Art at theDock
theDock has partnered with Victoria Arts Council as a satellite venue to provide exhibition space for local artists to display their work. Victoria Arts Council supports artists at all levels of their engagement. They provide opportunities for artists and audiences to connect through exhibitions, performances, readings, publications, and educational programs.
Visit us during office hours to see what art at theDock is on show and read about current and previous exhibitions below. Or, attend an exhibition opening to see the art, meet the artist, and raise funds for a local non-profit in your community.
The Movers and the Shakers Wendy Thompson
About the Work:
This series of candid photographs depict Wendy’s friends and acquaintances, who she describes as “the movers and the shakers of Victoria”. She captions each portrait with an anecdote about the individual pictured, offering glimpses into their vibrant personalities and varied interests. It’s very important to Wendy that her friends do not experience any kind of abuse. She says, “I want to show how people are still living and surviving after all the hardship and suffering we’ve endured over the past few years.” Wendy plans to give each friend their framed portrait once this show ends.
Bio:
Wendy Thompson always wanted to be an artist. She entered the diploma program at Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver in the mid 1970s and worked with drawing, painting, and sculpture. During this time, she particularly enjoyed making works in bronze and stainless steel. Wendy transitioned to photography a few years back after suffering a stroke that left her with physical disabilities. She lives in a group home in Saanich but makes it downtown often to see friends, and to volunteer at the Victoria Arts Council where she greets visitors and chats with them about the artworks on display in the gallery.
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A Home Without Innocence - Joshua Richard Franklin
Artist Statement:
Joshua Richard Franklin is a multimedia artist whose practice incorporates painting, performance, installation, collage, and sculpture. Franklins’ work takes reference from modern architecture as a means to contextualize the physical and psychological connection to one’s environment.
Bio:
Joshua Richard Franklin is an emerging contemporary artist living and working in Victoria, BC, Canada. He graduated in 2020 from the University of Victoria with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Distinction and Honours. He grew up in Prague, Southern California and British Columbia.
TW: SA, CSA
A Home Without Innocence looks at Franklin‘s childhood experiences of sexual abuse as a means to generate community awareness and conversation about ending the cycle of abuse. Additionally, the exhibition looks to provide support and a platform to victims and other survivors. Franklin pulls from primary imagery, Google street view and memory to construct a narrative of the environments of his upbringing. Utilizing imagery of the houses he lived in and where the abuse took place, the work examines the psychological space of that time period.
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Beloved Resistance - Cornelia van Voorst
Artist Statement:
The rose is often used to represent love in exclusive, romantic perfection. I choose a broken, disintegrating rose to speak for a universal, compassionate approach to the experience of loss and trauma. I present portraits of roses from my neighbourhood made with resist materials such as eraser, wax and china pencil which persevere despite many dense layers of ink. These roses stand in as portraits for the many people known, and unknown, who believe in the reality of love, courage and justice. The emergence of marginalized voices from history and our own time allows us to access stories of resilience and resistance. My work is an act of remembrance for those who have suffered violence, illness, prejudice, oppression and poverty yet have stories of hope and endurance to tell.
Bio:
Cornelia van Voorst is a visual artist and theopoetic practitioner with a studio practice within the traditional lands of the lək̓ əŋən (Lekwungen) peoples- the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations (Victoria, BC, Canada). In a world shut down by pandemic, her recent work honours stories of endurance and compassion in the face of both personal and collective adversity. Living with a complex form of PTSD influences van Voorst’s engagement with intergenerational trauma. In all of her work, allusive, lyrical images hover between literal and metaphorical depiction and negotiate the space between lived experience and dominant narrative. Her work is an empathetic integration of the personal with the historical that resonates within our contemporary context.
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Left Behind/Held in Mind - Kathryn Greenwood
Artist Statement:
The works in Left Behind/Held in Mind are a response to the human desire for ownership and our tendency to collect natural items we find attractive. Presently, we participate in a culture where we intuitively direct our attention towards animate things, and objects from nature are often seen as inconsequential, or not seen at all. Despite this lack of visual awareness, most people have experienced moments of appreciation for certain items they encounter outside, and the impulse is often to claim these as our own. Rocks, driftwood, seashells, dried flowers and other natural matter become assimilated into our domestic spaces as mementos of places we’ve been. However, living reciprocally with nature involves an overthrow of the human ego; a balancing of energies between human and non-human life. If we practice seeing nature as a sacred, self-sustaining, interconnected system, the removal of its components becomes problematic. Reciprocity demands a reevaluation of our previously assumed right to claim ownership of these natural entities.
