Programs & Events
Programs & Events
Centre A Speaker Series 2022 EXTENDED: Sunil Gupta and Tom Hsu
Thursday, December 1, 2022
11 am – 1 pm PST
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We have extended our Speaker Series 2022 and will wrap up this year with a virtual discussion that examines the intersection between photographic practices and racialized queer identities in the Western context. This talk will be moderated by Tom Hsu and Henry Heng Lu.
Register for the talk HERE.
Find out more about the Centre A Speaker Series 2022 HERE.
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Sunil Gupta is a British/Canadian citizen, (b. New Delhi, 1953) MA (RCA) Ph.D. (Westminster) who lives in London and has been involved with independent photography as a critical practice for many years focusing on race, migration, and queer issues. A retrospective was shown at The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2020/21) and The Image Centre, Toronto. He is a Professorial Fellow at UCA, Farnham. His latest book is “We Were Here: Sexuality, Photography, and Cultural Difference, Selected Writings by Sunil Gupta”, Aperture New York 2022 and his current exhibitions include; “Sunil Gupta: Songs of Deliverance, Part I and Part II” at the Hammersmith Hospital, London. His work is in many private and public collections, including; the Tokyo Museum of Photography, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Royal Ontario Museum, Tate and the Museum of Modern Art. His work is represented by Hales Gallery (New York, London), Materià Gallery (Rome), Stephen Bulger Gallery (Toronto) and Vadehra Art Gallery (New Delhi).
Tom Hsu is an artist currently residing and working in unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories (also known as Vancouver). His practice focuses on the observation of spaces and how bodies exist in them. Using a 35mm camera, Hsu approaches his subjects from odd angles, cropping out the larger scene to focus on specific forms conveying a gentle intimacy. His camera finds everyday, mundane moments and interactions that are often overlooked and gives them a poetic and expressive. His work has been exhibited at numerous galleries, including the Libby Leshgold Gallery, Centre A, Macaulay & Co. Fine Art, Burrard Arts Foundation, YACTAC, UNIT/PITT (Vancouver); and Gallery TPW (Toronto).
Credits: Photo of Sunil Gupta by © Charan Singh; Photo of Tom Hsu by © Alk
Centre A would like to acknowledge the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council for supporting the Centre A Speaker Series.
Accessibility: The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at (604) 683-8326 or [email protected].
Centre A is situated on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts.
Panel Discussion: What Water Teaches
Saturday, November 12, 2022
1 – 3 pm PST
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Register HERE.
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Centre A is pleased to present a panel discussion, What Water Teaches, encompassing water’s health, agency, and role in intergenerational dialogues in relation to Indigenous epistemologies and community building as part of the ongoing work towards climate justice through decolonization. The conversation will be held between Kayah George ‘Halth Leah’, Audrey Siegl, and Rita Wong. The online program is presented in conjunction with Centre A’s current exhibition, Ed Pien: Tracing Water.
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Kayah George ‘Halth-Leah’ (she/they) carries the teachings of her Tulalip and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and has been on the front lines fighting against the Trans Mountain pipeline for more than half of her life. She is a young Indigenous environmental leader, activist, and filmmaker. Kayah has spoken globally about climate justice and shared the teachings of her nations to honor and care for the earth. She has worked with several environmental organizations, including Indigenous Climate Action (an Indigenous-led organization guided by a diverse group of Indigenous knowledge keepers, water protectors, and land defenders), to build capacity for an Indigenous-led divestment movement. Kayah is currently working on a short film that shares the intrinsic connection the Tsleil-Waututh people have to the ‘Burrard’ Inlet.
Audrey Siegl works with teachings and medicines passed on to her from her Musqueam family and ancestors. Lots of this medicine comes from the healing work she was blessed to witness and was shared with her by the Old Timers who raised her. The connections that they made, the ways they loved, cared & made a place for her in this world are why and how she does what she does. She has worked extensively with teachings and medicines across Turtle Island and is rooted in West Coast and Musqueam medicines. She is proud and honoured to carry on the work of her grandparents and ancestors.
