Over the past year, the students of Kelowna Heartwood Learning Community have identified and responsibly foraged for various berries, bark, fungi and plants on the land that they turned into dye baths. By learning about each plant, its properties, and the dye process, they continue to deepen an intimate relationship with the land we learn on, and explore what reciprocity means and how we can uphold and value the teachings of our syilx community and knowledge keepers. 

Each student chose a plant, animal, insect or fungi that grows/lives at Camp Dunlop and the Lebanon Creek watershed and researched information about it and how it is connected to the larger ecosystem. They have drawn and painted or embroidered their chosen kin onto the dye fabric that has been linked/weaved together. The goal for this exhibition is mutual exchange and mutual responsibility. Engaging in a reciprocal relationship with the natural world involves understanding our responsibility within this relationship and committing to a two-way exchange, one that not solely benefits humans. Process based art experiences provide a rich learning environment to process inquiry into something concrete and actionable. 

In the student’s words,

We love the earth and we did the art from our heart. We each picked a plant/animal/fungi then we dyed some cloth from stuff we found at Camp Dunlop. Then we drew what we picked on the fabric and painted it and put it together. We are trying to help you know that everything is connected. The world is connected. I know it doesn't all look the same, but it's all connected and there is something in common with it all. We are all connected.

Thank you to Judith Mueller who was so generous in sharing her experience and advice with natural dyeing. Limlemt Jasmine Peone for the cultural and plant knowledge that was shared that helped inform this project and a special thank you to Grouse Barnes who helped us with the title of the exhibition. Thank you to Scouts Canada for making their camp space available to Heartwood Kelowna and to the Rotary Club of Kelowna Okanagan Mission for their donation and support. 

We are honoured and grateful to learn on the unceded and ancestral territory of the syilx Okanagan people.

This exhibition showcases the work of 52 students from Kelowna Heartwood Learning Community. Heartwood is a blend of 4 days per week of home-learning and 1 day per week of Forest School programming which focuses on nature learning, foraging/wildcraft, social-emotional learning, inquiry and outdoor free play. Our teaching team includes BC Certified Teachers, program mentors, learning coaches and guest educators. We hold classes in forested locations, outside, all year round, with Camp Dunlop as our home base. 

Learn more about Heartwood Learning Community here.

This show was organised and installed by Kelsie Balehowsky. Kelsie is a Canadian contemporary visual artist and educator based in the Okanagan/unceded and ancestral territory of the Syilx people. She received her BFA from the University of British Columbia Okanagan in 2014 and has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in Canada and abroad. Kelsie has over a decade of experience in public programming and art education. Prior to her role as an outdoor educator with Heartwood Kelowna, Kelsie acted as a Community Engagement Curator at the Vernon Public Art Gallery. Kelsie’s artistic practice has been primarily concerned with themes of the uncanny, technology and connection. She is passionate about community and in recent years her work has shifted towards more curation and community engaged and inspired projects/artworks. 

Community Outreach Assistant

Do you have a passion for contemporary art and community engagement? The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art in Kelowna invites applications for a dynamic and organized Community Outreach Assistant to join our team for an exciting summer opportunity! This is your chance to contribute directly to our arts-based community initiatives.

Application Deadline: Monday, May 18, 2026, at midnight.

Contract Highlights:

• Start Date: Tuesday, June 16, 2026 (Anticipated)

• Duration: 8 weeks (fixed-term)

• Hours: 33 hours per week

• Compensation: $18.40 per hour

Important Eligibility: 

This position is made possible through Canada Summer Jobs funding. To be eligible, applicants must meet all program requirements.

About the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art:

The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is a vibrant, artist-run centre in Kelowna, BC, dedicated to nurturing the development of innovative contemporary art by emerging and mid-career artists from our region, across Canada, and internationally. We foster artistic growth through three distinct exhibition spaces, engaging professional development workshops, and dynamic community arts events.

Your Role:

As our Community Outreach Assistant, you will work closely with the Artistic and Administrative Director and the Assistant Director to play a vital role in the delivery of our community outreach programs. Your contributions will directly impact our ability to connect with and engage our community through art.

