Through the Lattice

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Tiffany Shaw, "Trap Line Cabin (zip tie)," 2011

zip ties. Courtesy of the Artist.

Opening reception on January 21 at 6:30pm

Through the Lattice reflects upon the ongoing relevance of the lived environment, whether as owned, alienated, or desired. Each artist foregrounds the role of place—and its aesthetics of style, ornament, design, pattern, and architecture—in their recent works. Though diverse in their methods, the artists share a concern with the deeper meanings of space as well as its material construction. 

“Where and how we inhabit space has been the subject of intense discussion as of late,” says exhibition curator Rhys Edwards. “Lockdown protocols, safe living spaces, and affordable housing are very current topics. I wanted to organize an exhibition of artworks that demonstrates how many artists have been responding to the idea of dwelling in recent times.”

For some artists, such as the sculptor David Umemoto or the painter Robert Young, buildings are deeply symbolic places. Their practices bring to mind memories of homes both imagined and real and reflect upon the relationship between the individual self and the world at large. For others, such as mixed-media artists Edra Soto, Parvin Peivandi, and Tiffany Shaw, the portrayal of space is an opportunity to imagine how the aesthetics of distinct cultures can inform new interpretations of history or new ways of inhabiting space. Multimedia artists Alex Morrison and Lyla Rye, meanwhile, attend to the construction of space itself, exposing the desires inherent within the way it is both constructed and perceived.

In its varied interpretations of dwelling, Through the Lattice speaks to the central importance of the built world—as a realm of imaginative dreaming or as the staging ground for relations between society, culture, and the environment.

The winter opening reception will also celebrate Keerat Kaur: Panjabi Garden, a rich display of poetry, digital illustration, painting, and marble inlay paying homage to the Panjabi language and Gurmukhi script, and Cindy Mochizuki: Autumn Strawberry, a video installation of a Japanese Canadian dance and art performance. The event also marks the conclusion of Surrey Art Teachers Association: Connect, a showcase of new works from local instructors.

About the Artists

Alex Morrison was born in Redruth, UK and currently lives and works in Vancouver. Subcultures, activism, rebellion, the history of domestic architecture, civic spaces, and avant-garde aesthetics have been persistent themes in his work for over a decade. Morrison’s work has been exhibited at White Columns (New York), La Plage (Paris), the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver), Walter Phillips Gallery (Banff), the Vancouver Art Gallery, Artspeak (Vancouver), and others. His work is collected by the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and numerous other public and private collections.

Parvin Peivandi is an Iranian-Canadian interdisciplinary artist. Peivandi makes art influenced by new materialism, Iranian literature, and architecture. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2019) and a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design (2014). In 2020, her textile art was nominated for the Brandford/Elliot Award for Excellence in Fiber Arts by the Textile Society of America and her ceramics received a multicultural fellowship from NCECA in the United States. Recent exhibitions include Expo Chicago and Sullivan Gallery in Chicago, and Center A, Burrard Arts Foundation, Griffin Art Projects, and Polygon Gallery in Vancouver.

Lyla Rye is a Toronto-based artist who began her studies in architecture. She works in installation, sculpture, video, and photography to explore our experience of architectural space. Rye studied at the University of Waterloo, York University, and the San Francisco Art Institute. For over thirty years, her work has been exhibited in galleries and screenings across Canada and internationally, including New York, San Francisco, Adelaide, Paris, Karachi, and Berlin. She has exhibited at The Power Plant, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Prefix ICA, Southern Alberta Art Gallery, The Textile Museum of Canada, and Olga Korper Gallery, among others. 

Tiffany Shaw is a Métis architect, artist, and curator based in Alberta. Her practice gathers notions of craft, memory, and atmosphere, guided by communal intervention as a way to engage a lifted understanding of place. While born in Calgary and raised in Edmonton, Shaw’s Métis lineage derives from Fort McMurray via Fort McKay and the Red River. She holds a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) University and a master’s degree in architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). She has exhibited widely, including the Architecture Venice Biennale, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Pier 21, and the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

Edra Soto is a Puerto Rican-born artist, curator, educator, and co-director of the outdoor project space, The Franklin. Soto has exhibited extensively at venues across the United States, most recently at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Between 2019–2020, Soto exhibited and traveled to Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Cuba as part of the MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund. Soto holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico. The artist lives and works in Chicago.

David Umemoto holds a bachelor's degree in architecture from Laval University (Quebec). During a stay in Indonesia in 2010, he collaborated with traditional artisans and learned to appreciate the value of manual craftsmanship. Upon his return to Quebec, he experimented with various applied arts (jewelry, tessellation art, and printmaking).  He also returned to his roots in architecture, focusing on the creation of concrete sculptures, miniature architectural pieces that evoke Brutalist structures. Umemoto’s work embraces the simplicity of materials and economy of means. Pragmatic and poetic, his current practice bridges the spirit of architecture, sculpture, and design.

Robert Young, born in 1938, received an honours degree in art history at UBC in 1962. Having asked himself the question, “How do you make a painting this year?” he went on to study printmaking at both the City and Guilds of London School of Art and the Vancouver School of Art. He returned to Vancouver in 1976 and was an Associate Professor of Fine Art at UBC from 1982 to 1998. Young's works are held in numerous private and public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Montreal Museum of Fine arts.