Public Art Roster 2022-2024
The Artist Roster is a list of artists who pre-qualify to create public art throughout the city. It allows for a streamlined selection process and will be one of several ways used to hire artists.
Artists will be commissioned for various City of New Westminster projects under $25,000 as opportunities become available. Examples of these opportunities may include (but is not limited to) community engaged projects, site-responsive commissions for temporary works, artist residencies or design only contracts for permanent installations throughout the city.
All artists either live or work in the Lower Mainland.
Below is the roster of artists for 2022-2024, effective for the period of January 3, 2022 to January 3, 2024. Please note that artists on the list are not guaranteed a commission as projects will be awarded based on available opportunities.
- Randall Bear Barnetson is Nadleh Whut'en,Dakelh, and of the Bear Clan. As an Indigenous person from the Northwest Coast, Randall Bear uses the traditional art style of his people as a framework to interpret contemporary issues such as identity, spirituality, mental health, and culture.Image credit: Braided Moon by Randall Bear BarnetsonMore About the Artist:
- "I am a non-binary agender adisciplinary artist working for nearly two decades with generative computational processes and have been inspired by knowledge in philosophy and the natural sciences. I create Machine Subjects: systems that use collected material that is reconfigured in the creation of structures that both resemble, and differ from, source material. Source material is most often lens-based but I have also appropriated pop culture such as cinema and the canon of western painting. In some cases, I collect materials in advance of the creative process, and in others I use in situ cameras to collect “live” to feed artworks that evolve and change in relation to changes in the environment. Key themes of my work include site-specificity and responsiveness, the relationship between subjects and objects, imagination and reality, and the constructive role of boundaries."Image credit: Percepts from Watching by Ben BogartMore About the Artist:
David Camisa is a British-Canadian Artist based in Vancouver, BC. Having worked as a professional Artist for over a decade, his work has been showcased across Canada and worldwide, including exhibitions with Thumbprint Gallery in San Diego, Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco, Penumbra Gallery in Portugal, and Clouds Gallery in Tokyo, to name a few. His professional repertoire in the world of fine art has expanded to include illustration and murals, having most recently been hand-selected to create work for the 2021 Vancouver Queer Arts Festival and the fifth annual Vancouver Mural Festival. His illustration work has been featured in publications such as THIS Magazine and SAD Magazine.
Image credit: Free by David Camisa, 2021 Queer Arts Festival
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- Laara Cerman’s work explores the intersection of art, science, and history through investigating patches of wildness that survive within suburban and urban landscapes. Her explorations continue into the forests of British Columbia where she aims to teach herself how to see the diversity of the forest floor in the midst of an era where this knowledge has lost its priority but not its importance. With an ongoing practice of collecting wild plant specimens, Laara is creating a digital herbarium documenting the life cycle of plants while learning about different aspects and uses of flora growing in Canada’s most biodiverse province. Through learning about the role of plants in the ecosystem and the gifts they offer us, one becomes more conscious of the mutual connections of life and the importance of reciprocity between humans and the Earth.Image credit: The Frasers by Laara Cerman, powder coated steel bike rack, various locations in Surrey, BC.
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charon charon
Heather Prost and Alannah Clampcharon, charon is a recently formed emerging artist collective composed of Heather Prost who works and lives on the unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) nations in so-called Burnaby, BC and Alannah Clamp who works and lives on the unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations in so-called Vancouver, BC.charon charon is an artist collective that is anchored in grief. We met and began our working relationship during the course of a suicide grief group last year. Heather’s father died, Alannah’s partner died, and as artists, we sought ways to hold space for both our loss and creativity. Out of this experience emerged an artist collective which seeks to use disability theory and social practice to create work that encourages viewers and artists to see art as a tool for exchange, conversation, and identity (re)construction.Image credit: photograph used for What Did I Love project by charon charonMore About the Artist:- Jeni Chen has received several public art commissions in BC since getting her Fine Art Certificate from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. In 2021, Jeni was chosen as one of nine ambassadors to promote BC Culture Days. Jeni has also written and illustrated a children’s picture book, Emet’s Box due to be published in spring 2022.Image credit: Wild by Jeni Chen, No. 3 Road Art Column, Richmond, BC.More About the Artist:
Jenny Hawkinson is a visual artist working on the unceded Coast Salish lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations - specifically in East Vancouver. Her art practice seeks to be socially engaged and explores nuances of displacement, contested territory and public space through a range of media, including video, soundscape, textiles, sculpture and installation art. While these themes are not explicitly referenced, they provide the landscape for which her work exists.
