Artspeak

05/30/2026

Postscript available for view, visit our linktree! (in bio)

In response to the exhibition “A Rose into An Omen” featuring artists Karice Mitchell and Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Artspeak postscript includes review text by guest writer Sarah Edo and excerpts from “Material + Visuality” presented in partnership with UBC Critical Image Forum.

Sarah Edo is a curator and writer based in Toronto. She has curated a range of exhibitions and public programs at various museums, galleries, and festivals, including the Gardiner Museum, the Toronto Biennial of Art, Gallery TPW, the Art Gallery of Burlington, BAND Gallery, and Images Festival. She has held curatorial support roles at MOCA Toronto and the MacKenzie Art Gallery and is currently the TD Curatorial Fellow at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. Sarah’s art criticism and writing have been published in Studio Magazine, Gallery 44, Topical Cream, BlackFlash Magazine, and CMagazine. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cinema Studies and Gender Studies, as well as a Master’s degree in Gender Studies, both from the University of Toronto.

05/27/2026

Welcome Amelia!

"Why does Pray Sound like Prey, and Worship sound like Warship?" Is on view at 320 Carrall St.

Amelia Rodriguez (b.1999) is a visual artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Rodriguez holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and attended Studio H residency in Sooke, British Columbia (2024), THIRDSPACE residency in Toronto, Ontario (2025). Rodriguez has exhibited in multiple cities across Canada including Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto. Her work has been published in Subo Art Magazine (Portugal), FERAL (Asheville, NC), Capsule Community (New York, Toronto), SemiPermeable Press (Vancouver, BC), and Àflots Magazine (Montreal, QC).

05/23/2026

On View May 27- August 31 2026

“Why Does Pray Sound Like Prey, and Worship Sound Like Warship?” marks Amelia Rodriguez’s first solo exhibition. Using rope crochet, suspended forms held by fishing hooks, and a palette dominated by pink, the installation juxtaposes softness with latent danger. Rodriguez presents a body of textile-based work that interrogates the tensions between care, vulnerability, and harm. Reflecting on formative experiences shaped by Catholic upbringings, where guilt and discipline intersect with dependency, “Why Does Pray Sound Like Prey, and Worship Sound Like Warship?” considers how children navigate complex emotional landscapes without the language or tools to process them, and how systems of care can simultaneously nurture and wound. Central to the practice is an exploration of thresholds: between comfort and discomfort, safety and precarity. Drawing on feminized craft traditions, the exhibition positions care as both material and method. Tactility plays a key role: surfaces that appear soft may resist or unsettle upon closer engagement, evoking the dualities inherent in caregiving relationships.

Curated by Jade Ariana

Artspeak’s off-site space is made possible by the generosity of The Cheeky Proletariat.

05/11/2026

Join us Thursday May 14th 6:30pm for the opening reception of Christopher Outten's solo presentation "Monologue: Whispers Against the Current"

Christopher Outten (b. 1993, Nassau, Bahamas) is a Bahamian artist currently based in Vancouver, Canada, where he is pursuing an MFA at Simon Fraser University. His interdisciplinary practice explores diasporic identity through painting, sculpture, sound, and performance. Central to his work is the alter ego Kettle Man, a recurring figure that allows him to examine vulnerability, transformation, and the complexities of Black embodiment.

05/04/2026

Join us on May 14 @ 6:30pm for the opening reception of Christopher Outten's solo presentation, Monologue: Whispers Against the Current

Monologue: Whispers Against the Current therapeutically materializes fragile imaginings into a reflexive terrain of Outten’s own making, and internal dialogue. Quiet negotiations between survival and selfhood are shaped by feeling out of place. Where interiority is not retreat but a strategy, a state of exception, a necessary site of endurance , and inner aliveness in spite of. Within it, thoughts are rehearsed, edited, and withheld; a constant calibration of expression unfolds in response to environments that resist recognition. Vignettes of loss and departure, chosen and imposed, are narrated through illustration and sculpture. What does it mean to speak to oneself in a place that does not listen? To be made representative? To be both hyper-visible and unseen? Outten engages this tension, reflecting on what is left behind in the pursuit of becoming, offering a space for the quietly spoken forms of belonging that exist beyond assimilation.

04/22/2026

04/16/2026

Mailers landing in your inbox! Thank you to all of our subscribers for your ongoing support. This time we've shared the entire year of programming.

Not on our mailing list? Our website has details on upcoming events, workshops and presentations.

A glance ahead:
April 23-26 Spring Fundraiser
May 9 Feeling Film: Writing workshop with Dr. Nataleah Hunter Young

04/14/2026

SHOP, SUPPORT

Your contribution plays a vital role in fostering curatorial research, artistic dialogue, and the development of innovative exhibitions within our gallery. By supporting this initiative, you help provide essential resources for emerging and established curators to explore new ideas, engage communities, and shape meaningful cultural experiences.

From April 23–26, our gallery will temporarily transform into a thoughtfully curated thrift store, offering a selection of gallery fixtures, furnishings, and home goods.

Proceeds from this sale directly support our Curator-in-Residence program!

Come say hi in person or shop our stories sale! Your support helps ensure the continued vitality of Artspeak programs.

04/08/2026

Can’t make it in person? We’ve got you 💌

Join our Close Friends list by DM’ing us a ❤️ to shop the Bodega Basement Sale from wherever you are. Sale items drop April 22nd on our stories, first come, first served!

All purchases can be made via e-transfer, flexible pick up time slots available!

Every sale helps sustain our programming. Thank you for showing up, near or far.

04/05/2026

Taking inspiration from our 2015 exhibitions that explored the merging of space, collapsing the boundaries between display, function, and everyday life; we’re transforming the gallery once again. This time, Artspeak becomes a thrift store.

Bodega Basement Sale, our spring fundraiser where the gallery shifts into a site of circulation, reuse, and exchange. Gently used gallery fixtures, household wares, art-adjacent objects, and unexpected finds. Every purchase directly supports Artspeak’s Curator in Residence Program, investing in emerging Vancouver-based curators and the future of experimental exhibition-making.

Join us in reimagining what a gallery can hold, and how it can give back!

📅 April 23–26, 2026
📍 In person + via Instagram Stories
🎯 Fundraising goal: $2,500