Quick Pick: Gambletron, Johnny Forever Nawracaj and zev tiefenbach at Kamloops Art Gallery

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Johnny Forever Nawracaj, “Tarłów Synagogue with AI iii,” 2024, archival pigment print, 10" x 10" (photo courtesy of Kamloops Art Gallery)

Gambletron, Johnny Forever Nawracaj and zev tiefenbach are the artists behind the new exhibition Diasporist Anchors for Future Memory on view from July 20 to Sept. 21 at the Kamloops Art Gallery.

The show features photos, videos and installations that revolve around queer, non-binary Ashkenazi-Slavic ancestral connections, as well as tools for community and resistance. 

“Curated by Craig Willms, Diasporist Anchors for Future Memory is rooted in the artists’ Eastern European Jewish heritage. Through photographs, videos, soundscapes, and radio broadcasts, the artists explore diasporic collective memory, focusing on Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry in Poland,” according to the news release. 

The trio travelled through their ancestral homelands in Eastern Europe, as they researched their project, which also discusses antisemitism and generational trauma.

“Gambletron and tiefenbach, both Ashkenazi, draw from personal histories. Tiefenbach’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors and Gambletron's grandfather was a notable rabbi who immigrated to Canada in 1910. Nawracaj, a Slavic Pole, joins the project to explore their connections to the same region.” ■

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