Who You Are:

You are an enthusiastic and responsible individual with a genuine interest in visual and/or media arts and a basic understanding of the artist-run centre environment. You thrive in a collaborative setting, demonstrating excellent interpersonal and organizational skills, and possess the initiative to contribute positively to our team.

What You'll Do:

• Support Online Engagement: Assist in planning and executing the Alternator's online community outreach activities, helping us connect with a wider audience.

• Provide Administrative Support: Contribute to daily administrative tasks, including coordinating our valued volunteers.

• Assist with Exhibitions: Provide hands-on support for the smooth installation and de-installation of exhibitions, as well as ongoing gallery maintenance.

• Support Leadership: Offer administrative assistance to the Artistic and Administrative Director and the Board of Directors, contributing to the overall efficiency of the organization.

Preferred Skills:

• Exceptional oral and written communication skills.

• Familiarity with the Mac operating system and proficiency in Microsoft Word and Excel.

• Experience with Adobe Creative Suite (e.g., Photoshop, InDesign) and user-friendly web design platforms.

• Physical capacity and practical knowledge to aid in exhibition preparation and installation.

• A proven track record of working effectively both independently and collaboratively within a team.

• Flexibility to accommodate daytime, evening, and weekend shifts as needed.

Ready to Join Us?

Please submit a single PDF document titled "YourFirstNameYourLastName.pdf" containing the following:

• A compelling cover letter outlining your interest and qualifications.

• Your current resume.

Email your application to hr@alternatorcentre.com with the subject line: "Attn. Hiring Committee - Community Outreach Assistant Application".

Application Deadline: Monday, May 18, 2026, at midnight. In-person applications will not be accepted.

Our Commitment to Equity and Inclusion:

The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is deeply committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and respected. We strongly encourage applications from under-represented cultural workers of all backgrounds, including but not limited to: Indigenous, Black, and racialized persons; refugee, newcomer, and immigrant persons; two-spirit, LGBTQ+, and gender non-binary persons; persons with diverse abilities; and those on low incomes.

We appreciate all applications; however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

Learn More About Us:

Discover more about the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art by visiting www.alternatorcentre.com.

Opening April 10th in the Alternator Members’ Gallery is The lost art of waiting by Louise Dee!

Louise Dee is a painter interested in the complexity and ambiguity of the human condition. Her work is grounded in personal experience, observation of others and inner reflection, alongside research into early psychoanalytic theory and an interest in Eastern and Stoic philosophy.

For this site-specific installation, she explored the experience of waiting. In a fast-paced, hyper-connected world where instant access to most things is available twenty-four hours a day, many people rarely encounter the pause between one experience and the next. With so many distractions at hand, it is easy to overlook any response in these moments of stillness.

The Stoics, however, regarded waiting as an art form—a proactive activity and a key component of emotional resilience and practical wisdom. Inspired by this perspective, Dee’s installation considers waiting as a verb, asking: if you find yourself in a lineup without your phone or a companion to talk to, how do you wait?

Louise Dee is an emerging contemporary Canadian artist with a background in human health sciences. Based in Vancouver, BC, her studio practice is centred on painting and drawing. In 2023, she completed an MA in Fine Art at City and Guilds of London Art School in the UK, where her studies focused on historical and philosophical ideas surrounding physical and psychological wellness. 

In 2021, one of her paintings was shortlisted for the Kingston National Portrait Prize in Canada.

Check out more of her work on Instagram or her website!

Right to Exist is a series of work that explores contemporary issues around gender expression, specifically around the increasingly violent and hostile tide of conservative rhetoric we are experiencing in North America currently and its social and political implications for gender nonconforming bodies.

Wigglesworth works to give people across a spectrum of gender expressions a platform by painting portraits of them; seeking to visually tell their stories and advocate for their right to a safe existence. Through painting portraits of trans and gender nonconforming people, Wigglesworth represents their powerful humanity in contrast to a dehumanizing and hateful surge.

Advocating for gender expression as a positive and liberatory act, they ask audiences to reexamine their preconceptions of gender and their judgments, challenging them to see how they might contribute to change. Ultimately, they want their art to be the representation that they so desperately craved growing up. They are very grateful that this series was funded through a grant from the BC Arts Council, as it was immensely important to be created and shown in this moment, as it will be more impactful. The hateful rhetoric against gender non-conforming individuals is spreading into Canada and across BC. Wigglesworth created these works to show that these people are human and need respect, through depictions of the sorrow and pain inflicted on them for just needing to exist.

