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).

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, 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

Charlene Vickers, Kokanee Woman, 2006

Kokanee Woman,

2014,

dimensions variable,

beer case, glass beads, flannel, wool blanket, metal, xerox of Edward Curtis photo, 1920's wooden chair