March 10 – April 14
Opening March 10 at 5:00 pm
East Gallery
ʔax̌ʷmn ̓ Brush the Water: Reviving Canoe Culture on the Upper Columbia River (2012 – 2023)
Shawn Brigman
Brigman (centre, right) with a Kalispel bark sturgeon-nose canoe that he sculpted in May 2019 near Priest River, Idaho Photo by Bob Charlo
Traditional art forms and natural materials are the essence of my art. It’s about getting out on the land and remembering or re-learning how to identity and use these materials. When an ancestral Plateau village implementation is finished (such as a tule mat lodge, fish basket trap, or bark sturgeon-nosed canoe), I reflect back and know that all materials were once alive and nourished by water and land, and now they have been processed into a beautiful sculptural and functional art form. When I think of memory, I think of the ancestral village sites along rivers and lakes. I think of the architectural heritage, the frameworks, like canoe frames, housing frames and how all village frameworks are connected. For instance the frame of a tule mat longhouse speaks the same language as the frame of a fish smoke drying rack or the frame of a fish weir crossing a river. The shaping and bending of carved ribs for sculpting a bark sturgeon-nosed canoe involves the same principles of funnel fish basket trap making or the carving of a bow stave. Villages connected by travel on the water, this is the essence of my work.
West Gallery
Smoked
Sarah Lawless
Smoked is a series of earthenware ceramic vessels, exploring humans’ complex relationships & cultural associations with smoke. They have been burnished with a stone, or coated with terra sigillata— a suspension of fine clay particles, polished to a smooth sheen—and fired in a sawdust kiln, so that the vessels themselves contain the markings of smoke on their surfaces. Viewed together, this body of work draws connections and dichotomies between human bodies and the environment, between the sacred and the profane, between traditional & contemporary practices involving smoke.
April 20 – May 27
Opening Thursday, April 20 at 5:00 pm
East and West Gallery
Young Visions 2023
Students & Teachers School District 20
Young Visions is an important part of the Kootenay Gallery’s community outreach program. In celebration of a year-long endeavour, the students and teachers from School District 20 are provided with the opportunity to exhibit their visual interpretations of life and community in the Kootenays. In mounting this exhibition, the gallery staff introduces the participants to the professionalism that is involved in an artist’s career, and provides a site where the many talents of students and teachers alike can be presented to the community at large.
June 2 – June 9
Opening TBD by Photo Club
East and West Gallery
West Kootenay Camera Club Photo Salon
Members of the West Kootenay Camera Club
The annual Photo Salon, presented by the West Kootenay Camera Club, is part of the Kootenay Gallery’s ongoing community outreach program. This exhibition provides an opportunity for both professional and amateur photographers to present their recent photographic work in a professional gallery setting.
June 16 – August 19, 2022
Opening June 16 at 5:00 pm
East Gallery
nothing is indifferent
Jane Kidd
This exhibition draws together a collection of hand-woven tapestries constructed over the last 10 years. I employ colour, pattern and detail as an aesthetic corner stone in my practice and I use representational and symbolic imagery to encourage the viewers consideration of our complex and often destructive relationship with the natural environment. Nothing in the natural world is indifferent or immune to human activities. I am interested in this intense relationship and perplexed by the the human desire to control our environment and assimilate nature into material culture.
I see my works as a warning of environmental disaster and a call to pay attention and recognize our complicity in environment carelessness. I also offer the opportunity to celebrate the skill and value of the handmade object encouraging the viewer to look closely and pay attention. Actions that have a parallel value in our relationship to the world around us.
West Gallery
Layers of Connection
Theshini Naicker
Inspired by nature and fuelled by imagination, this body of work explores the concept of connection. Raw wool and plant fibres have little structural strength on their own, however, the process of connecting layers of diverse fibres to create structure, texture and form is a deeply satisfying and challenging process. Drawing on primitive wet felting techniques and a more contemporary use of a variety of plant and wool fibres, this process of transformation reveals elements of fragility, resilience, and strength, both in the doing and in the final product. Physical manipulation, use of wood veneers and the incorporation of various textile techniques such as stitching, knotting, shibori are used to connect the various layers.
The complex matrix of connection underlies all life on this planet, yet the journey to find and establish meaningful connections as individuals and societies, can be a difficult, yet insightful and liberating one. However tenuous our connections seem, as individuals, communities, and societies, embracing diversity and connection, helps heal fractures and allows us to recognise our common humanity.
In the words of John Muir, “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world”.
August 25 – October 28
Opening August 25 at 5:00 pm
East Gallery
Project Niches (to be confirmed)
Z’otz* Collective
Nahúm Flores, Erik Jerezano, Ilyana Martínez
Drawing is our primary means of expression and is used to respond to each other and to what surrounds us. The direct approach allows us to create quirky and humorous images that examine the immigrant experiences of displacement, transition and transformation. The work connects to the storytelling traditions of our Latin American background, with mythological beings, animals and symbols.
West Gallery
Cultivando raíces con sueños compartidos
Growing roots from shared dreams
Rocio Graham
Offering an intimate glimpse into the nuanced identities of Mexican migrant workers that work in the farms of Interior BC, Rocio Graham shares her own experience of uprooting herself and re-negotiating her identity. Growing roots from shared dreams presents work that is deeply rooted in ritual ceremony, performance, and relationality. Developing a friendship with her compatriots becomes an attempt to collectively recreate their sense of community and place. This exploration of the Mexican diaspora is a reclaiming of sorts; seeking a way to rewrite stories of migration using a new visual language – one that emerges from shared roots and shared dreams.
November 17 – December 24, 2023
Opening November 17 (Time TBD)
This very popular exhibit and sale is a celebration of local and regional artists, craftspeople and collectors. While providing artists with an opportunity to bring their work to the marketplace, this event attracts viewers and buyers from throughout the region. Christmas at the Gallery serves as an artists’ showcase and audience building event.
Please note this information is subject to change. Please consult the home page or call the Gallery for the most up-to date information.