Left Behind/Held in Mind offers an alternative approach to collecting nature, in which objects are observed, experienced, and integrated into our lives without being taken from their respective ecosystems. The paintings in this body of work are composed of imagery collected on a hike in Olympic National Park, Washington. Using a camera, a sketchbook, and/or memory, I documented natural items I found compelling, spending time examining the details of each one before returning it to its place. The paintings are composed of fragments of these images; they are collages of the visual intricacies of multiple objects contributing to one energetic system. Through the process of painting I was able to further interact with the qualities of these objects and experience their forms in new ways. The abstraction of colour and form reflects my personal connection with the energy of these entities. This practice of collecting images rather than objects presents a sustainable way of communing with natural objects that invites a more reciprocal relationship with nature.
Bio:
Kathryn (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Lekwungen Territory/Victoria, BC, whose practice explores and critiques the way humans see, experience, and relate to the natural world. Integrating her background in neuroscience, as well as earth-based practices such as hiking, gardening and farming, her work attempts to offer new perspectives on our relationships within nature. Often referencing places and species she encounters around coastal BC, her paintings utilize abstraction and collage to formulate new landscapes that reconsider the way we encounter the natural environment. Kathryn completed her BFA in Drawing and Painting at OCAD University (2021), and her work has been exhibited in Toronto and Victoria. Kathryn is represented by Sweetpea Gallery.
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MAURINA JOAQUIN
Maurina Joaquin is an artist based in Sooke, BC whose work focuses on themes of disability and healing through art. After surviving a near-drowning in 2010 that resulted in brain injury as well as trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, Maurina has utilized art and creativity as a way to heal, and is an advocate for creativity as a complementary method of care for those who experience trauma.
Creating mixed media work using various types of printmaking, as well as embossing, stenciling, collage and mixed media, Maurina’s work explores and communicates themes of disability, including brain injury and trauma.
Maurina has been exhibiting her work at the Sooke Arts Council and the Victoria Arts Council since 2019, and has studied visual arts at the Vancouver Island School of Art since 2013. She has led a variety of printmaking workshops focusing on healing and disability with the Victoria Brain Injury Society, and has had her work published in a variety of Vancouver Island-based publications.
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DALLAS SEGNO
What is an artist today? Dallas Segno is a Jamaican Canadian multi-media conceptual artist emerging from Victoria, BC. Music, film, cartoons, wall art, architecture, digital design, there is no limit to Dallas’s reach. Represented by an emoji and 3d printed mask, Dallas Segno challenges how we understand identity in a world where you’ve consented to it being used to sell yourself back to you.
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EMILY KIRSCH
“During the height of my cognitive and reading comprehension issues resulting from a traumatic brain injury, I focused my practice on exploring bio-art. This series is the product of exploring educational science diagrams. Looking back to old notebooks filled with illustrations from my high school science courses offered a break from other means of learning such as reading or lectures. The reinterpretation of these cells became a therapeutic and contemplative process. Using a punch needle for the slow and repetitive process allowed me time to consider the reasons behind choosing this particular diagram from my earlier education. The learning of cells, organelles, and mitochondria, bring to mind the apparent lack of utilitarian education in secondary schooling. In adulthood, what was learned in science class seems impractical when faced with taxes. However, It is comforting to focus on a subject that has permanently fixed itself into my long term memory, when my short term memory is so unreliable.”
About the Artist: Emily Kirsch is a British Columbia artist creating interdisciplinary work. Their practice uses learning and play as integral processes to create artwork. Kirsch was born and raised in Kelowna and moved to Vancouver island to complete a BFA Honours in Visual arts. Kirsch has shown in Squamish, Vancouver, Victoria, and was nominated this year for the BMO 1st Award in addition to being featured by CBC Arts.
