Charlene Vickers
Encompassing a wide range of media — including painting, sculpture, performance and installation — the practice of Charlene Vickers operates as a visionary expression of what the artist terms embodied territory. Giving vital form to the lands, histories and relations of her birthplace in Wauzhushk Onigum as they are felt, imagined and carried across distance, 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.
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
Flowers and Cones (For Will Sampson),
48 x 60”,
Acrylic on canvas
Blue,
36 x 36”,
Acrylic on canvas
Flower Buzz Soundings,
2024,
60 x 48",
Acrylic on canvas
Reverb Flora on Green,
2024,
33⅝ x 26¼" (framed),
Acrylic on paper, framed
Orange Body,
27 x 34.75 x 1”,
Acrylic on paper, framed
Turquoise Emotions,
27 x 34.75 x 1”,
Acrylic on paper, framed
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
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