HEAT WAVE
With works by: Annie Briard, Maggee Day, Tiko Kerr, Kriss Munsya, Bernadette Phan, Andrea Taylor, Mina Totino, Valérie d. Walker and introducing Cameron McLellan
MACKENZIE HEIGHTS
Mónica Reyes Gallery presents Heat Wave, a late summer group show celebrating the slow, heat-soaked days of August. If the beach down the street seems just a little too far away and a little too full, then step into the MRG’s recreation of a day by the water complete with some cooling blues of works by artists Maggee Day, Tiko Kerr, Kriss Munsya, Bernadette Phan and Valérie d. Walker; a sandy beach prepped for lounging evoked by works by Cameron McLellan, Andrea Taylor and Mina Totino; and all while Annie Briard’s glowing sun-like circle slowly marks the passage of time through changing hues. As we collectively relax into the dwindling days of summer vacation and prepare for faster paced rhythms of fall, MRG invites us to take pause and revel in this brief window of time, where we can give into the heat and seek escape by whatever body of water — be it the ocean, a pool, or a garden hose — is nearby and ready to cool us off.
About the Artists
About Annie Briard
Annie Briard (BFA, MFA) is a Canadian artist known for her practice in expanded photography and digital media. Her work challenges how we make sense of the world through visual perception. Creating lens-based and light-focused works, she explores the intersections between perception paradigms in psychology, neuroscience and existentialism.
Her moving images, media installations, expanded and print photography have been presented in numerous solo exhibitions, including “Staring at the Sun” at La Bande vidéo for the Quebec Biennale (Québec, 2022), “Within the Eclipse” at the Burrard Arts Foundation (Vancouver, 2021), "Second Sight” at AC Institute (New York, 2019), "Sight Shifting" at Joyce Yahouda Gallery (Montréal, 2014), as well as group shows, festivals and fairs internationally at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Art Mûr (Montréal), Three Shadows Photography Centre (Beijing), the Lincoln Film Centre New York, Matadero Madrid, the Switzerland Architecture Museum, among many others. Recently, she presented monumental scale photographic and moving-image public art projects for a number of commissions in Canada. She has been artist-in-residence at SIM in Reykjavik, the Banff Centre for the Arts, Eastside Los Angeles and others. Annie Briard’s work has received support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and is found in the collections of Microsoft, Scotiabank, Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, Polygon and others.
Briard is a Lecturer in photography and media arts at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
Annie Briard (BFA, MFA) is a Canadian artist known for her practice in expanded photography and digital media. Her work challenges how we make sense of the world through visual perception. Creating lens-based and light-focused works, she explores the intersections between perception paradigms in psychology, neuroscience and existentialism.
Her moving images, media installations, expanded and print photography have been presented in numerous solo exhibitions, including “Staring at the Sun” at La Bande vidéo for the Quebec Biennale (Québec, 2022), “Within the Eclipse” at the Burrard Arts Foundation (Vancouver, 2021), "Second Sight” at AC Institute (New York, 2019), "Sight Shifting" at Joyce Yahouda Gallery (Montréal, 2014), as well as group shows, festivals and fairs internationally at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Art Mûr (Montréal), Three Shadows Photography Centre (Beijing), the Lincoln Film Centre New York, Matadero Madrid, the Switzerland Architecture Museum, among many others. Recently, she presented monumental scale photographic and moving-image public art projects for a number of commissions in Canada. She has been artist-in-residence at SIM in Reykjavik, the Banff Centre for the Arts, Eastside Los Angeles and others. Annie Briard’s work has received support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and is found in the collections of Microsoft, Scotiabank, Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, Polygon and others.
