Exhibitions

Photo credit: Michael Love

Richmond Art Gallery, 2024

Exhibition: FOODWAYS

October 19 – December 31, 2024

Peace Together, a relief and screen-printed installation, was created specifically for FOODWAYS. This piece pays homage to the beloved Hong Wo 同和 General Store that once existed in Steveston Village. In 1895, Ling Lam purchased property in Steveston and opened the Hong Wo store, whose Chinese name 同和 means “Peace Together” or “Living in Harmony. Printed images were influenced by research with the City of Richmond’s archivist, Dovelle Buie, and interviews with the former councillor, Harold Steves and former employee of Hong Wo, Jeanne Ryan.

Curator: Zoë Chan

To learn more about this artwork please watch the artist interview.

To learn more about this group exhibition please visit this Richmond Art Gallery link.

To learn more about the Hong Wo General store, please visit Richmond Art Gallery Off-Site.

Photo credit: Kyla Bailey

Vancouver Art Gallery, 2024

Exhibition: Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines

May 12, 2024 – September 22, 2024

Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines is the first exhibition dedicated to the rich history of five decades of artists’ zines produced in North America.

Vancouver has a rich history of artists’ zines that emerged around the Western Front community of artists in the 1970s. To complement the exhibition, the Vancouver Art Gallery created a reading room featuring a selection of zines and small publications produced by local artists and makers in a range of styles, formats and subject matter. The reading room highlights the robust zine culture that exists in the city. Artists include Ho Tam, Whess Harman, Erica Wilk, Cole Pauls, Cheryl Hamilton, Lisa g Nielsen, Liz Knox and many more. The reading room is framed by the artwork, Pockets of Time, created by local artist and zine maker Marlene Yuen.

Curatorial: Siobhan McCracken Nixon and Julie Martin

To learn more about this past exhibition, please visit this link.

Photo credit: Rachel Topham

Chinese Canadian Museum, 2023

Exhibition: Odysseys and Migration

July 1, 2023 – July 31, 2024

This exhibition recounts some of the unique journeys that are a part of Chinese Canadian history from the 18th century to the present day. From Chinese-Indigenous relations since 1788 to the multiple migration waves between Hong Kong and Vancouver, to 20th-21st-century migrations from countries across the world such as South Africa, Thailand, and Singapore, this introductory exhibition serves as a prelude for sharing the integral role and unique identities of Chinese diasporas in Canada.

The mural, The Journeys Here, depicts the struggles and accomplishments of Chinese Canadians through belongings, places, and motifs.

Curators: Dr. Melissa Karmen Lee, Sarah Ling
Exhibition Design: AldrichPears Associates
Editor: Henry Heng Lu
Curatorial Committee: John Adams, Dr. Imogene Lim, Dr. Tiffanie Ting, Grace Wong
Mural: Marlene Yuen

Photo credit: Dennis Ha

grunt gallery, 2020

Exhibition: Cheap! Diligent! Faithful!

ARTIST: Marlene Yuen
September 25 — December 12th, 2020

Vancouver-based printmaker Marlene Yuen’s explorations of Chinese Canadian labour histories have through the years taken the form of intricately produced print and paper- based media. Through ‘zines, comics, lovingly crafted artists books and – new for this exhibition – site-specific artworks, Yuen’s body of work comes off the pages and onto the walls. In precise and attentive craftsmanship, Yuen brings dimension to both the known and the overlooked histories of immigrant labour. Drawing from oral histories and archival research inspired by Yuen’s own family history, Cheap! Diligent! Faithful! acknowledges the complexities of labour and immigration in this country – and lifts up the small, remarkable details of lived experience.

The exhibition includes the launch of Yuen’s new publication that explores the graphic and cultural history of Ho Sun Hing Printers which closed in 2014, after 106 years of business in Vancouver’s Chinatown.

Curators: Vanessa Kwan and Whess Harman
For more information about this exhibition, please visit the grunt gallery archives.