complex knot. In Buddhism, the endless knot represents, among other things, interconnectedness.

“Impermanence” reminds us that everything in the world is ephemeral. The red twisted shape, sinuous and enigmatic, teases with its perpetual dance. To me, it defies definition and implies that everything around us, physical and mental, is transient – the only constant is change.

On the opposite wall, the painting “Wu Zetian Dream” is a symphony in blue, a tribute to the only female ruler of China, Wu Zetian (624-705). During her reign, China became one of the greatest powers of the world. Many historians consider her the force that revitalized the Chinese culture and economy.

Many paintings in the exhibition include a circle as one of their main elements. The exhibit title piece, “Cycles of Being,” refers to the Buddhist idea that existence is an eternal sequence of birth, growth, transformation and renewal, that life and death are not linear, and that all living creatures are linked. This concept is represented by a mandala, a circular image of the universe.

Other images involving a circle are those of the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal and water. The artist’s visualization of them incorporates what could be called the traditional colours and energies of those elements (blue for water, red for fire, for example), but go beyond literal meaning. Again, all is connected, there are no beginnings and no ends.

Readers can meet Elperin on Nov. 26, 3-5 p.m., at the gallery. The exhibit runs until Dec. 4. To learn more, visit lipontgallery.ca.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Crawl bigger than ever

Suzy Birstein, who creates out of Parker Street Studios, is among the many artists – including Esther Rausenberg, Ideet Sharon, Lauren Morris and others – who are opening their doors to the public during the Eastside Culture Crawl Visual Arts, Design & Craft Festival Nov. 20-23. (photo from Suzy Birstein)

More than 500 artists – including Esther Rausenberg, Ideet Sharon, Lauren Morris, Suzy Birstein and other Jewish community members – are participating in the Eastside Arts Society’s 29th annual Eastside Culture Crawl Visual Arts, Design & Craft Festival Nov. 20-23.

The festival will welcome visitors into the studios and workshops of Eastside artists in more than 80 registered buildings, including 20 buildings new to the Crawl – marking a 25% increase in options for exploring all that is on display across the Eastside Arts District (EAD). This year also marks the beginning of a three-year partnership with the Audain Foundation as the Crawl’s presenting partner, recognizing the importance of creative spaces and experimentation to a vibrant and healthy arts ecosystem.

“Vancouver is home to a growing number of artists who continue to create in the face of tremendous economic hardships and reduced access to studio space,” said Rausenberg, who is artistic director of the Eastside Arts Society (EAS). “Their unwavering passion, ingenuity and resourcefulness results in a richness of unique and diverse production and working artist spaces, creating exciting new opportunities for art lovers to explore, to discover and to be inspired.”

Encompassing the region bounded by Columbia Street, 1st Avenue, Victoria Drive and the Waterfront, the festival offers visitors a window into the artistic practices of artists living and/or working in Vancouver’s EAD, representing creators specializing in painting, jewelry, sculpture, furniture, leather goods, photography, glass works, textiles, and more.

As part of the Crawl, EAS will host a series of ancillary events, including the 2025 Preview Exhibition, a multi-venue, salon-style curated exhibition that explores a variety of media, formats, techniques and styles. This year’s theme of “Passion, Reason, Idiocy” invited participating artists to submit works that speak to the emotional, rational and foolish elements of their lived experience as working artists. The exhibition features juried works from 78 artists at three venues – Pendulum Gallery, the Cultch Gallery and Alternative Creations Gallery – until Nov. 30.

The 12th Annual Eastside Culture Crawl Film and Video Exhibition, in partnership with the Lumière Festival, will be projected outdoors nightly Nov. 13-16. Short films from eight participating artists – Ethan White, Garrett Andrew Chong, Cheree Lang, Fatima Travassos, Debra Gloeckler, Rashi Sethi, Isaac Forsland and Nisha Platzer – explore the theme of “Unity,” selected by Moving Art curators Rausenberg, Kate MacDonald and Sierra MacTavish.

This year’s series of Talking Art panels will be shared online, with two remaining. On Nov. 12, curated and moderated by Samantha Mains, artists Mackenzie Perras and Jes Hanzelkova will talk about artist practices that rely on the use of place, whether as a source for their concepts, art medium and materials, or site for performance. On Nov. 13, Mains will moderate while artists Jai Sallay-Carrington and Gina D’Aloisio explore artists whose practices have been changed by the influence of others, through participation in artist residencies or social media.

During the Nov. 20-23 festival, artists’ studios will be open 5-10 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Full details of all the events, artists, talks and locations can be found at culturecrawl.ca.

– Courtesy Eastside Culture Crawl

A journey beyond self

“The Valley of the Shadow” by Michal Tkachenko.

Songs of Deliverance, a solo exhibit by Michal Tkachenko, opened last month at the Zack Gallery and is on display until Nov. 10. While its title is inspired by the lyrics of a Bethel Music song – “You unravel me, with a melody / You surround me with a song / Of deliverance, from my enemies / Till all my fears are gone” – its focus derives from three psalms.

“I really wanted to have a subject for the exhibition that would bind communities together and so I came to rest on the psalms, which span both Judaism and Christianity, but are also used in secular society as a means to reach out to a greater being beyond ourselves,” Tkachenko told the Independent. “For me, this is a huge departure from previous work in both subject and vulnerability. It is my most honest work so far and, as the exhibition falls on the two-year anniversary of everything I saw with my spirit, I feel myself rising from the anguish and am ready to speak about my experience now, to move towards creating what I saw was possible.”

