Upcoming Exhibitions

March 12 – April 12, 2020

Opening Reception: March 15, 2020, 2pm
Meet the Artist: March 22, 2020, 2pm

We are pleased to present Thread, a solo exhibition of work by Mehran Modarres-Sadeghi. Bringing together works in drawing and sculpture, this exhibition showcases two specific projects.

Ma Miaeem va Miravim (We Come and Go), 2016-19, is a series of drawings which translates my first-grade English book, We Come and Go, from the Dick and Jane series into Persian-English, in which Persian words are written using the Roman alphabet. The title phrase ‘Ma Miaeem va Miravim’ is the Persian-English translation of ‘We Come and Go’. The children’s names, Dick, Jane, and Sally are replaced by Iranian names, Babak, Mina, and Leila. The colourful homogenized illustrations from the source book, We Come and Go, are reproduced in black and white with some thematic changes and translations. Several layers of dark lines are drawn obsessively using graphite pencil to cover the parts of the images that depict children playing outside in ways that contrast with how Iranian children played back then. For example, North American toys such as roller-skates and a big toy car are covered with the dark lines. On other pages, a white picket fence is replaced by a tall brick wall, and a milk van is replaced by a motorcycle, as these were more common in Iran. Working with notions of “third space” or “the space in-between” and the globalization of English, this work explores how the use of the hybrid language Persian-English affects an Iranian sense of identity in a globalized world. It investigates the socio-cultural implications of hybridity as they relate to interethnic exchange and the globalizing process of travel and translation.

Thread is a series of sculptures made from everyday objects wrapped in black string. It includes traditional Iranian objects, such as a copper tray and blue tiles, and modern objects from Western culture, such as adidas shoes, and headphones. Each sculpture has its own title which includes the name of the object in Persian-English as well as its English translation, for instance, Sini (Tray), Kaashi (Tile), and Samavar (Samovar). The objects in Thread are among the precious objects I brought with me from my home city of Isfahan in Iran. Together the objects represent the care and protection taken when the objects are seen as tokens of phenomenological or collective memory. In modern day Iranian culture, these objects are part of the typical experience of culture which includes a combination of both traditional Iranian and contemporary Western influences. The meticulous work of wrapping the objects in black string is employed to hide, protect, and preserve the precious cultural signifiers for the Persian diaspora. It aims to highlight the changes in cultural traditions and the influence of English and Western culture by presenting both traditional and contemporary objects together. By placing the objects on plinths, this work borrows from the vocabulary of ethnographic display of cultural artifacts, but by obscuring, protecting, and wrapping the objects, it places them in the context of artistic objects. The crossovers between sculpture and textile work take into question the histories of art and craft, as well as the social aspects of gender and gendered labour. Some of the traditional objects in this artwork were purchased at Isfahan’s Grand Bazaar where shopkeepers/artisans often use string and paper to wrap the objects they sell to prevent them from being damaged. Their use of string and their careful wrapping of the traditional objects and handmade artifacts has influenced the creation of Thread.

Mehran Modarres-Sadeghi is a visual artist based in Vancouver, BC. Originally from Isfahan, Iran, she immigrated to Canada 20 years ago where she has received an MFA in Visual Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2017) and a BFA from University of British Columbia (2007). Her recent practice is mostly engaged with drawing and sculpture, although she has worked in a variety of media such as photography, painting, and installation. Modarres-Sadeghi has exhibited her work at several art galleries in Greater Vancouver, including group exhibitions at the Cityscape Community Art Space, Surrey Art Gallery, Concourse Gallery (ECU), as part of MFA Interim exhibition, Charles H. Scott Gallery (ECU), as part of MFA graduate exhibition, and most notably Centre A, as part of a group exhibition, Spring Exhibition, in spring 2017. After the Doris Crowston Gallery show, Modarres-Sadeghi’s work will be shown at Emrooz Gallery in Isfahan, Iran, in August 2020.

The Young Peoples Own Show is an exhibition that brings together work from students in elementary and secondary schools across the Sunshine Coast. YPOS is the result of a collaboration between art teachers, school administration and the SCAC.