Briard is a Lecturer in photography and media arts at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
About Maggee Day
Maggee Day is a visual artist working predominantly in the medium of oil paint. She studied at OCAD University in Toronto, ON where she received her BFA (2016), and completed her MFA at Emily Carr University in Vancouver, BC (2020). Day’s work challenges traditional conventions of representational painting by exploring new ways to utilize tools in our contemporary painting world. She combines traditional painting techniques, rendering approaches from the digital realm, and loose vandalizing brushstrokes to create complex paintings that oscillate between illusionism and autonomous abstraction. Day has exhibited across Canada and was awarded the 2018 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant in painting. Day lives and works in Vancouver, on the unceded land of the Coast Salish peoples.
Maggee Day is a visual artist working predominantly in the medium of oil paint. She studied at OCAD University in Toronto, ON where she received her BFA (2016), and completed her MFA at Emily Carr University in Vancouver, BC (2020). Day’s work challenges traditional conventions of representational painting by exploring new ways to utilize tools in our contemporary painting world. She combines traditional painting techniques, rendering approaches from the digital realm, and loose vandalizing brushstrokes to create complex paintings that oscillate between illusionism and autonomous abstraction. Day has exhibited across Canada and was awarded the 2018 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant in painting. Day lives and works in Vancouver, on the unceded land of the Coast Salish peoples.
About Tiko Kerr
Tiko Kerr is a Canadian artist who has developed his artistic processes in Vancouver since the early 1980’s. Kerr attended the University of Calgary and graduated with a degree in Biological Science, which he believes has enhanced his ability to translate the 3-dimensional world into 2 dimensions.
Kerr has been commissioned by The City of Vancouver, the BC Centre for Excellence, Vancouver Opera, The Vancouver Symphony, the Celebration of Light and The Vancouver Sun Run. He has collaborated with Ballet British Columbia, painting in performance on 2 projects and was commissioned to create sets for “Boy Wonder”, Canada’s first original 3 act ballet, again working with Ballet British Columbia, and with Touchstone Theatre and Vancouver New Music. He was commissioned to create the sets for another theatre production of “Marion Bridge” at The Kay Meek Arts Centre in 2018. He did an Artist Residency at the Brodsky Centre for Innovative Printmaking at Rutgers University, another at the West End Community Center in Vancouver, where he created 3 murals and more recently, another outdoor wall mural in 2018 for the Kitsilano 4th Avenue Business Association. Kerr has been Guest Artist twice for the Paradise Valley Artists for Kids Summer Camp and is active in teaching and lecturing. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at The Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art in North Vancouver, BC and a group show at the Grosvenor Building in West Vancouver, BC.
Tiko Kerr is a Canadian artist who has developed his artistic processes in Vancouver since the early 1980’s. Kerr attended the University of Calgary and graduated with a degree in Biological Science, which he believes has enhanced his ability to translate the 3-dimensional world into 2 dimensions.
Kerr has been commissioned by The City of Vancouver, the BC Centre for Excellence, Vancouver Opera, The Vancouver Symphony, the Celebration of Light and The Vancouver Sun Run. He has collaborated with Ballet British Columbia, painting in performance on 2 projects and was commissioned to create sets for “Boy Wonder”, Canada’s first original 3 act ballet, again working with Ballet British Columbia, and with Touchstone Theatre and Vancouver New Music. He was commissioned to create the sets for another theatre production of “Marion Bridge” at The Kay Meek Arts Centre in 2018. He did an Artist Residency at the Brodsky Centre for Innovative Printmaking at Rutgers University, another at the West End Community Center in Vancouver, where he created 3 murals and more recently, another outdoor wall mural in 2018 for the Kitsilano 4th Avenue Business Association. Kerr has been Guest Artist twice for the Paradise Valley Artists for Kids Summer Camp and is active in teaching and lecturing. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at The Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art in North Vancouver, BC and a group show at the Grosvenor Building in West Vancouver, BC.
About Kriss Munsya
Born in DRC in the 80’s and raised in Brussels, he was confronted with his “differences” early on. The discrimination and violence he experienced in child-hood left a mark - one that grew to obfuscate his sense of self-worth. The internalization of these experiences disoriented him in search of self-preservation. It took him years to acknowledge how this distanced him from his loved ones, community, and Self [sic]. He took refuge in the distance. Safety was his priority.In his adulthood, his memories are calling on him to clarify his worth and reorient his efforts toward justice. He wants to get back to those he’d distanced himself from.