Lacking the exact words to describe it, Tkachenko said she had a near-death, or mystical, experience two years ago, and she was in that state for more than a week.

“It instantly changed my entire outlook on life and death and it completely changed me,” she said. “I was so excited about it until I began to realize how isolated it made me and how those I reached out to didn’t always have a helpful response. I quickly spiraled into the dark night of the soul and have been traveling that road…. Two very deep things came to rest in me during this time. The first was a deep longing in my spirit for something greater than myself, to draw and stay extremely close to God. The second was a deep grief that all that I had seen with my spirit, particularly an unseen solid force of love that is everywhere and how we are meant to love and be vulnerable with each other as our primary purpose in life, were things I could not make happen however hard I tried.”

Psalm 23 – “As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” – was with Tkachenko throughout this two-year period. “For me,” she said, “it was a psalm about my journey and how, in the midst of the darkness, God was always with me and more vivid than I had ever experienced outside of that extraordinary week.”

photo - Michal Tkachenko’s solo exhibit, Songs of Deliverance, is at the Zack Gallery until Nov. 10 — Michal Tkachenko’s solo exhibit, Songs of Deliverance, is at the Zack Gallery until Nov. 10. *(photo by Andrea Lee)*

As she approached the one-year anniversary of that week, Tkachenko asked two people to write her a blessing, as she made a vow to God and shaved her head. “One of the blessings,” she said, “included Psalm 63 and it reflected my own deep longing for God, ‘I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry parched land where there is no water.’… My hair that I shaved off is part of the exhibition in an aged box that is meant to suggest a holy relic of the past, when people had more vivid experiences with God.

“Psalm 139 is such a beautiful expression of God’s love and absolutely full of beautiful imagery as an artist,” she continued. “It is a psalm that has also kept me company on my two-year journey and moves me every time I read it.

“For this psalm,” she said, “I made a pile of sketches of different verses and the images that came to me. Of those, I chose seven to do larger pieces on mylar. In many of the pieces, the spirit of God is represented by the white negative space. In ‘You Hem Me in Behind and Before, You Lay Your Hand Upon Me,’ the image of a human is abstracted in a long, dark column down the centre of the page, but the figure is not the focus. Instead, the white empty space is the representation of God hemming that figure in from ‘behind and before.’”

Songs of Deliverance marks Tkachenko’s return to drawing and painting after this two-year period, during which she spent a lot of time writing. “My goal is to make short, layered videos using these writings,” she said.

She also took a break from painting during COVID, making art out of dollhouses that people were getting rid of in the decluttering that took place then. In these dollhouses, she created COVID lockdown scenes in miniature.

“My interest is not held by one medium or one style alone, although I do have a style that often emerges naturally,” she said. “The older I get, the less interested I am in creating what I think others will like or want to buy and more about what I want to say and what I am excited about making and expressing through the medium that seems best suited to that particular message.”

Tkachenko was born in Victoria but grew up in Vancouver. Her dad, an architectural technician, builder and musician, was a Ukrainian immigrant to Canada after the Second World War, while her mom, a teacher, music teacher and musician, was a second-generation Canadian with a Scottish/British background.

“My parents were part of the hippy movement in the ’60s and ’70s and, when I was young, we lived in communal housing,” said Tkachenko, who is the oldest of four sisters.

“Growing up in a big creative household, there were always guests and cooking parties (Ukrainian food), live music and all sorts of art projects going on,” she said. “My parents didn’t push the academics as much because they wanted to make sure we found what gave us excitement and joy and they invested in building our self-esteem instead.”

That said, Tkachenko has a bachelor’s and a master’s in fine arts. For her schooling, she has lived in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Toronto, Florence and London (England). She has lived and volunteered in Haiti, Kenya, Malawi and Liberia, among other places. She has studios in both Vancouver and Manchester, as she, her husband and kids travel between Canada and the United Kingdom.

Despite knowing from a young age that she was going to be an artist, it took time for Tkachenko to recognize her skill and justify making art – “I considered it a luxury item, when the poor existed in the world,” she said.

“My hippy parents had driven us down to Mexico a number of times when my sister and I were young children (we are the oldest two) and we had been taken to the slums to understand how most of the world lived and how, despite our modest life in Canada, we were rich compared to rest of the world. It had made a huge and lasting impression on me as a child.”

At 18, she moved to Haiti to volunteer for a year, she said, “but before the year was out, I was in a life-altering car accident in which a friend died, my skull was shattered and my face smashed in on one side. I was flown back to Canada for reconstructive surgery and to recover.”

She volunteered for a spell in Kenya a few years later, but then finally decided to follow her calling in art.

Tkachenko works out of Parker Studios in Vancouver. She is also on the advisory committee for the DTES Small Arts Grant. “Being on this committee and working out of Carnegie [Community Centre] in the Downtown Eastside joins two things I value – the arts and working among the less fortunate,” she said.

Tkachenko’s husband is Jewish on his mother’s side – “her parents fled Czechoslovakia and Germany for the UK during WWII,” Tkachenko shared.

“Although they purposefully lost a lot of their Jewish heritage during the shift for safety reasons, my kids and I have become interested in it,” she said. “I came from a very open faith background because my parents were hippies that were part of the Jesus People Movement. They always encouraged us to find our own way to God and faith and, as a result, the people I am drawn to with my spirit are varied, from Jewish to Muslim, from Buddhist to Eastern Awakenings. The value of community does go beyond a single group [an idea she explores in one of The Journey series videos she is currently working on] and the more open and loving we become with each other, the more we can appreciate the differences that we each were gifted. And the more we see the bigger picture and what we all have in common.”