The Emerge program, offered at The Reach Gallery Museum, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year with a collaborative exhibition featuring thirty-two artists who have been tied to the program. The wide range of experience between artists is evident when walking through the gallery. Each artist brings something unique to the exhibit, providing a sampling across genres of art.
There are two tracks in the Emerge program. The first, called Art on Demand, is a series of exhibitions put on with a student curator — from the practicum run with UFV and Trinity Western — and an emerging artist from the Fraser Valley who is in the early stages of their career. CITI/SEEN is the second program track. This part of the program brings an experienced muralist to work with a team of emerging artists to create a mural in Historic Downtown Abbotsford.
One of the biggest impacts of the Emerge program is its ability to bring the artistic community together. Artist Eisha Menon, who’s performance art is being featured in the 10th Anniversary Exhibition, says it “gave [her] such a big social platform” which helped her as a self-proclaimed “introvert.” Opportunities and connections are always being made through this program.
Talking with Kelley Tialiou, the curator of the Emerge 10th Anniversary Exhibition, she revealed just how interconnected the people in the program are: “Two of the artists who are featured in the grotto, Jenny Hawkinson and Mohadese Movahed, actually are studio mates, which I did not know when I initially paired their work.” Throughout the curation of the exhibit, Tialiou found other connections and themes between each artist’s work, one being the theme of time. “The deeper theme that runs under the undercurrent among all of these works, for me, is time,” she said. From the time it takes for the pieces to arrive — especially in regard to Lindsay Spellman’s piece “Colorado Peaks,” which was sent all the way from Colorado — to the time spent on a piece, like Yifei Zhang’s ink splotch installment.
Yet in other pieces, Tialiou finds that time “manifests in a different way,” like Tanya Vanpraseuth’s collections of photographs from Laos, where she was “accompanying her parents on their journey back to rediscover some of their childhood.” Vanprasueth’s photosets, which feature Loatian landscapes, take her “back in time” with her parents.
For new artists, both Menon and Tialiou have advice. The performance artist encourages new artists to “just express yourself” when it comes to making the art you want to. Tialiou said something similar while also encouraging artists to “speak with as many people as they can about their work,” because “you never know which of all those people you’ve talked to might remember you and your work, and come back to it and want to explore further.”
Tialiou also encourages artists and students to come out to a launch celebration of the two murals worked on this year through CITI/SEEN, taking place on Sept. 20 in the Open Space, Downtown Abbotsford. “If students would like to chat with UFV alumni and others, and if they have questions about the program, that’s one of the other things the events have —whether it’s a season exhibition opening or something like the mural launch — are also prime opportunities for young artists, whether they’re UFV students or from elsewhere, to come up and chat with us.”