Born in DRC in the 80’s and raised in Brussels, he was confronted with his “differences” early on. The discrimination and violence he experienced in child-hood left a mark - one that grew to obfuscate his sense of self-worth. The internalization of these experiences disoriented him in search of self-preservation. It took him years to acknowledge how this distanced him from his loved ones, community, and Self [sic]. He took refuge in the distance. Safety was his priority.In his adulthood, his memories are calling on him to clarify his worth and reorient his efforts toward justice. He wants to get back to those he’d distanced himself from.
About Bernadette Phan
As a Vietnamese- Canadian visual artist Thanh Marie Bernadette Phan has evolved in many locations and with a multitude of influences that is in permanent flux, from her schooling in Montreal and Philadelphia to my immersion in the Kwakwaka'wakw community of Alert Bay, BC. Over the years, the art practice and daily life have become intertwined and affect every decision. Bernadette's intra-cultural background is present in how her use of traditional media of painting, drawing and weaving to articulate percepts of embodiment, vulnerability and active presence. It is a pursuit, a dialogue for propositions that evade answers and a source of “don’t know mind” which allow the works to communicate from the tipping point, this verge between familiarity and facing the unknown.
As a Vietnamese- Canadian visual artist Thanh Marie Bernadette Phan has evolved in many locations and with a multitude of influences that is in permanent flux, from her schooling in Montreal and Philadelphia to my immersion in the Kwakwaka'wakw community of Alert Bay, BC. Over the years, the art practice and daily life have become intertwined and affect every decision. Bernadette's intra-cultural background is present in how her use of traditional media of painting, drawing and weaving to articulate percepts of embodiment, vulnerability and active presence. It is a pursuit, a dialogue for propositions that evade answers and a source of “don’t know mind” which allow the works to communicate from the tipping point, this verge between familiarity and facing the unknown.
About Andrea Taylor
Andrea is an artist whose work considers body fragility/strength, temporality, corporeality, movement, and the experience the viewer has with the work. Using mostly commonplace materials, she creates abstract mixed-media sculptures, drawings and stop-motion videos. Andrea holds an MFA in Visual Art from Vermont College of Fine Arts (2014). She completed a Banff Centre Spring Intensive Residency in 2017. Past solo shows include Malaspina Printmakers and Back Gallery Project (Monica Reyes Gallery). One of her videos was included in God in Reverse: When Wisdom Defies Capture, digital exhibition curated by Mohammad Salemy for Richmond Art Gallery in 2020. In 2022, she has a solo show at Mónica Reyes Gallery, as well as a three-person exhibition at Gordon Smith Gallery with M.E. Sparks and Russna Kaur, curated by Kate Henderson. She has taught for many years for Continuing Studies at Emily Carr University.
Andrea is an artist whose work considers body fragility/strength, temporality, corporeality, movement, and the experience the viewer has with the work. Using mostly commonplace materials, she creates abstract mixed-media sculptures, drawings and stop-motion videos. Andrea holds an MFA in Visual Art from Vermont College of Fine Arts (2014). She completed a Banff Centre Spring Intensive Residency in 2017. Past solo shows include Malaspina Printmakers and Back Gallery Project (Monica Reyes Gallery). One of her videos was included in God in Reverse: When Wisdom Defies Capture, digital exhibition curated by Mohammad Salemy for Richmond Art Gallery in 2020. In 2022, she has a solo show at Mónica Reyes Gallery, as well as a three-person exhibition at Gordon Smith Gallery with M.E. Sparks and Russna Kaur, curated by Kate Henderson. She has taught for many years for Continuing Studies at Emily Carr University.
