Join us for the launch of Capture Photography Festival and the opening of our Feature Exhibition, The Blue Hour, in partnership with the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver
Date/Time: Apr 5 2018, 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm
Vancouver, Contemporary Art Gallery | Event calendarCost: Free
No Formal RSVP Required
Cash Bar
Writing in 1857, only a few short decades after the “invention” of photography, the art historian and critic Elizabeth Eastlake describes the photographic image as one that approaches us from the future and arrives in the present. While referring to the new technologies in chemical photography at the time, Eastlake’s comment might also be interpreted more portentously, as critical theorist Kaja Silverman suggests in The Miracle of Analogy (2015): as an invitation to upend canonical readings of photographs, which emphasize their simultaneous demonstration of “this-has-been” and "this-is-no-more.” The Blue Hour extends from this radical premise to rethink our assumptions about the photograph’s relationship to time. The exhibition presents work by five Canadian and international artists – Joi T. Arcand, Kapwani Kiwanga, Colin Miner, Grace Ndiritu, and Kara Uzelman – and collectively acts as a proposition to consider the futurity of the photographic image.The exhibition’s title makes reference to the brief period of twilight at dawn and dusk when the linearity of time appears to momentarily hover in a state of suspension. We might understand this “blue hour” as analogous to the photographic event, which as literary theorist Eduardo Cadava has claimed, “interrupts the present; [...] occurs between the present and itself, between the movement of time and itself.” The space of radical potentiality – whether political, geological, cosmological or philosophical – that opens up within this state of suspension forms the central inquiry of this exhibition.
Exhibiting artists: Joi T. Arcand, Kapwani Kiwanga, Colin Miner, Grace Ndiritu and Kara Uzelman.
Joi T. Arcand is a photo-based artist from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Saskatchewan, Treaty 6 Territory, currently residing in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with Great Distinction from the University of Saskatchewan in 2005. Recent solo exhibitions include the Walter Phillips Gallery (Banff, AB); ODD Gallery (Dawson City, Yukon); Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon); Wanuskeiwn Heritage Park (Saskatoon); Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina); Gallery 101 (Ottawa). Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including at the Winnipeg Art Gallery; Karsh-Masson Art Gallery (Ottawa); McMaster Museum of Art (Hamilton, ON); The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design (Asheville, North Carolina); Woodland School at SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art (Montreal); Ottawa Art Gallery; PAVED Arts (Saskatoon); and grunt gallery (Vancouver). Arcand has been artist in residence at Wanuskewin Heritage Park; OCAD University; Plug-In Institute of Contemporary Art; the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity; and Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (Dawson City, Yukon). She has served as chair of the board of directors for PAVED Arts in Saskatoon and was the co-founder of the Red Shift Gallery, a contemporary aboriginal art gallery in Saskatoon.
Kapwani Kiwanga studied anthropology and comparative religion at McGill University. She has followed the program "La Seine" at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, and also works at Le Fresnoy (a french national center for contemporary art). She was artist in residence at the MU Foundation in Eindhoven (The Netherlands) and at the Box (Bourges, France). Kiwanga's works have been exhibited the Esker Foundation (Calgary); Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris); the Glasgow Center of Contemporary Art (UK); the Museum of Modern in Dublin (Ireland); the Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo de Almeria (Spain); Salt Beyoglu in Istanbul (Turkey); the South London Gallery (UK); the Jeu de Paume in Paris (France); the Kassel Documentary Film Festival (Germany); the Kaleidoscope Arena Rome (Italy) and at Paris Photo (France). In 2016 she was nominated as commissioned artist by The Armory Show, where a solo show was devoted to her work. Twice nominated for BAFTA, her movies have been rewarded in several international festivals. Kiwanga lives and works in Paris.
Colin Miner completed a PhD at Western University and holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia. His solo exhibitions include 8eleven, Toronto; Neutral Ground, Saskatoon; Stride Gallery, Calgary; and, the McIntosh Gallery, London (ON). Selected group exhibitions include 2nd Kamias Triennial, Manila; Carl Louie, London (ON); Modern Fuel, Kingston; Forest City Gallery, London (ON); Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton; Gallery 44, Toronto; Beijing Center of Art, Beijing; The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver; and Postdamer Platz Gallery, Germany. Recent distinctions include the Barbara Spohr Memorial Award for the Development of Contemporary Photography and the Roloff Beny Foundation Award for Photography. Residencies include The Garden House, Berlin; Open Studio, Toronto; Kamias Special Projects, Quezon City, Philippines; Banff Center for the Arts Thematic Residencies; Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography; Toronto and Tambopata Research Center, National Reserve, Peruvian Amazon. Miner lives and works in Toronto.
Grace Ndiritu (Kenya/UK) studied Textile Art at Winchester School of Art, UK. She has participated in number artist residencies, including De Ateliers (Amsterdam); Delfina Studio Trust (London); Recollets International Residency (Paris); MACBA & L'Appartement 22 International Residency (Rabat); Galveston Artists Residency (Texas); Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers (Paris); and Thalielab Art Foundation (Brussels). Recent solo performances include Fundació Antoni Tàpies (Barcelona); Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers (Paris); Glasgow School of Art (Glasgow); Museum Modern of Art, Warsaw (Warsaw); Musee Chasse & Nature and Centre Pompidou (Paris). Recent solo exhibitions include Klowden Mann Gallery (Los Angeles); Glasgow School of Art (Glasgow); La Ira De Dios (Buenos Aires); Chisenhale Gallery, (London); the 51st Venice Biennale; and Ikon Gallery (Birmingham).
Since graduating from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2004, Kara Uzelman has presented her sculpture and site-specific installations in solo and group exhibitions at numerous museums, artist-run centres and fairs, including 67 Steps (Los Angeles); Remai Modern (Saskatoon); The Power Plant (Toronto); Le Commissariat (Paris); Temporäre Kunsthalle, (Berlin); Mercer Union (Toronto); and 221A (Vancouver). She has received numerous awards and attended residencies at The Klondike Institute of Art (Dawson City); Triangle (Marseille); Les Ateliers des Arques (Les Arques, FR), Mercer Union (Toronto); and Mains D’oeuvres (Paris). Uzelman currently lives and works in the rural farming community of Nokomis, Saskatchewan.
More info