2019 Exhibitions

Diana Thorneycroft is an artist from Winnipeg and has had her work exhibited all across the world. Her exhibition Black Forest (dark waters) is a series of photographs and a large diorama that tell a dark tale about mutant creatures, their herdsmen and the town they live in. In these works Thorneycroft continues to embrace the grotesque.

The Vernon ADHD Task Force is a group committed to spreading awareness of ADHD. “Our mission is to enhance educational resources and treatment options for those living with ADHD in the North Okanagan.” For this collection of works, artists were asked to create a piece based on what ADHD means to them. This exhibition is a collection of their humorous, vibrant, thought-provoking and unique responses. 

The Annual VPAG Member’s Exhibition will be exhibited in the gallery from November 7th to December 19th 2019. Their exhibition titled Exposed! focuses on creating exhibition opportunities for Gallery members. Art in various mediums, forms and sizes will be presented.

Terri Heinrichs is a self-taught artist with experience in multiple different mediums. As she often is experimenting and learning with her artwork, her work is constantly evolving. She finds most of her inspiration from nature, other artists and her own photographs, a technique she used in this exhibition. Her process for creating these paintings was to interpret the surrounding nature and scenery, first through photography, then she used her photographs to inspire her art.  The works in Impressions of the Valley consist of paintings directly influenced by her experiences and perspective of the surroundings of Mackie Lake House.

This exhibition titled Leave a Light on in the Wild presents several vibrant oil paintings by Julian Forrest. Julian is an artist based in Edmonton Alberta and has been an Associate Professor in Fine Arts at the University of Alberta since 2008. The subject of the majority of his work is male identity and masculinity. He continues to explore this subject in this exhibition where he  “addresses issues of human existence and attempts to unravel a story that has no fixed beginning or end”.

The exhibition titled First Impressions contains 21 prints produced by former and current students enrolled in the printmaking courses at the UBC Okanagan Campus. The body of presented prints consists of UV screen-prints, lithographs, and lino-cuts. The works in the exhibitions present a variety of approaches to printed images and ranging from traditional modes of printmaking to incorporation of photo-based elements, digital manipulation and printing. The artists’ works address various topics regarding the human condition, including the human body and its connection to identity and environmental and existential concerns.

Through Our Eyes… is a unique community based project by the youth at the Teen Junction Youth Centre in partnership with the Vernon Public Art Gallery. The Vernon Public Art Gallery strives to connect the art and the community and supports emerging artists working outside of mainstream of artistic production. The focus of the exhibition is to give voice to youth and make statements about their lives and experiences in Vernon. We all have a unique voice and presence in our community and Through Our Eyes… is an affirmation of the importance of recognition, representation, collaboration and the arts.

Teen Junction Youth Centre is an after-school drop-in centre that offers a safe space for youth to unwind, connect and learn. The Centre works with community organizations to connect youth with support and resources when they need it.

Gary Dewhurst’s exhibition, I Learned I Wasn’t Seeing Clearly, consists of a suite of black and white photographs which address the topics of phenomenology of light and human perception of space.

Of Space & Reality, 2018, archival Ink-Jet print on paper, 21″ x 17″

The exhibition Emergence features works of eight artists who have completed their studies at UBC Okanagan’s BFA program in 2019. This exhibition exemplifies various approaches to research and studio practice and asserts an active hands-on attitude while creating their work. This exhibition also includes video and photography asserting the presence of digital technologies that are used in the contemporary means of artistic production.

For the most part, the works in the exhibition were hand-made and as such carry strong associative elements. The works communicate ideas based on human experience and existence, our apprehension of physical and psychological spaces, but the conceptual strategies used by these artists also highlight the materiality of an art object. The exhibitions Strangely Familiar (2019 UBC Okanagan BFA Graduation Exhibition) and Emergence mark the end and the beginning of the young artists’ journeys into the realm of individual creativity, critical thinking and an active studio practice.

Schulz will exhibit paintings executed in hard edge geometric abstraction. Schulz’s art practice is aligned with the movements known as Post-Painterly Abstraction and Non-Objective painting which emphasize visual structures devoid of signs of brush marks and a narrative. “Before the Sun Goes Down” alludes to the period at which the sun crosses the horizon. Often regarded as a magical time of day, it’s when colour and light appear to be most luminous and vibrant.

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Artwork created by secondary students from School District #22, displays a maturity of handling various mediums and more importantly, demonstrates a strong conceptual approach.

The Board of Directors and Executive Director, Dauna Kennedy, invite you and a guest to the opening reception of Art and Soul-Identity by School District 22 Secondary Students on Thursday, April 18th from 6-8 p.m at the Vernon Public Art Gallery. Enjoy an evening of art, music, appies, and punch at the opening reception for Art and Soul-Identity.

Teachers and Educators who are interested in participating in the exhibition are invited to view the 2019 Art and Soul Submission Letter for all the important dates and details on how to submit student work.

Art from the Heart is the annual exhibition by elementary students from School District #22. Their artwork delights viewers with their creations, under the guidance of their art teachers.

This group exhibition features works of four emerging artists enrolled in the final semester of their BFA studies at the University of British Columbia on Okanagan campus. The exhibition displays a variety of media which include drawing, sculpture, painting and screen-prints. The drawings of botanical style images are complemented by works which address the issues of the human condition. The additional sculpture is focused on the stewardship of environment and the intrinsic beauty of the complex ecosystems.

This installation reflects the immensity of the seed varieties that exist within the Svalbard vault and endeavours to educate the viewer about its existence. Online, you can find an up-to-date account of the numbers of depositors, genus, species, and seed samples; at the time of this writing, there are 93 depositors, 1138 genus, 5968 species, and 1,195,244 seed samples. Each of these numbers is represented visually by part of the installation: the wall pods are depositors, individual seeds on strands are genus, the seeds contained within the offering vessels are species, and finally, the grains of rice are the seed samples. The resulting visual impact of this immersive installation speaks to the scope and importance of seed vaults.

This installation also addresses, at minimum, 5 of the 17 UN sustainable development goals, which are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”. The SDGs were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by the year 2030.

Kelsie Grazier – statement

Unstoried Self focuses on the liminal space between Deaf and hearing. The modern world is structured in a way — under a medical model — that does not support what it means to be wonderfully, culturally Deaf. Historically, Deaf people have been marginalized and segregated. In the early 1800’s, Oralist educators decided to ban sign language in schools. The spectrum of deafness from hearing, to hard of hearing, to profound deafness has seen devastating impacts of this decision. Deaf scholar, J. Bauman asks an important question that I reference in my art practice: “how has the absence of sign shaped our ideas, categories, thinking, experience, and being?” To be able to construct a positive identity within a society that does not value signed languages, one must explore their personal history, geographic culture, and ideologies.