Charlene Vickers
Charlene Vickers is an Anishinaabe artist based in Vancouver. Vickers’ works lucidly manifest ancestral connections, cultural reclamations and her territorial presence as Anishinaabe Kwe while responding formally to the Coast Salish land she has resided upon for the past thirty years. Vickers is an interdisciplinary artist working in painting, drawing, sculpture, assemblage, and performance. In her paintings, Vickers’ infuses layers of vivid gestures and forms to illuminate life underneath shadows and textures, imagining emergent landscapes and birthing creatures amid mythic transformation.
Recent exhibitions include Indian Theatre, curated by Candice Hopkins at CCS BARD Hessel Museum in Hudson, NY (2023), Reverberations: Contemporary Art and Modern Classics at the Seattle Art Museum (2023), Good Foot Forward, curated by Kitty Scott, Toronto (2023), Big Blue Smudge, The University of Saskatchewan (2022), Ancestral Gesture, a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver (September 2021), Rain Shadow at the Nanaimo Art Gallery (2021), Where Do We Go From Here? at the Vancouver Art Gallery (2020), the Biennale national de sculpture Contemporaine 2020 in Quebec, An Assembly of Shapes, Oakville Galleries, I continue to shape, Art Museum, U of T, Toronto, and Speaking From Hands and Earth, SFU Galleries, Burnaby and Ambivalent Pleasures at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver,(2016). International group exhibitions include the map is not the territory at the Portland Art Museum, Oregon (2019), Connective Tissue: New Approaches in Contemporary Fibre Art at MoCNA in Santa Fe, NM (2017), From The Belly of The Beast at Grace Gallery in Brooklyn, N.Y. (2017), If We Never Met, Pataka Art Museum, Porirua, New Zealand (2016). Charlene Vickers graduated from Emily Carr University of Art and Design (94) and Simon Fraser University in Critical Studies of the Arts (98), MFA (2013).
EXHIBITIONS
Studio Visit with Charlene Vickers
Charlene Vickers, Flowers and Cones (For Will Sampson), Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 60”
Charlene Vickers, Blue, Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36”
Charlene Vickers, Reverb Flora on Green, 2024, Acrylic on paper, 33⅝ x 26¼" (framed)
Charlene Vickers, Orange Body, Acrylic on paper, framed, 27 x 34.75 x 1”
Charlene Vickers, Turquoise Emotions, Acrylic on paper, framed, 27 x 34.75 x 1”
Diviners Grasses,
2023,
marker on paper, framed
Diviners Grasses,
2023,
marker on paper, framed.
Diviners Grasses,
2009-2010,
Install View,
marker on paper, framed
Image courtesy of The Contemporary Art Gallery. Photography by SITE Photography
Diviners Grasses,
2009-2010,
21 X 27 X 1 3/4”,
marker on paper, framed
Image courtesy of The Contemporary Art Gallery. Photography by SITE Photography
Diviners Grasses,
2009-2010,
21 X 27 X 1 3/4”,
marker on paper, framed
Image courtesy of The Contemporary Art Gallery. Photography by SITE Photography
BIG BLUE SMUDGE, 2021, INSTALL VIEW, CARDBOARD, CANVAS, PAINT, TIN JINGLES, WOODEN BUTTONS, SHELL BUTTONS, GLASS BEADS, CRAFT FOAM, FELT, YARN, TWINE, T-SHIRTS, YOGA MAT, HAIR SCRUNCHIES IMAGE,
COURTESY OF THE CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY. PHOTOGRAPHY BY SITE PHOTOGRAPHY
CEDAR BONE BEAD (FOR FAYE HEAVYSHIELD),
2021,
Install View,
cedar, yarn
Image courtesy of The Contemporary Art Gallery. Photography by SITE Photography
DIVINERS GRASSES,
2010,
Install View,
grass, bamboo, cotton, human hair, jute, thread
Image courtesy of The Contemporary Art Gallery. Photography by SITE Photography
Land Grew on Turtle’s Back,
2021,
48 x 60",
acrylic on canvas
The Threads that Connects US,
2021,
48 x 60",
acrylic on canvas
Ginebig Snake Comes Down to Help,
2021,
48 x 60",
acrylic on canvas
Emergent Beings,
2019,
4 x 5’,
acrylic on canvas
Communing With Care, 2019,
2019,
4 x 5’,
acrylic on canvas
Buzz Pods and Memory Flowers,
2019,
4x5’,
oil on canvas
Mating Pods over Illuminated Landscape,
2019,
4 x 5’,
oil on canvas
Untitled,
2016,
36 x 24",
oil on panel
Untitled,
2016,
36 x 24",
oil on panel
Coverings,
installation view,
2018
Sunken Suns Under Water,
2016,
36 x 60”,
Oil on wood panel,
Yellow Suns Divide Multiple Pools,
2016,
36 x 60”,
Oil on wood panel
How You See and Cannot See Me At My Window,
2018,
24.5 x 26”,
wood, craft felt, camp blankets, work pants beer cases, cotton fabric
Sleep Walking,
2016,
Dimensions Variable,
920’s bedroom chairs, beer case cardboard, denim, cotton, blankets, glass beads, letter beads, thread
Singles: Performance Moccs Series,
2018,
Beer box, cotton fabric, acrylic beads, and thread
Singles: Performance Moccs Series,
2018,
Beer box, cotton fabric, and thread
Kokanee Woman,
2014,
dimensions variable,
beer case, glass beads, flannel, wool blanket, metal, xerox of Edward Curtis photo, 1920's wooden chair