May 28 – June 28, 2020

Opening Reception: May 31, 2020 at 2pm
Meet the Artists: June 7, 2020 at 2pm

Join us for the fifth anniversary of the Sunshine Coast’s LGBTQ2+ art show where artists working in photography, video and painting explore issues of gender, identity, and sexuality, capturing for a moment in time what is in a perpetual state of flux. The Sunshine Coast Arts Council is delighted to host works by three artists: Romi Kim, Marilyn Marshall and Craig Cochrane.

As we move through the world we are constantly reacting and adapting to the persistent stream of information and stimuli flowing around us. Times change, perceptions shift. Things are in motion, creating uncertainty but also infinite possibilities, transformations and re-inventions. In a society where the definitions of male and female are fluctuating, how does that affect how we interact with the world and the diversity of people in it? Is who we were yesterday, individually and collectively, still hold true for who we are today? And how do representations of bodies (ours and others) become a medium for expressing this.

Known as Romi Kim, 김새로미or Skim when on stage in their drag persona. Kim has lived in various small towns and cities in British Columbia. She worked in rural South Korea in 2017 and is currently based in Vancouver. Kim searches for stories, of belonging to explain society and its hierarchies. Kim primarily works within an interdisciplinary approach in video, installation, performance and media. The themes of her artistic practice include racialization, nationality, and relationships. She often uses her own experiences to share her perspective on multifaceted identities. She obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Victoria in a double major of Visual Arts and Gender Studies.

Marilyn Marshall has been drawing and painting on the Sunshine Coast for twenty years. Her work is grounded in life drawing and is marked by a love of organic structures. She has shown her work regularly on the Coast, including a solo show, “Close to the Bone,” at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery in 2016. Her recent work is inspired by some classical thoughts about gender change, by visual fluctuations during chemotherapy, by playful thoughts about cross-species masquerade, and by some of her own reinventions with aging.

Craig Cochrane is a local photographer that is commissioned for portrait, commercial, product and theatrical work.  He is also known for his macro images of local flora. Craig’s previous exhibitions include Appeteasers A Toronto Burlesque Photographer, at the Liss Gallery in Toronto in 2011, and Refractions: Queer Artists of the Sunshine Coast in 2016.  In 2019 Craig successfully debuted at the Sunshine Coast Art Crawl. Today Craig is working with models, performers, and a broad spectrum of local community members to create a mix of composite concept portraits and traditional portraits that speak to gender and sexuality.

Annette Nieukerk
Beauty in Aging

July 3 – August 2, 2020

Opening Reception: July 5, 2020 at 2pm
Meet the Artists: July 12, 2020 at 2pm

Beauty in Aging is a solo exhibition of work by Annette Nieukerk.

Working with ink, graphite and oil, Nieukerk’s images speak to the narratives that are at the heart of the identity of the aging female within our culture. In this latest series she attempts to illustrate the inner resilience and strength that many women have as they age. Walnut drawing ink, graphite, and oil paint on translucent mylar have been used for their bodily references. The rich brown of the walnut ink is reminiscent of both flesh and decay as the ink dissipates on meeting the slick surface of the mylar. Graphite has been reduced to emphasize the increasing lack of solidity in the aging form. Prominence is given instead to the use of translucent oil paint coming from within the form itself adding a simple spiritual component, an inner light. The use of vintage magazine transfers are an element added for additional narrative and depth. As the human body clearly begins to show the passage of time, the inner light of the female human spirit appears to strengthen. Nieukerk’s aim is to illustrate that these women lived their stories, grew strength from them, and ultimately transcended them.

Now in her fifth decade of art practice, Annette Nieukerk has had a varied career spanning disciplines, media and genre. As a young artist, she depicted the prairie landscape using silkscreen printing as her medium of choice. Then in mid-career, Nieukerk became passionately involved in theatre design and followed that path for many years while still maintaining her role as an art educator. Today she works out of a studio in East Vancouver utilizing a variety of mixed painting and drawing media employing the human figure as the focus of her practice. Working both from life and from photographs, Nieukerk seeks to expose not only that which is obvious in the sitter’s physical form, but also to explore the layering of individual narrative – the stories of experience and lives lived.