exhibitions
Evan Locke
Being Here Open weekends 12-4 October 10th-25th, 2020 "My paintings are tools to promote the awareness of architectural space and a viewer’s presence within it. In my current work, the application of paint is wholly facilitated by the support structures...
Regan Rasmussen
imprint Open weekends 12-4 September 12th-27th, 2020 “Cocoon is the place where you sew yourself back together before you step outside into a new life… how do we prepare ourselves for a future that holds the unexpected?” G. Doyle The word imprint, used metaphorically,...
Cabin Fever – Bronwyn Bronwyn McMillin and Seb Evans
In this exhibition both Bronwyn McMillin and Seb Evans depart from their traditional ways of working to create small scale paintings, drawings and sculptures of everyday objects and arrangements. Rather than representation, it is the form, colour, and composition of...
The Residents – Karina Kalvaitis
A series of mixed media sculptures describe a world of mysterious creatures and half-familiar places. Through explorations of posture, gesture and facial expressions the resident animals connect with the viewer wordlessly to express states of mind and emotion. ...
I’m Fine: Anne-Marie Fortin
The philosophical discussion underlying Anne-Mare Fortin’s practice reflect on how we constantly redefine ourselves as we enter into relationships with others.
“I am very curious about the way we create meaning in our attempts to understand our relationships with others and our social roles.”
Jenn Wilson – Hinge
An exhibition of photographic compositions honouring personal inspection, utterances and reflections. "Jenn Wilson’s photographs invite the viewer into spaces of quiet contemplation: landscapes open and closed; welcoming and foreboding; begging connections to...
Arc.hive members and poets
Online exhibit with slide show and poet readings below
In celebration of national poetry month, studio artists Alison Bigg, Markus Drassl, Laura Feeleus, Karina Kalvaitis, Kimberly Leslie, Connie Michele Morey, Regan Rasmussen, Sandy Voldeng & Jenn Wilson create diverse works inviting response by nine poets, John Barton, Yvonne Blomer, Michelle Poirier Brown, Rhonda Ganz, Anita Lahey, Garth Martens, Aziza Moqia Sealey-Qaylow, Emily Olsen, Cynthia Woodman Kerkham. The exhibition offers insights into creative processes associated with both making and writing. Below there is a slide show of the art. If you click on the image you will get the link to the blog post including image details and recordings of the poets reading their responses.
If you would like a copy of the chap book which includes the art and poems
please email archivebridge2516@gmail.com with an etransfer ($10 a copy) and mailing address.
HERE is the full online Ekphrasis exhibit. Listen to the poets read their poems that correspond to the artwork.
Bizarre Turns:
Experiments in Clay
Opening March 6th, 7-9pm
Open weekends 12-5 until March 22nd
A group ceramic show that stems from a desire to create spaces for the unknown, peculiar, strange and experimental in clay. The artists will be creating two and three dimensional sculptural work investigating the possibilities and boundaries of clay in both form and surface treatment.
Occupying the Void
Alison Bigg
Throughout February, studio member, Alison Bigg, will be progressively filling the gallery with light, sound, plaster molds and altered angels, during an exploration of the space between ‘what was and what’s next.’
Bigg invites the community to observe and participate in the installation during gallery hours. Weekends, 12-5.
There will be a closing reception on Feb 21st from 7-9.
More of Alison’s work: abigg.ca
Hewko and Shwart
Permeable Boundaries
Continues weekends Jan 11-26th
An exhibition exploring the boundaries between the natural and the built environment through the eyes of two artists. Working in different media, Hewko and Shwart open their work to the visual language of the other, resulting in paintings influenced by the immediacy of drawings; and drawings influenced by conventions of painting.
https://joannehewko.wixsite.com/portfolio
https://www.trishshwart.com/
RENDERING INTENT
MARKUS DRASSL
OPENING: FRIDAY DECEMBER 6TH (7-9 PM)
CONTINUES WEEKENDS DECEMBER 7-15TH
arc.hive is proud to introduce studio member, Markus Drassl, as our next exhibitor. Rendering Intent describes the ’cause to become’ as defecting from the cause itself. His architectural ink drawings become their own blueprints and ground-plans, in an attempt to prove their right to exist.
