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Contemporary Art Gallery

555 Nelson Street
Vancouver, Canada
Open from Tuesday to
Sunday 12 pm → 6 pm

Admission always free
ArchiveElsewhere
7 Nov 20until2 May 21

Nadia Belerique, Jeneen Frei Njootli, Kathy Slade

Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany

Two woven tapestries hang on two walls of a gallery. Both tapestries depict imagery of hands holding a book with their fingers prominently touching a page of or inserted in the book.

Co-produced by the Contemporary Art Gallery and the Kunstverein Braunschweig, this extensive exhibition brings together the work of three Canadian artists—Nadia Belerique, Jeneen Frei Njootli and Kathy Slade—at the Kunsteverein’s historic Villa Salve Hospes.

Curated by Franz Hempel, Jule Hillgärtner, Nele Kaczmarek, Julia Lamare

Biographies

Nadia Belerique received her MFA from the University of Guelph. Recent solo exhibitions include There’s A Hole In The Bucket, Daniel Faria Gallery (2019); On Sleep Stones, Grazer Kunstverein (2018) and The Weather Channel, Oakville Galleries (2018). Her work has been included in La Biennale de Montreal (2016) curated by Philippe Pirote and the Gwangju Biennale (2016), curated by Maria Lind. It has been exhibited internationally at venues such as Tensta Konsthall, Spånga; Kunsthalle, Wein; Vie d’ange, Montreal; The Power Plant, Toronto; and Downs and Ross, New York. Belerique was long-listed for the 2017 Sobey Art Award and has completed residencies at Walk & Talk, The Azores and Fogo Island Arts, among others. Forthcoming exhibitions include: Kunstverein Braunschweig (2020), Toronto Biennial (2021) and Fogo Island Arts (2022). She lives and works in Toronto, Canada.

Jeneen Frei Njootli is a 2SQ Vuntut Gwitchin artist whose award-winning practice takes the forms of performance, sound, textiles, images, collaboration, workshops, and feral scholarship. Having exhibited and performed internationally, they are now living in the ancestral, unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples while teaching at the University of British Columbia. Concerned with Indigenous politics and aesthetics, Frei Njootli is currently welding, sewing, writing, and organizing. If you are interested in learning more about Jeneen’s work, please check out my auntie bought all her skidoos with bead money, available through the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver bookstore.

Kathy Slade is an artist, writer, curator, and editor/publisher. She works across mediums and has produced textile works, prints, sculpture, film, video, performance, music projects, and publications. Slade’s work draws upon sources ranging from cult films and punk rock music to literary classics, art history, feminism, technology, and labour histories. Her recent solo exhibitions include: A Dream and a Drive (in collaboration with Amber Frid-Jimenez), Monica Reyes Gallery, Vancouver (2019); This is a Chord. This is Another., Surrey Art Gallery (2018) and Blue Monday, 4COSE, London (2017). Slade’s work has been included in group exhibitions such as: Protest and Design, Dublin Art Book Fair (2020); Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin (2020); It’s Never Too Late to Speculate, Fluc, Vienna (2019); and Beginning with the Seventies: GLUT, Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery Vancouver (2018). Slade curated Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press at the Libby Leshgold Gallery, Vancouver (2019) and was Curator of the 2019 Vancouver Art Book Fair.

A close view of stacked white, plastic barrels. Some barrels are empty while others contain coloired liquid objects or are sealed with colourful stained glass lids.
A brown hoodie with bold, black text hangs on a gallery wall so that the back is visible. Blue hair emerges from the hood and black fringe hangs down from each sleeve.
A close view of beads black, red, white, and gold beads filling the cracks of cobblestone pavement. Part of a white building is blurred in the background.
A small gallery room with three monitors on three walls. On the centre back wall, the monitor plays a video of a talking head. On the parallel walls, two monitors with blue screens face each other.
Several artworks are installed in a gallery space. Three white plastic barrel sculptures are placed on the wood tile floor. Two wood-framed photographs of a doorknob are mounted on the white wall
In a darkened gallery space, a single-channel video work is projected on a white wall at the end of the room. The video shows a pair of hands holding a beaded rope.
Books and blankets are displayed on a wood table in the centre of a room. Two large textile works depicting images of a hand in a book and a reclining person are mounted on the wall behind the table.

This exhibition is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council.

Documents

Exhibition materialpdf1mb
Two woven tapestries hang on two walls of a gallery. Both tapestries depict imagery of hands holding a book with their fingers prominently touching a page of or inserted in the book.
A close view of stacked white, plastic barrels. Some barrels are empty while others contain coloired liquid objects or are sealed with colourful stained glass lids.
A brown hoodie with bold, black text hangs on a gallery wall so that the back is visible. Blue hair emerges from the hood and black fringe hangs down from each sleeve.
A close view of beads black, red, white, and gold beads filling the cracks of cobblestone pavement. Part of a white building is blurred in the background.
A small gallery room with three monitors on three walls. On the centre back wall, the monitor plays a video of a talking head. On the parallel walls, two monitors with blue screens face each other.
Several artworks are installed in a gallery space. Three white plastic barrel sculptures are placed on the wood tile floor. Two wood-framed photographs of a doorknob are mounted on the white wall
In a darkened gallery space, a single-channel video work is projected on a white wall at the end of the room. The video shows a pair of hands holding a beaded rope.
Books and blankets are displayed on a wood table in the centre of a room. Two large textile works depicting images of a hand in a book and a reclining person are mounted on the wall behind the table.