Rita Wong is a poet-scholar who attends to the relationships between water justice, ecology, and decolonization. She has co-edited an anthology with Dorothy Christian entitled Downstream: Reimagining Water, based on a gathering that brought together elders, artists, scientists, writers, scholars, students and activists around the urgent need to care for the waters that give us life. A recipient of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop Emerging Writer Award, Wong is the author of current, climate (Wilfrid Laurier UP 2021), beholden (Talonbooks, 2018, with Fred Wah), undercurrent (Nightwood, 2015), perpetual (Nightwood, 2015, with Cindy Mochizuki), sybil unrest (Line Books, 2008, with Larissa Lai), forage (Nightwood, short-listed for the 2008 Asian American Literary Award for Poetry, winner of Canada Reads Poetry 2011), and monkeypuzzle (Press Gang, 1998).
Wong works to support Indigenous communities’ efforts towards justice and health for water, having witnessed such work at the Peace River, the Wedzin Kwa, Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek, the Columbia River, the Fraser River, the Salish Sea, and the Arctic Ocean watershed. She understands that when these waterways are healthy, life will be healthy too, and that we cannot afford to endanger and pollute the waters that sustain our lives.
Accessibility: The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at (604) 683-8326 or [email protected].
Centre A is situated on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts.
Centre A Presents: A Collective Investigation
Saturday, October 29, 2022
1 – 3 pm PDT
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Register HERE.
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Presented as part of Art Book Month with the Vancouver Art Book Fair, A Collective Investigation invites participants to explore the contents of Centre A’s Reading Room, home to a sizeable collection of artist books, exhibit catalogues, and monographs related to Asian and diasporic Asian art. Participants are encouraged to prepare a research or personal question in advance. As they examine the library’s contents, they will be given numbered index markers to place beside a page from a book that offers insight into their question. The books are then lined up in the order of the index markers they contain. As their markers emerge from the pile, each participant will present their findings, taking turns to construct a narrative – similar to a game of exquisite corpse. Conversation may ensue as relevant or recurring themes and patterns surface with each presentation.
This activity allows participants to establish personal connections to the archive while learning about each others’ interests, potentially forming new relationships. Following the workshop, Centre A staff will scan the selected pages to compile into a PDF that serves as a record of the event and a map of the intersections between a specific audience’s attention and the library’s contents. Participants will receive a copy of this PDF as a memento.
Join us!
This event is being held as part of Art Book Month organized by Vancouver Art Book Fair. Art Book Month consists of community organized events supported by VABF and hosted in Vancouver, online and worldwide by artists, curators, collectives and institutions who are actively creating and presenting work in this medium.
Accessibility: The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at (604) 683-8326 or [email protected].
Centre A is situated on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Tropical Cafe: 2022 Centre A Holiday Art Market
Application Deadline: November 6, 2022
It’s that time of the year again! Centre A is bringing back its thematic Holiday Art Market after last year’s inaugural edition.
With a cold winter approaching after a warm fall, you won’t have to get on a plane to change your scenery! Come enjoy the sun and tropical vibes at Centre A and shop art for the holiday season!
This year’s theme is Tropical Cafe, and we will be transforming the gallery into a cafe-like space that will be furnished with artworks submitted to us by local and regional artists. The Tropical Cafe is not only a gathering place, but also a site for exchange, ignition, and clashes of ideas and ideals.
Artists are encouraged to submit works that explore (or not) the concepts of tourism, labour, commercialized exoticism, and the way it is associated with rest, leisure, and luxury.
The selected artworks will be featured and on display at Centre A (Unit 205, 268 Keefer Street, Vancouver, BC V6A 1X5) for silent auction from November 26 to December 17, 2022.
Submission is free, and will be juried by the Centre A curatorial team. Works of all mediums and scales are welcome.
An opening party will be held on Saturday, November 26, 2022. Mark your calendars!
Go HERE to complete our online submission form.
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Selection process:
– All selected artworks must be ready to be dropped off at Centre A for installation by Saturday, November 19, 2022.
– Accepted artists will receive a complimentary Centre A membership for a year.
– Accepted artworks will be bid on in the gallery during the exhibition period.
– Accepted artworks must be priced between 20 and 500 Canadian Dollars.
– Accepted artists will receive 60% of the selling price of their artwork(s) sold during the exhibition. The remaining amount will go towards supporting Centre A.