Hawkinson’s process is place-based and fuelled through creative research practices. She works with found materials to understand the world(s) around her. Her work playfully dances between politics and the poetic with the intention of subverting embedded meaning and creating space for dialogue.
Image credit: Flag at the Viaduct, still from Waver by Jenny Hawkinson
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Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, he brings over a decade and a half of design and fabrication experience to each new project. His ‘heavy but light’ approach seeks to engage meaningful social and ecological concepts with a humor and whimsy, while celebrating overlooked natural and cultural narratives. By understanding the unique qualities of each site, his projects are on one hand refined and richly laden with local meaning, and on the other hand buildable, durable, and responsive to the practical demands of interior and exterior public art.
Image credit: Hak Chu / Pak Chu Nathan Lee, Burnaby, BC.
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- "My visual art practice is rooted in drawing and spans painting, performance, sculpture, video and more recently interactive virtual media.
I want to produce public works that, whether in the format of a mural, sculpture, digital media project, or whatever medium best suits the concept and constraints, connect residents and guests in our diverse region to concepts about the development, construction and ultimately shifting landscape that we live in."
Image Credit: Cone Worm Floe by Sunny Nestler, Vancouver, BC.More About the Artist: - "My name is Rain Pierre from Katzie First Nation in British Columbia. I have been an artist since 2016 and have been brightening up communities. My vision that I get to share with the world is designed to captivate emotion and make a statement. As I am an active member in not only my own Indigenous community, but also many others. I am an advocate for the LGBTQ2S+ community as being bisexual, Recovery Community (Last Door) and also the dreamers of today."Image credit: Ecole Salish Secondary Mural Project by Rain PierreMore About the Artist:
George Rahi is an interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish territories. He uses self-created and altered instruments as a method of exploring the intersections between acoustic and digital technologies, modes of listening, and spatial and architectural thinking. His work includes installations, instrument making, compositions for pipe organ, solo + ensemble performance, and works for radio, theatre + public spaces. He has presented throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He holds an MFA from Simon Fraser University and is the recipient of the 2018 R. Murray Schafer Soundscape award. In 2019 he began a year-long mentorship with sound artist and kinetic sculptor Trimpin.
Image credit: Gamelan Bike Bike – a group of percussion instruments for 10 musicians built from recycled bicycles parts collected from various recycling centres in Vancouver.
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Holly Schmidt is an artist, curator and educator that engages processes of embodied research, collaboration and informal pedagogy to explore the multiplicity of human relations with the natural world. Her work involves the creation of temporary site-specific projects and residencies, along with material-based explorations in the studio. Her national and international exhibitions, projects and residencies include: Vegetal Encounters Residency (2019-2021) UBC Outdoor Art Program, Quiescence (2019) Burrard Arts Foundation, A-Y with Locals Only (2018) AKA Gallery, Pollen Index (2016) Charles H. Scott Gallery, Till (2014/15) Santa Fe Art Institute, Moveable Feast (2012) Burnaby Art Gallery, Grow (2011) Other Sights for Artists’ Projects. Schmidt is grateful to live and work in Vancouver, Canada, the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̍əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Image credit: Fireweed Fields by Holly Schmidt, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery.
