Welcome to ReIssue Digestif, a bi-weekly-ish round-up of events on our radar. All times in PST.
If you are BC- or AB-based and have an exhibition, event or job posting to submit for consideration in the next Digestif, email details to editor@reissue.pub
Practice as Ritual/Ritual at Practice
Libby Leshgold Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, 520 E 1st Ave, Vancouver BC
Now–November 5, daily from 12–5pm
Free
This touring group exhibition features work by 10 Black women artists who participated in the historical 1989 DAWA exhibition, Black Wimmin: When and Where We Enter, the first national exhibition to address the exclusion of Black women artists from the visual landscape of Canada. Featuring primarily new commissioned works — including paintings, photography, text, installation, video, and sculpture — the exhibition highlights the sustained aesthetic and everyday practices of these artists who critically challenge the structures that delineate Black women’s lives in the current moment. Curated by Dr. Andrea Fatona and Nya Lewis.
Celestial Bodies
Campbell River Art Gallery, 1235 Shoppers Row, Campbell River BC
Now–November 11, Tuesday–Saturday 10am–5pm
Free
This group exhibition examines expanding forms of gender and sexuality through the lens of contemporary Canadian 2SLGBTQ+ artists working across different media. A ‘celestial body’ is an aggregation of matter in the universe (such as a planet, star, or nebula) that can be considered a single unit. The exhibition positions this term as an expansive framework for honouring different expressions of sexuality and gender that go beyond binaries and pre-existing definitions. By bringing together the work of seven contemporary artists working with these themes, the exhibition holds together an orbit for diverse bodies and subjectivities, considering how we all exist in relation to one another. Curated by Genevieve Flavelle and Jenelle Pasiechnik.
RISE: Sandeep Johal and Sara Khan
Art Gallery at Evergreen, Evergreen Culture Centre, 1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam BC
September 16–November 26, gallery hours here
Free
Sandeep Johal and Sara Khan’s artistic collaboration merge their distinct visual vocabulary of silhouettes, figures, geometric forms, floral patterns and rich colour palettes into new hybrid forms. Snakes, horned figures, animal-human hybrids and more inhabit the gallery in this weird and whimsical exhibition. This cast of characters draws on the strength of women, both real and imagined, to create an inviting yet surreal and energetic space where all are welcome. Together, their artworks celebrate the joy, power and complexities of womanhood from their perspectives as two South Asian women artists who are mothers to young children.
Small Press Fest
Open Space, 510 Fort St, Victoria BC
Saturday September 16, 11am–8pm
Free
In celebration of printed matter, independent publishing, and art writing, Open Space’s 2023 Small Press Fest will include a packed one-day festival featuring a book fair, panel discussion on arts publishing, and ReIssue Year 2 Anthology publication launch. Come out from 11–4 to see the wares of local publishers and printmakers, or listen in to the panel between ReIssue Editor Casey Wei, assistant editor Kara Stanton, and writer Kim Dhillon from 4:30–5:30. Following the panel, our Year 2 Anthology launch will include snacks, a cash bar, and music from DJ Paisley Eva.
Talonbooks presents: Poetry & Publishing
Common Room, Trout Lake Housing Co-op, 3306 Findlay St, Vancouver BC
Saturday September 16, 2–4pm
Free
Talonbooks presents a panel discussion on poetry and publishing featuring a James Sherry, Rolf Maurer, Danielle LaFrance, and Wayde Compton. Wayde Compton is founder of Commodore Books, western Canada’s first Black-Canadian literary press. Danielle LaFrance is the author of poetry collections such as #postdildo, JUST LIKE I LIKE IT, and Friendly + Fire, all published by Talonbooks. Rolf Maurer is the publisher of New Star Books and 2011 recipient of the Jim Douglas Award for Publishing. James Sherry is the editor and publisher of Roof Magazine and Roof Books, founder of The Segue Foundation, and the author of 14 books of poetry and theory. Moderated by Louis Cabri.
