A public reception takes place Thursday, May 23 for the spring/summer season of exhibitions at The Reach Gallery Museum.
The reception takes place at 7 p.m. at The Reach, 32388 Veterans Way, and the exhibitions run until Sept. 15.
Among the new exhibitions is Little México, which presents a new body of work by the Mexico-born, Vancouver-based, multi-disciplinary artist Carlos Colín.
Colin is both an artist and a scholar who aims to help audiences better understand and value the cultural wealth and diversity of Mexico and Latin America.
For this exhibition, he conducted research both in Mexico and in the Fraser Valley, focusing on the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP).
Originally created in 1966, SAWP now brings thousands of workers from Mexico every year to work on Canadian farms.
Colín’s artworks look closely at the lives and experiences of SAWP participants, in an attempt to render their lives—and their labour—more visible and proportionate to the contribution they make to the community.
In Precious, Vancouver-based, multidisciplinary artist Karin Jones presents a group of repurposed farm implements, including a scythe, a pitchfork, a bill hook, and others.
Jones has embellished each of these tools with intricate damascene inlay, an age-old technique originally developed to inlay silver and gold on arms and armour. The work addresses pastoral notions of agricultural labour and the romanticization of rural life.
In the group exhibition Something More than Nothing, artists Aganetha Dyck, Colleen Heslin, Michael Mandiberg, Kelly Mark, Madiha Sikander and Andrew Norman Wilson investigate notions of invisible or hidden labour.
This is work that is not seen, valued, or adequately paid, and includes domestic/care work, digital and tech labour that is increasingly performed in the home as piece work, and the hidden labour that is inherent in the art world itself.
The contemporary artwork in this exhibition is complemented by historical displays from The Reach’s collections which help to contextualize how ideas about work and labour have changed over the years.
Also at The Reach, two dozen local artists and poets depict their journeys with mental health challenges in See and Hear: Art and Poetry for Mental Health by the Communitas Supportive Care Society. This exhibit runs until June 27.
The new exhibitions are complemented by Brunch with the Artists on Saturday, May 25 at The Reach.
Tickets are $21 for Reach members and $25 for guests. Pre-registration is required at thereach.ca/calendar.