About Mina Totino
Mina Totino is a Canadian painter based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Totino's work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions in Montreal, Toronto and Berlin. Totino first came to prominence in the 1985 Young Romantics exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Her work has been exhibited notably in Vancouver at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Artspeak, SFU Galleries, Western Front, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and most recently the West Vancouver Art Museum. Internationally her work was shown at the Centro d'Arte Contemporanea, Ticino, Italy, Centre d'Art Centemporain and Dialogai Geneva, Switzerland, Latvian Center of Contemporary Art, Riga, Latvia, Canada House, London, UK and Galerie Likorfabrik, Berlin, Germany among others.
Mina Totino is a Canadian painter based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Totino's work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions in Montreal, Toronto and Berlin. Totino first came to prominence in the 1985 Young Romantics exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Her work has been exhibited notably in Vancouver at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Artspeak, SFU Galleries, Western Front, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and most recently the West Vancouver Art Museum. Internationally her work was shown at the Centro d'Arte Contemporanea, Ticino, Italy, Centre d'Art Centemporain and Dialogai Geneva, Switzerland, Latvian Center of Contemporary Art, Riga, Latvia, Canada House, London, UK and Galerie Likorfabrik, Berlin, Germany among others.
About Valérie d. Walker
Valérie d. Walker is a Neo-Renaissance Artist, transmedia creator, alchemyst, Indigo Griot, Black Hawai’ian Latinex Japanese Scots, Femme Afro-Futurist time traveler. She holds Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) & Chado (tea ceremony) instructor level degrees with Urasenke-Kyoto, epigentic + lived Indigo knowledge. Walker landed on Gaia in Honolu’lu, and travelled the planet in space and time. Her artworks explore enviro-positivity with capaciousness interweaving natural dyeing, Shibori-Zomé (hand shaped resist), Katazomé (hand-cut stencil printing), Quotidian Femme-life actions, sensorially immersive fibre-based installations, solar-powered circuit-bending, Story-telling, Black Panther-esque activism and Guerilla-Grrrl radio. Valérie was welcomed to the unceded lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Sell With (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations by Chief Marilyn Gabriel.
Valérie d. Walker is a Neo-Renaissance Artist, transmedia creator, alchemyst, Indigo Griot, Black Hawai’ian Latinex Japanese Scots, Femme Afro-Futurist time traveler. She holds Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) & Chado (tea ceremony) instructor level degrees with Urasenke-Kyoto, epigentic + lived Indigo knowledge. Walker landed on Gaia in Honolu’lu, and travelled the planet in space and time. Her artworks explore enviro-positivity with capaciousness interweaving natural dyeing, Shibori-Zomé (hand shaped resist), Katazomé (hand-cut stencil printing), Quotidian Femme-life actions, sensorially immersive fibre-based installations, solar-powered circuit-bending, Story-telling, Black Panther-esque activism and Guerilla-Grrrl radio. Valérie was welcomed to the unceded lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Sell With (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations by Chief Marilyn Gabriel.
About Cameron McLellan
McLellan’s practice centres around the built environment, rethinking architectural lexicon and material function through painting, sewing and mixed media. Through these processes, typical function is diffused, as architecture, economics and aesthetics interweave. The materiality of the work underscores the layered histories that define the urban context and our experience of it.
Recent exhibitions include Empty Gallery, the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and AHVA Gallery/UBC. McLellan holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia (2018) and lives and work in Vancouver, BC, on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the xwməθkwəyə̓ m (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səlí̓lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
McLellan’s practice centres around the built environment, rethinking architectural lexicon and material function through painting, sewing and mixed media. Through these processes, typical function is diffused, as architecture, economics and aesthetics interweave. The materiality of the work underscores the layered histories that define the urban context and our experience of it.
Recent exhibitions include Empty Gallery, the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and AHVA Gallery/UBC. McLellan holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia (2018) and lives and work in Vancouver, BC, on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the xwməθkwəyə̓ m (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səlí̓lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.