Artist Markus Drassl grew up in Italy as part of a German speaking cultural minority. After finishing his art degree, he spent several years in The Amazon in Peru, where he was introduced to traditional plant medicine traditions. As a landed immigrant in Canada, Drassl has endeavored through his art to define cultural and artistic identity.
Please visit the artist’s website,
https://mdmm-art.com/
MARINA DI MAIO
PERIPHERAL DOORS
CONTINUES WEEKENDS NOVEMBER 9-24TH
arc.hive is delighted to present “Peripheral Doors’ by artist Marina Di Maio. Di Maio’s exhibition developed out of earlier small encaustic cave-like sculptures, which used beeswax and found materials, to imagine and manifest the essence of “Inner Landscapes”. Through the use of photography, the artist has transformed these environments to immerse the viewer in obscure realities, eliciting senses beyond the visual, while undulating with naturally occurring formations.
For more information about the artist, please see:
https://www.marinadimaioart.com/
TARYN WALKER
OPENING: OCTOBER 4TH, 7 – 9 PM
CONTINUES WEEKENDS (12-5 PM) UNTIL OCTOBER 20TH
Through drawing and installation artist Taryn Walker utilizes arc.hive’s unique layout and wall space to playfully and intuitively challenge the transitional influence of the swarm in relation to narrative and the viewer’s experience. “Sentiments of a Swarm ” navigates the relationships between image and language, body and nature, the known and the unknown, and the tangible and indescribable through the experiences of the artist and audience as engaged participants with the space.
“Sentiments of a Swarm” was created
in partnership with arc.hive
& the First People’s Cultural Council
For more about the artists’s work, please see: https://www.tarynwalkermedia.com/
LIMINAL
KIM LESLIE
OPENING: SEPT. 6, 2019 7-9 PM
CONTINUES WEEKENDS (12-5 PM) UNTIL SEPT. 22, 2019
For more information on the artist’s work please visit her site at: https://kimleslie.ca/
ARC.HIVE is delighted to present LIMINAL, a series of mixed media paintings by artist KIM LESLIE that explore change as constant. Suspended at the threshold of life changing events the ground seems to shift, the familiar is suspended and the future is uncertain. The works in LIMINAL navigate the emotional terrain between what was and what can be as a place where creative transformation takes place.
PREDILECTIONS OF PAINTING
AUSTIN CLAY WILLIS
July 6 – 21
Opening: July 5 (7-9 pm)
PREDILECTIONS OF PAINTING centers around the formal aspects, possibilities and constrains of painting, as it is informed by material. Taking inspiration from abstract painting while referencing impromptu and DIY backyard style structures, the exhibition will consist of a large and dynamic installation built out of assembled materials and tools including wood, canvas, tarpaulin, plastic, rope, hammers, brushes, drills, staple guns and even small paintings.
UNKNOWN LIMITS
LAURIE MACKIE
Opening 7 June (7-9 pm )
Continues Weekends until June 23rd (12-5 pm)
Unknown Limits navigates issues related to our human desires to explore, map and extract the earth’s resources. Through hybrid prints, paintings and photographs, artist Laurie Mackie engages diverse senses of place – from the intimacy of the body to a planetary scale.
For more about the artist’s work please visit:
Forged
Cover Image:
Fifty or Older, You May be at Risk, Lisa Jackson,
Acrylic on polypropylene, 2019
Seven artists explore diverse interpretations of the theme Forged through drawing, painting, textiles and sculpture by pushing the boundaries of material process to question the ways we perceive various signatures of personal, social and environmental identities.
Interworld
Through drawing, painting, printmaking, collage and sculpture, seven artists navigate the Interworld to produce works exploring time, transformation, the uncanny, and the secretive and silenced worlds of trauma and mental health.
Cover image: Underthing, by Desiree deRuiter, mezzotint, 2018
Möbius Strip
Kaitlyn Jenna Dunsmore
OPENS Friday April 5th (7-9 pm) at arc.hive &
CONTINUES weekends (12-5) April 6th – 21st
For more information on Kaitlyn’s work, please visit: http://vau.org.uk/kaitlyn-dunsmore/
Holding Spaces
Dee Gibson
A visual exploration of temporary refuges and acts of shelter in a variety of media by artist Dee Gibson.