— The selling price is determined by a silent auction, while the Artist determines the starting bid. The artwork will not be sold lower than the starting bid.
Get in touch with us at [email protected] if you need assistance with your submission.
Centre A is excited to partner with The Cinematheque for their program, Wayne Wang x 3, a triple screening of American director Wayne Wang’s films from October 13 to 17, 2022, at the Cinematheque (1131 Howe St, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2K8).
“One would be hard-pressed to find any filmmaker who not only daringly chronicled Chinese life in a time when it was unthinkable in American cinema, but also parlayed all that into one of the more eclectic careers in Hollywood.” (Brandon Yu, New York Times)
Wayne Wang is having a moment. Again. The trailblazing Chinese American director, who immigrated to San Francisco from Hong Kong at 18, broke ground in the early 1980s with his arthouse hit Chan Is Missing, the first Asian American indie to score widespread distribution in the United States. Ten years later, Wang gained an unprecedented foothold in Hollywood and made history with The Joy Luck Club, the first Asian-centring film to be helmed by an Asian American and released by a major studio. Today, as a fresh crop of Asian American filmmakers are making strides in the industry, Wang is being championed anew for his role in opening doors for these long-marginalized creators—not to mention empowering them to tell stories rooted in uniquely Asian American experiences. That it took Hollywood twenty-five years to greenlight another Asian-ensemble picture after the success of The Joy Luck Club—that being 2018’s “surprise” blockbuster Crazy Rich Asians—just goes to show how loath studios are to free up seats at the table. This triple-shot program includes brand-new restorations of two of Wang’s best films from the 1980s—neo-noir breakthrough Chan Is Missing and X-rated sledgehammer Life Is Cheap… But Toilet Paper Is Expensive—along with revival screenings of this best-known work, the 1993 multigenerational melodrama (and guaranteed tearjerker) The Joy Luck Club.
Read more about the program and buy tickets HERE.
Accessibility: The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at (604) 683-8326 or [email protected].
Centre A is situated on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts.
Artist Talk: Ed Pien
Saturday, October 8, 2022, 2 – 4 PM PDT
This artist talk will take place on Zoom.
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Register HERE.
Centre A’s executive director/curator Henry Heng Lu will be in conversation with Centre A’s current exhibiting artist Ed Pien about his practice and research in relation to his exhibition, Tracing Water. A Q&A will follow.
Tracing Water presents an extensive assembly of work by Toronto-based artist Ed Pien. Ranging from drawing to lithography to prints and video, the works span over 20 years and explore and incorporate water in these artistic creations.
Find out more about the exhibition HERE.
Accessibility: The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at (604) 683-8326 or [email protected].
Centre A is situated on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts.
Centre A Speaker Series 2022: Souvankham Thammavongsa
Saturday, October 15, 2022, 1 – 2 pm PDT
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We will conclude our 2022 Speaker Series, with an online reading and Q&A session with award-winning author Souvankham Thammavongsa!
Register for the talk HERE.
Find out more about the Centre A Speaker Series 2022 HERE.
During the talk, Thammavongsa will discuss her book HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE and perform a short reading of her book. After the reading, attendees will also have the opportunity to ask questions about the book during the Q&A. Attendees are encouraged (but not required) to read HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE prior to the talk.
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Souvankham Thammavongsa is the author of four poetry books, and the short story collection HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE, winner of the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize and 2021 Trillium Book Award, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and PEN America Open Book Award, out now with Little, Brown (U.S.), McClelland & Stewart (Canada), and Bloomsbury (U.K.), available in French, with foreign rights sold in China, Korea, Poland, and Turkey. Her stories have won an O. Henry Award and appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Granta, and NOON. She has also written book reviews for The New York Times, and edited the anthologies Best Canadian Poetry (2021) and The Griffin Poetry Prize (2021). She is known for her PowerPoint videos on Zoom about writing, most recently one titled “I Am Not That Interesting.” Currently, she is working on her first novel. She was born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, and was raised, and educated at public schools, in Toronto.
Photo Credit: Steph Martyniuk
Centre A would like to acknowledge the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council for supporting the Centre A Speaker Series.
Accessibility: The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at (604) 683-8326 or [email protected].
Centre A is situated on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts.