XINEMA: Duties in the Domestic Cinema
Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour St, Vancouver BC
Sunday September 17, 7:15pm
Tickets here
This month’s Xinema features a collection of short films that explore the impact the queer and diasporic experience have on temporal and bodily manipulation. Using the screen as a space to research and connect, these five artists return to the personalized domestic and familiar to better understand themselves and the world around them. With works by Danielle Mackenzie Long, Gabi Dao, Jasmine Liaw, Alisa Tarabrina, and Maymoona Gaid and Wendel Vistan, followed by a Q&A with artists in attendance.
A Conversation With Ronald Wimberly
Malaspina Theatre, Vancouver Island University Building 301, 900 5th St, Nanaimo BC
Tuesday September 19, 7–9pm
Free
Nanaimo Art Gallery presents New York based comic artist, storyteller, and illustrator Ronald Wimberly in conversation with artist Charles Campbell at VIU’s Malaspina Theatre on September 19th. Wimberly is an illustrator and cartoonist, whose work balances the personal and the historical to interrogate concepts of cynicism, idealism, fear, glory, and the pervasiveness of anti-Black racism. Having designed several graphic novels as well as shorter works for The New Yorker, DC/Vertigo, Nike, Marvel, Hill and Wang, and Darkhorse, his own graphic novels include Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm (Vertigo, 2007) and Prince of Cats (Image, 2016). His most recent graphic novel Now Let Me Fly (First Second 2023) is a candid but sensitive portrait of Eugene Bullard, America’s first Black fighter pilot.
PRESENTS: 2023
VIVO Media Arts Centre, 2625 Kaslo St, Vancouver BC
Thursday September 21, 7–9pm
Free
PRESENTS is a program of short video works that don’t require an abled or physically present body in order to be performative. 13 sick, disabled, d/Deaf, and care-giving artists come together to expand the idea of ‘performance’, presenting work that is embodied, immediate, and present without forcing bodies to conform to ableist norms of art-making. Featuring works by Khairani Barokka, April Lin 林森, Seo Hye Lee, Laura Lulika + Hang Linton, Misra Walker, Venesse Guy, Chloe Pascal Crawford, Saioa Alvarez Ruiz + Katrin Bittl, Brothers Sick, Zinzi Buchanan, and RA Walden. This program was available online from September 11–13, but come see the works in person at VIVO!
Fake Jazz September
Toast Collective, 242 E Pender St, Vancouver BC
Friday September 22, doors at 9pm
Tickets at the door ($20/PWYC)
Featuring E̸C̸H̷T̶H̴R̵O̸S̵, Zero Focus (collab between Anju Singh @whatismakingussick and Spencer Davis @nerv.op) , Exeunt and DJ Kellarissa.
Victoria Anarchist Bookfair
Fernwood Community Centre, 1240 Gladstone Ave, Victoria BC
September 23–24, 11am–5pm
Free
The 18th annual Victoria Anarchist Bookfair, part of the Festival of Anarchy, features anarchist and anti-authoritarian publishers, presses, booksellers, authors, zinesters, and artisans. For the full schedule of the speaks, performers, and sellers, visit the fair’s FB page, here. The fair closes with the Dis-Official Revolutionary Rap Party, featuring artists from Rhymethink Collective: Lee Reed, D-Liberate, and Kay the Aquanaut.
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas: JAJ, A Haida Manga
Vancouver Public Library, 350 W Georgia St, Vancouver BC
Wednesday September 27, 7–8:15pm
Free, register here
Artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas will be in conversation with CBC’s North by Northwest host, Margaret Gallagher, to present his latest graphic novel, JAJ: A Haida Manga. It brings to life the tumultuous history of first contact between Europeans and Indigenous peoples and the early colonization by the Europeans of the northern West Coast. JAJ blends colonial history with elements of Yahgulanaas’s own family legacy, and follows several historical figures through first contact, the smallpox epidemic and the mass resettlement of disenfranchised peoples.
Jobs / Calls
P/T Assistant Curator of Engagement, Griffin Art Projects (North Vancouver), apply by 09/18
Call for Submissions (publication & exhibition), Gallery Gachet (Vancouver), apply by 09/22
Visual Arts Program Manager, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Banff), apply by 09/22
F/T Curator, Vancouver Maritime Museum (Vancouver), apply by 10/01
Call for Submissions: Stratus Issue 03: Pacific, submit by 10/10