Opens Friday March 8th (7-9 pm), continues weekends (12-5) until March 24th
https://deegibson.ca
Gleaner
Roy Green
Roy Green’s solo exhibition Gleaner is a large scale painting installation comprised of new works on paper. Pop culture and art-historical references collide with abstract tropes and text to create an immersive viewing experience.
OPENING: FEBRUARY 8TH 7-9 PM
ARTIST TALK: FEBRUARY 24TH, 2 PM
FEBRUARY 9 – 24, 2019
GALLERY HOURS: SAT & SUN. 12-5 PM
“As Daniel Richter has remarked.. The studio is the sponge that squeezes out the world… The layers of tactile media such as acrylic paint, ink, oil pastel, graphite and collage are intended to create subsequent layers of meaning in the form of open –ended meta –narratives that embrace the sacred and the absurd, the mundane and the marvelous.” – Roy Green
Dmytruk
Barclay Martin
Opening:January 11th, 7-9 pm; Continues weekends, 12-5 pm until January 20th, 2019
‘Dmytruk’ is series of portrait studies, collaged photographs, and found objects with histories that are both real and imagined.
“How do we walk back into our bloodlines to know who we come from?
How do we inhabit our lives when someone is missing?
I never asked my Baba if she missed her husband, my Gigo. In the long decade that followed his death until her own, I don’t remember us ever talking about him, but it was so selfish to think that I was the only one whose heart had broken.
Last October, I felt a pull to know my grandfather’s family, and what followed was an opening of grief and a deepening of mystery. For the first time in my life, Tatiana, my great grandmother, stared from a photograph and I searched her face for something familiar, something of knowing that I couldn’t totally grasp.
This body of work was a way of remembering; of walking back through my bloodlines, and a way to honour the mystery of my grandparents and great grandparents lives. It was a way to spend time with my Baba and Gigo, to study their faces anew and remember. It gave me space to grieve as an adult, and to hold the heart of a broken child.” – Barclay Martin
Barclay Martin is an artist residing in the Cowichan Valley where she runs The Ou Gallery & Artist Residency with her partner, Donovan Rose and their small dog, Ruby. Her mother’s family, the Dmytruks and the Eliuks were born in Poland and Ukraine respectively, immigrating to Smoky Lake and Hairy Hill, Alberta in 1928, 1938, and 1901. Barclay is thankful and humbled to acknowledge that she lives on the traditional and unceded territory of the Tsawout First Nation.
Small Change
November 23rd (4-8 pm) & November 24th (12-5 pm)
Come see small changes in the studios, small works for sale and help make small change in our community by supporting our sketchbook drive for street communities. In partnership with Our Place and Rock Bay Square Open House.
Donations of small sketchbooks & portable drawing materials (such as: pencils, coloured pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners) can be dropped off at arc.hive during Small Change (Nov. 23-24th). Participating artists include: Alison Bigg, Markus Drassl, Laura Feeleus, Karina Kalvaitis, Kim Leslie, Connie Michele Morey, Regan Rasmussen, Sandy Voldeng and Jenn Wilson. Above photographs by Jenn Wilson.
Shannon Peck
Opening November 9 (7-9 pm)
Continues Weekends (12-5 pm) November 10 – 18th
An installation of contemporary embroidery and finely crafted textile works that explore the complexities
of living asan adoptee amid struggles of privacy legislation, rejection, loss and identity formation.
Exhibition in conjunction with MAKESHIFT: Contemporary Textiles Festival – www.make-shift.weebly.com
For more information about the artist’s work please see:www.specksurfacedesign.com
Florage
Kate Scoones
Opening: October 5 (7-9 pm)
Continues Weekends (12-5 pm) October 6 – 21st
An installation of paintings, drawings, textile and paper works by artist Kate Scoones that combine notions of floral and forage to question the displacement and revaluation of native plants into food, decoration and weeds with the arrival of European settlement.
