Siobhan Humston’s new show, Exploring Totem, is the continuation of a body or work started last July at an artist in residence program in New York. The show will run Jun. 1-28 at the Ranger Station Art Gallery in Harrison Hot Springs, with an artist’s reception on Sunday, Jun. 2 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Humston is the current artist in residence at the Ranger Station. Her works on panel and large scale drawings on paper involve the use of abstracted aspects of nature now coupled with various man-made elements including cars, houses, tractors and so on. The use of the word ‘totem’ is the artist’s respectful reference to the vertically situated totem pole, and to the symbols and ideology of what she sees may be of conflicting value in our current society. Also showing will be many digitally manipulated photographs of nature turned on its side: Sculptures made with wood, fabric and natural elements, and several small scale sculptural pieces in the ‘DivertReclaimRebuild Project.’ In total, over five dozen pieces completed during her tenure as artist in residence will be on exhibit. Humston is a Vancouver-based artist, trained in Ontario and Ireland, whose work is inspired by varying aspects of nature. The 2012 eviction from her live/work studio by the City of Vancouver had an irreversible impact on her life and work. With over 60 solo and group exhibitions on her CV and working in five different studios since that time, this will be her third solo exhibition since April, 2012. She received a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant to attend the Artist in Residence program at Byrdcliffe in Woodstock, New York, was chosen to exhibit two pieces in the Fraser Valley Biennale this summer and will continue her tenure at the Ranger Station until this August. Humston is one of many artists who have lived and worked in the historic Ranger Station. Built in 1948 on the shores of Harrison Lake, the Ranger Station served the community as an outpost for BC Forestry Ministry until 1978.In 1983, the village of Harrison Hot Springs allowed the Kent Harrison Arts Council to take over the space to house the area’s first public gallery. At this time the second floor was made into a two bedroom apartment with studio and began to provide a series of artists with both a living and work space. In 2005, the Artist in Residence program was formalized from a renewable one year contract to an annual ‘call for artists’ open to Canadians internationally. Part of the Artist in Residence contract involves acting as gallery administrator and weekend assistant. To learn more about Siobhan Humston and her artwork, visit www.siobhanhumstonart.com or www.humstonstudios.wordpress.com.

Agassiz Observer