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SARAH JIM
We are pleased to present a collection of prints and original paintings from local artist, Sarah Jim. This body of work explores the artist's connection to land through her unique illustrative sensibility. With a focus on vivid colours and playful line work, Sarah's art vibrates with energy. Sarah Jim at theDock is presented by the Victoria Arts Council, in partnership with theDock: Centre for Social Impact, for the summer term of 2021. It is our hope that you experience this body work while considering your own sense of place. Enjoy!
Sarah Jim is an emerging artist of mixed ancestry and is a member of the W̱SÁNEĆ nation from the Tseycum village. She holds a BFA from UVIC and conducts environmental restoration on her ancestral territory. Creating place-based artwork of her homelands and waters allows her to educate others about the importance of native plant food systems and coastal medicines in relation to the ecosystem and W̱SÁNEĆ culture. You can learn more about Sarah's art on her website, www.sarahjimstudio.com, or by following her on Instagram @sarahjimstudio, or find her on Facebook: Sarah Jim Studio.
Established in 1968, the Victoria Arts Council is a non-profit arts organization dedicated to the production and presentation of arts across the Capital Regional District. For more information, please visit www.vicartscouncil.ca.
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LIBBY OLIVER
In partnership with the Victoria Arts Council, we are pleased to present an exhibition of new (and newly imagined work) from local artist, Libby Oliver. By reworking selections of past projects into new photo collage pieces, Libby offers a rethinking of waste and the lifecycle of material practices. Past projects to be reworked include Soft Shells, in which she photographed people wearing every item of clothing they owned, and Objectify, where she photographed every object in a person's room. Prior to the pandemic, Libby travelled the world photographing the intimate lives of strangers and loved ones alike, telling stories through the objects that people choose to surround themselves with. This selective retrospective of her work not only highlights what happens when an artist turns inward to reflect upon their own practice, but upon the reshaping of our human connections over the past year.
About the artist:
Libby Oliver was born on the ancestral land of the Paskestikweya (Baltimore, Maryland). She lives on unceded Lekwungen territory (Victoria, BC), where she works on a community-based art practice. Her art has exhibited nationally and internationally, including a solo exhibition at the Musee de la Civilisation in Quebec. Her photo series, Soft Shells, has been featured in print and online media outlets around the world including the CBC, The Guardian, the Missouri Review, Der Spiegel and Il Post. Libby most recently completed an intergenerational artist residency at a senior care home (the Luther Court Society), in collaboration with Regan Shrumm and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV).
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NATHAN SMITH
PROFILING BLACK EXCELLENCE
We were privileged to exhibit the work of local artist Nathan Smith of N8 Images for 8 months from June 2020 to February 2021. Watch the video and visit the space to experience these powerful stories!
Artist bio and statement:
Nathan is a self-taught portrait photographer living in downtown Victoria. Through his work, he has strived to capture the strength and resilience of people of colour living on Canada's west coast. Growing up in Jamaica, he enjoyed what one might expect from a tropical life: weekends at the beach, picking fruits from trees in the yard, and enjoying the slower pace that comes with life in a hot place like Jamaica. He has always focused his energies on ways to uplift the community.
He was part of a group of youth known as the Jamaica Youth Coalition that worked with the Children’s Advocate of Jamaica to act as proponents for the rights of children in Jamaica, and launched several high school clubs which sought to inform youth of their rights. He was a part of groups which led mentoring and training for children in orphanages as well as underprivileged children from inner city communities.
It was shortly after moving to Canada in 2014 that he first picked up a camera and found a love for photography. He has since developed a deep appreciation for portraiture, as well as a style and a way of empowering the subjects of his photography, who are very often members of marginalized groups.
In 2017 he started the photo project, Profiling Black Excellence, which aimed at raising awareness surrounding racism and its presence and impact in Victoria.
Profiling Black Excellence
Profiling Black Excellence documents instances of racism and racial profiling faced by people of colour in and around Victoria. Through the project, the artist’s hope has been to eliminate fear of black and brown people through exposure, and demonstrate how dangerous those biases can be to both the mental and physical well-being of people of colour.
The project has proven to be of value to the community as it has been displayed in a gallery, at the William Head Institute as part of Black History Month, as well as shown in a high school in the city, with plans to showcase it in more schools later on.