For more information about Kate’s work, please visit:
https://www.katescoones.com/
Age of the Unseen World
Karina Kalvaitis
An exhibition of beautifully hand-felted sculptures of hybrid creatures that embody both vulnerability and a sense of hopefulness. Created by combining features from various animals and plants, the artist has created a world of creatures that are both familiar and strange.
Bringing together new work and a retrospective of each type of creature made since beginning her current studio direction, these silently expressive oddballs act as metaphors for our own states of mind, conveying stoicism, happiness, uncertainty, wonder. Like people without the armor of artifice and culture, they nakedly engage with the world in ways that are both awkward and beautiful. The diversity of shapes, textures, colours and wild combinations of features that already exist in nature were a rich source of inspiration, both for the forms, but also for the sense of other realities.
SWELL
Karina Kalvaitis
July 7 – 22, 2018; OPENING: July 6th (7-9 pm)
In conjunction with Integrate Arts, arc.hive will host the exhibition SWELL, open studios and a sculptural felting demonstration during the weekend of August 24, 25th & 26th.
As a member of multiple creative ecosystems on the Island, the studio community at arc.hive has been fortunate to experience abundant exchange with others, a sharing of communities with communities, whereby we have spilled over out of our doors and onto the culture of the streets. This profusion of experience is celebrated through the exhibition “Swell”. Studio members Alison Bigg, Markus Drassl, Laura Feeleus, Karina Kalvaitis, Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde, Kim Lesley, Connie Michele Morey, Regan Rasmussen, Dave Riedstra and Jenn Wilson present works in sound, photography, sculpture, textiles, painting, drawing and mixed media works addressing notions of growth, rhythm, abundance, and that which is most excellent, very well, indeed swell.
Buena Mujer
SIMONE LITTLEDALE ESCOBAR
July 7 – 22, 2018; OPENING: July 6th (7-9 pm)
OPENING: AUGUST 3RD, 2018 ~ 7-9 PM
AUGUST 4 – 19TH (SAT & SUN 12-5 PM)
Drawing from her own Colombian-Canadian heritage, artist Simone Littledale Escobar explores the idea of women as keepers of story in her compelling exhibition “Buena Mujer” opening August 3rd at arc.hive.
Through the disparate and overlapping mediums of ceramic and fibre, the exhibition delves into questions of mental illness, female identity, womanhood, and shared trauma in Latin American family culture.
goodbye, hello
Laura Feeleus
July 7 – 22, 2018; OPENING: July 6th (7-9 pm)
Through a materially rich installation of artifacts, fibre works, and paintings, Laura Feeleus’ “goodbye, hello” explores the theme and experiences of relocation (of leaving one dwelling, city or country and settling in another).
The artist’s use of images and materials that reference notions of home bring to bear questions of what it means to dislocate and relocate oneself with a geography, culture, and community, while experiencing an embodied sense of connection to both places.
To find out more about Laura Feeleus’ work please visit:
www.laurafeeleus.ca/
yield
Fern Long
June 2 – 17, 2018: OPENING: June 1st (7-9 pm)
Fern Long’s series of constructions made from cardboard, wood and other cast-off materials reference industrial landscapes with their stripped-down aesthetic of rough everyday surfaces.
Merging drawing, painting and sculpture, her work explores the tension of spaces which defy traditional dichotomies of ugliness and beauty through the haphazard economy of architecture and roadways with unintended poetry found in cracked pavements, piles of lumber, crushed automobiles, and heavy duty equipment. The utilitarian spaces often go unnoticed; hidden from plain sight, yet are exposed through Long’s free form cartographies that yield to the raw unpretentious beauty and dynamic energy of these manufactured landscapes.
To find out more about Fern Long’s work, visit:
https://fernlongart.wordpress.com/
bathymetry lines
arc.hive presents Leya Tess‘ “Bathymetry Lines” opening Friday, May 4th in the gallery and continuing weekends from 12-5 pm until May 20th.
Bathymetry refers to the measurement of the shape and depth of underwater terrain. In the way topographic maps depict the three-dimensional features of the visible terrestrial world, nautical charts express the land that lies submerged underneath water. By revealing variations in sea-floor relief, depth contour lines translate the unknown into something tangible.
