Surrey Art Gallery’s fall exhibits include a multimedia group exhibit curated by members of the Black Arts Centre in Surrey, along with a related showcase that aims to expand the conversation on how society interprets Blackness.
Until Dec. 11, the exhibit “Concealed Cultures: Visualizing the Black Vernacular” features seven artists — Oluseye Ogunlesi, Karice Mitchell, Fegor Obuwoma, Clancy Ngolah, Odera Igbokwe, Michèle Bygodt, and Nura Ali — whose works are “connected through a desire to make visible the specificities of language that emerge as a result of lived experiences in the diasporic world.
“The representation of Blackness is understood in this exhibition as a means of communication interpreted through storytelling and portraiture,” explains a post on SAG’s website.
Surrey’s Black Arts Centre, located beneath Surrey Central SkyTrain station, celebrates Black art and artists across a variety of disciplines with exhibitions, performances, events, workshops and other programming.
Also at SAG right now, the exhibit “I see; I breathe; I am!” features artists Nancy Ainomugisha and Olúwáṣọlá Kẹ́hìndé Olówó-Aké, who use storytelling, photography and film to expand the conversation on how society interprets Blackness. “A thought-provoking dialogue emerges from the personal narratives of these two artists that highlights the multifaceted nature of the Black female and femme experience,” says a webpost.
At 2 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 8), the Black Arts Centre invites anyone aged 15 and older for a film screening by Ogheneofegor Obuwoma and a performance by Chipo Chipaziwa. Obuwoma’s filmmaking practice revolves around themes of “exploring their embodiment in relation to the world, spiritual entities, Nigerian mythology, and the decolonization of one’s mind and memories.”
Also recently debuted at SAG is “Poets with a Video Camera: Videopoetry 1980–2020,” a group exhibit of videopoetry from Canada and other countries around the world, and Sandeep Johal’s playful new vinyl mural (“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see”), placed on Surrey Arts Centre classroom windows.
• RELATED: ‘Fresh Paint’ new to Surrey Art Gallery, plus ‘Guardian of Sleep’ video and call for tour guides.
In August, Surrey Art Gallery welcomed a juried exhibit and introduced a new video installation.
The Federation of Canadian Artists’ Fraser Valley chapter has returned to the Bear Creek Park gallery with “Fresh Paint,” a juried showcase of paintings on a variety of themes, on view until Oct. 16.
On view until Nov. 26 is “Guardian of Sleep,” Zachery Cameron Longboy’s video installation that features morphing animations reminiscent of petroglyphs, running packs of caribou and footage of the baton-twirling artist leading a Pride parade out of the forest, among other imagery.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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