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Opening Reception for ‘Material as Archive’ & Curatorial Talk
May 13 @ 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
By Donation
Join us for the Opening Reception of Material as Archive and Curatorial Talk with guest Curator Alexa Heenan.
Artist: Marika St. Rose Yeo
Curator: Alexa Heenan
The exhibition will run May 13- August 19, 2023 in our Satellite Gallery.
The exhibition Material as Archive, with artworks created by Marika Yeo and curated by Alexa Heenan, will focus on the premise of “search” and how we navigate our histories through materiality. For Yeo, this process consists of the physical interaction with clay as she kneads, moulds, and shapes the organic material with her hands, simultaneously contemplating the intricate relationship between raw material and its role as an archive of knowledge for herself and others. Drawing inspiration from her ancestral roots in West Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and Canada, Yeo pieces together unique vessels from fragments of clay that she adorns with organic, geometric and floral designs found within each cultures’ artistic traditions. As a result, each sculptural vessel embodies Yeo’s process of gathering, layering and stitching together a material archive of knowledge, experiences, culture, and history.
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About the Artist and Curator
Marika St. Rose Yeo
Marika St. Rose Yeo is a visual artist from Treaty 4 territory, Saskatchewan. Her artistic works and research are concerned with healing, justice and transformation through creative practice. St. Rose Yeo examines how creative practices allow us to generate possibilities for alternative options and worlds to be imagined, outside the systems of harm we find ourselves in. St. Rose Yeo works primarily using both fired and unfired ceramics, creating forms that are constructed with fragile layers and cracks.
Marika St. Rose Yeo has a BFA with a major in ceramics from the University of Regina and a PhD in Critical and Creative Social Justice Studies through the Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, at the University of British Columbia. She has been part of a number of exhibitions across the prairies and most recently her work has been displayed in the Vancouver area including at the Vancouver Art Gallery’s exhibit Vancouver Special: Disorientations and Echo.
Alexa Heenan
Alexa Heenan is originally from Regina, Saskatchewan, Treaty 4 territory. She holds a BA with Honours in Art History from the University of Regina and obtained her MA in Art History and Visual Studies from the University of Victoria. Alexa’s graduate research focused on contemporary Indigenous art and photography and its ability to challenge and present alternative narratives within colonial spaces and established histories.
Alexa works full-time as a researcher for various First Nations across Canada and pursues curating in her spare time. She enjoys collaborating with and supporting emerging artists to highlight new voices within the field of contemporary art.