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Michelle Sound is a Cree and Métis artist, educator and mother. She is a member of Wapsewsipi Swan River First Nation in Northern Alberta. Her mother is Cree from Kinuso, Alberta, Treaty 8 territory and her father's family is Métis from the Buffalo Lake Métis settlement in central Alberta. She was born and raised on the unceded and ancestral home territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University, School for the Contemporary Arts, and a Master of Applied Arts from Emily Carr University Art + Design. Michelle is currently an Indigenous Advisor at Douglas College and has taught workshops as a guest artist at the Richmond Art Gallery and the Contemporary Art Gallery.
She has exhibited her artwork in Moving Throughlines (Seymour Art Gallery); and Winter Pandemic, (SoLA Contemporary Los Angeles). Public art pieces include a utility box art wrap for the City of Vancouver and a painted mural exhibition in Ottawa-2018 nākateyimisowin/Taking Care of Oneself, Curated by Joi Arcand. Michelle was a 2021 Salt Spring National Art Award Finalist and has upcoming exhibitions at the Art Gallery of St. Albert, Neutral Ground ARC (Regina) and Daphne Art Centre (Montréal).
Image credit: Kahkiyaw acƗhkosak/All The Stars by Michelle Sound, Ottawa, ON.
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Janet Wang is a visual artist and educator working within a traditional painting practice, integrated with sculptural installation practices and digital media. A second-generation settler of Chinese heritage, she is based in Vancouver, Canada, the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia and her Master of Arts in Studio Practice from the University of Leeds in England.
Her work explores the construction of identity through the appropriation and disruption of social patterns and familiar gestures.
The artist pays homage to the canons and traditions of history, both the artistic and the quotidian, in order to use the familiar as a meeting point with the viewer.
Image credit: re:orientation (Yellow), pattern detail from the Spectacle of the Walls by Janet Wang
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- "As a second generation Chinese Canadian and a child of immigrants, my work addresses cultural belonging, family history, and the diasporic experience.My practice centers around the act of noticing-or examining the overlooked. I use drawing as a way to understand the world around me through investigating matter in the material realm: the discarded, unassuming, ephemeral, sentimental, the forgotten and found. My creative process embraces slowness and deliberation. With the humble tradition of pencil and gouache, I render in painstaking detail the minutiae of our everyday lives, placing relic-like value on each chosen subject in the hopes that meaningful artifacts emerge."Image credit: Time to Heal by Janice Wu, utility box wrap, Calgary, ABMore About the Artist:
Jin-me Yoon is a Korean-born, Vancouver-based artist. Since the early 1990s, her lens-based practice has critically examined the construction of self and other in relation to her own direct and inherited history, as well as within broader geopolitical contexts. Unpacking stereotypical assumptions and dominant discourses, Yoon’s work has examined gender and sexuality, culture and ethnicity, citizenship and nationhood. Adopting a wider and wider lens over time, her practice has become a deep investigation into entangled local and global histories existing at specific sites within the context of transnationalism.
Jin-me Yoon’s practice, which stretches over thirty years, has witnessed the presentation of her work in over 200 solo and group exhibitions across North America, Asia, and Australia, as well as select institutions worldwide. Her work is held in 17 Canadian and International public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Royal Ontario Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery and Seoul Museum of Art.
Image credit: Untunnelling Vision by Jin-me Yoon
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Sandra Yuen's focus is painting. Illuminated by fresh colours, her paintings are inspiring. She has worked as an artist for over 15 years in Vancouver, BC, Canada. She received a Fine Arts Diploma from Langara College and Bachelor of Arts in art history from the University of British Columbia.
Sandra is the author of a memoir My Schizophrenic Life: The Road to Recovery from Mental Illness, a humorous novel Chop Shtick, and a collection of novellas From New York to Vancouver: Stories on the Fly with New York writer, James D. Young. Her pen name is Sandra Yuen MacKay.She is the recipient of the Courage to Come Back Award and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Her artwork is in public and private collections in North America.
Image credit: Irises by Sandra YuenMore About the Artist:
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