Leya Tess’ drawings on are conversations with these secret forms. Her ink marks are pieces of the puzzle of the world; components that are constantly in a cycle of being assembled and broken apart, only to be put back together again. These works were created after half a year spent working and exploring the water around the Discovery Islands, mainland inlets and Broughton Archipelago. Place names are variously erased or highlighted, drawing attention to the inherent power involved in the production of charts, images and geopolitical boundaries.
Find out more about Leya Tess’ work here:
https://www.leyatess.com/
tough exteriors
Regan Rasmussen
Regan Rasmussen’s tough exteriors opens on the evening of April 6th (7-9 pm) and continues weekends until April 22nd (12 – 5 pm). Come join us in the gallery to celebrate the artist’s texturally rich, evocative work.
By exploring both literal and metaphorical interpretations of ‘resiliency’, this installation of mollusk-like ceramic sculptural forms references the body and alludes to the ‘tough exteriors’ we present to mask interior vulnerabilities.
Regan Rasmussen is an artist working with themes and narratives through drawing, ceramics, sculpture and text. She has studied in Winnipeg (BFA studio art), Saskatoon (BEd) and Victoria (MEd in Arts Education) and teaches studio art / curriculum courses at University of Victoria and in secondary schools. Her art has been exhibited in public and private collections across Canada and in the UK. She is the recipient of national and international teaching awards and serves on boards, conducts workshops and coordinates community arts events to empower others through art.
soft shells
Dave Riedstra
802.11 9 – 25 802.11 constructs a living architecture of sound by fusing the existing physical and electromagnetic structures of its host space. Using techniques developed for network penetration testing, 802.11 transforms environmental WiFi traffic into an immersive soundscape. By revealing the unseen signals traversing the wireless ethernet, Riedstra’s installation offers a new way to explore and consider the omnipresent materials of our digital lives.
Dave Riedstra works with sound to create an experience that is as somatic as it is cerebral. By prioritizing the corporal aspect, Riedstra hopes to open up new sensitivities to human, technological, environmental, material, and other milieus.
New Descendants
Donovan Rose
arc.hive is delighted to present Donovan Rose’s “New Descendants” in the gallery from February 10th – 18th (Opening: Feb. 10, 7-9 pm). A series of evocative oil paintings that came about through the gift of an old box of family photos depicting the life of new descendants (first generation born to the children of immigrants) on the Shuswap lake in the interior of B.C. The work explores issues of heritage, nostalgia, memory and place-making and home. “My family is split between Finnish and English heritage, and my grandparents were first generations Canadians… As a Canadian living on the west coast, my presence here has always felt foreign, though my roots are grounded here. These paintings are a way of connecting to something familiar, yet unknown to me, I’m exploring the past as a guest in his home.”
soft shells
Libby Oliver
arc.hive is delighted to kick off its 2018 gallery programming with Libby Oliver’s compelling body of work “SOFT SHELLS“, opening January 5th at 7 pm and continuing weekends until January 21st. The exhibition consists of a series of photographs of individuals with every item of clothing they own. The clothing acts like a shell that completely covers the individual, revealing only glimpses of their characteristics underneath. Comprising both an index and subversive indicator of identity through the artist’s sculptural manipulation of form, the work both conceal and reveal notions of individuality through the ownership of material things.
Studio Practice
arc.hive is pleased to present “Studio Practice” in the gallery from December 9th to 17th. The exhibition highlights the emerging and innovative practices of Vancouver Island School of Art’s Advanced Studio students and their ongoing process in developing a body of work for their graduation in June of 2018. Works on display will range in media from painting, drawing, photography and sculpture, while exploring a range of topics that students have been developing through intensive study and studio practice. Please join us in celebrating their process and practice at the opening on December 8th from 7:00 – 9:00, or Saturday and Sunday from 12-5 pm until December 17th. Exhibition curated by Vancouver Island School of Arts Curatorial Studies class.
d w e l l i n g
C O N N I E M I C H E L E M O R E Y
Dwelling is an exhibition of recent works by artist Connie Michele Morey that explore gendered notions of home as an organic interpretable eco-system of inside-outside and private-public. Felted bricks, photographs of worn skeleton buildings, and an installation of a small structure built from reclaimed wood that is infiltrated by wool colonies reflect the symbiotic relationship of historically gendered practices of building and textiles, to envision a notion of home as organism that is porous and changing.
OPENING: NOVEMBER 10TH 7 PM
CONTINUES WEEKENDS UNTIL NOVEMBER 26TH (12-5 pm)
globular cluster
ALISON BIGG
Globular Cluster: A Spherical Collection of the Stars is an exhibition of illuminated soap sculptures by Victoria-based artist Alison Bigg. These works of soap, light and sound pique curiosity, invite intimacy and remind us of the importance of being a part of something bigger. By grabbing attention using all the senses, they stop people from ‘scrolling’ and coerce them to have a closer look, offering a feeling of delight and playfulness.
Opening: Oct. 6th – 7-9 pm – Continues weekends through Oct. 22nd
Bridge: Exhibition & open studios
BRIDGE continues Saturday and Sunday (Aug. 26-27th) from 12-5 pm with DEMONSTRATIONS at 3:45 each day in the gallery. LOOSE THREAD DRAWING on Saturday & SCULPTURAL FELTING Demo on Sunday. We are excited about providing an arts bridge with the community with the support of INTEGRATE ARTS.
Exhibition continues weekends through the month of September from 12:00 – 5:00 pm. Come join us at 2516 Bridge Street. Hope to see you there!
KERRY VAUGHN ERICKSON
NEW WORK
arc.hive is pleased to present new paintings by artist Kerry Vaughn Erickson. Come join us and meet the artist in person, at the opening or weekends during gallery hours.
OPENING: August 4th, 7:00 – 10:00 pm
EXHIBITION DATES: August 5th – 20th
GALLERY HOURS: Weekends 12:00 – 5:00 pm
ARTIST WEBSITE: http://www.kverickson.com/
GALLERY LOCATION: 2516 Bridge Street, Victoria, B.C.
daydreaming and the long burn out
Continues weekends from 12-5 pm, until June 18th
Alysha Farling’s installation “Daydreaming & the Long Burn Out” unfolds over the next two weeks in the gallery at arc.hive, opening to the public on June 2nd at 7:00 pm. We are so excited to have Alysha in the space at arc.hive. Come join us in celebrating her work with us!
strange knowledge
Opens: April 7th – 7 – 10 pm
Remains open on weekends from 12:00 – 5:00 pm, until April 23rd.
Artist Talk: April 23rd: 3:00 pm
arc.hive is pleased to present ‘strange knowledge’, an exhibition of sculptures by artist Mike Kammerer which play with elementary organic forms, and explore our understanding of biological life and the physical world.
hopeful monsters
Opens March 3rd – 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Remains open on weekends from 12:00 – 5:00 pm for the month of March
Hopeful Monsters is an exhibition of 17 contemporary artists from the Victoria area reflecting on issues related to mutants, monsters, and strangers. Exploring concepts of otherness through personal, social and political avenues the artists have created diverse works that probe what it means be on the margins of the canons of belonging. Artists include: Alison Bigg, Sandra Doore, Alysha Farling, Laura Feeleus, Laurie Freeman, Roy Green, Karina Kalvaitis, PJ Kelly, Kyle Labinsky, Elizabeth Litton, Fern Long, Amber MacGregor, Bronwyn McMillin, Connie Michele Morey, Shannon Peck, Regan Rasmussen and Trish Shwart.
Roseus I: Rose-Fingered Dawn (detail); by Laurie Freeman,
Fiberglass resin, pvc, enamel; 12 x 5 x 6″; 2017
snapshot:
Contemporary arc.hive community
January 27 – 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
January 28th – 29th from 12:00 – 5:00 pm
arc.hive will open its doors to the public on the weekend of January 27th – 29th with open studios and an in-house installation “snapshot” that provides a glimpse into the process work of 47 contemporary emerging artists, performers and poets from the Victoria area.