Join us on March 20th from 6 - 8pm for a triple opening reception, as we celebrate alongside Woojae Kim in our Main Gallery and Kel Taylor in our Members’ Gallery. RSVP to let us know you’re coming!

Samantha Wigglesworth is a queer, nonbinary gender-queer artist who works primarily in queer, transgender and gender non-conforming representations through portraiture and abstract figuration. Growing up in conservative northern BC and moving to Abbotsford for their BFA at UFV was an eye-opening time for their artistic journey. While doing their BFA in Abbotsford, Sam had several exhibitions in the area, including a solo exhibition titled Spectrum, which has been shown all across BC. After graduation, Sam decided to continue their studies with a Master of Fine Arts at UBCO in Kelowna in September of 2024. Here, they have been working on their research thesis to further explore contemporary issues around gender expression with the increasingly violent and hostile tide of conservative rhetoric we are experiencing in North America. Through these works, they will advocate for gender expression as a positive and liberatory act.

Opening March 20th in the Alternator Main Gallery is I Hear a Silent Dissonance by Woojae Kim!

I Hear a Silent Dissonance is an exhibition of handmade percussion instruments made in response to the 2023 fire season. The installation is accompanied by a sound composition and a text that reflects the experimentation and listening in its making. 

Exhibiting in Kelowna holds particular significance as the work was shaped by a research trip Kim took to West Kelowna after the 2023 McDougall Creek fire. In response to the landscape, Kim began crafting drums inspired by traditional Korean music. Percussion instruments are used in rituals that seek reconciliation between humans and the more-than-human. These ceremonies—known as 풀이 (Pul-i), or “untangling”—are led by four instruments: the buk (large drum), janggu (hourglass drum), jing (large gong), and gwenggari (small gong). Through collective resonance, these rituals aim to foster empathy and repair. 

In music, dissonance is often understood as tension moving toward resolution. This notion of musical dissonance contrasts with Kim’s experience of cognitive dissonance. He recognises his own complicity within the ecological conditions he responds to while failing to make changes. By analogizing cognitive dissonance to sonic friction, the work invites audiences to listen to the timbre of friction. 

The sound composition is made from recordings of the instruments in the exhibition. It comes from experimentation on producing sound through friction-based techniques: violin bows drawn across cymbals, wooden sticks rubbed against drum skins, and surfaces resisting one another. The installation is arranged to echo the instrument placement during the recording sessions. 

Together, the instruments, sound, and text form an environment that resists closure. I Hear a Silent Dissonance proposes dissonance as a condition to inhabit—an attentive space where resonance, responsibility, and relation remain in conflict.

Join us on March 20th from 6 - 8pm for a triple opening reception, as we celebrate alongside Samantha Wigglesworth in our Project Gallery and Kel Taylor in our Members’ Gallery. RSVP to let us know you’re coming!

Woojae Kim is a Korean artist and writer living on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples (Vancouver, Canada). His works explore rituals of interdependency and listening to inaudible frequencies of relationships with non-humans and the land.

His work has been exhibited in Vancouver (Artspeak, Dreams Comma Delta, Afternoon Projects), Toronto (The Plumb) and New York (Psychic Readings*). His texts were published in the Canadian Art and the Capilano Review. Kim received an MFA from Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College.

See more of his work on Instagram!

Opening March 13th in the Alternator Members’ Gallery is Dear Diary by Kel Taylor!

How many diaries have screamed agony or sighed relief as they were shredded and burned? Ken Taylor has lost count of the self-inflicted carnage deemed imperative after witnessing her father's devastation, and imagining her stepmother turning in her grave, when he found and read her journals. Determined never to leave records unattended, abandoned, without being present to deny, defend, or choose the page number, Kel is taking control, deciding where in her Dear Diary pages you can look.

This is a reckoning, a welcoming home for all those disenfranchised parts of herself destined for the shredder and the pyre. Dear Diary will expose chosen stories through visual images, select words and actions. Oh Yes! This exhibition activates. Responding to memories and emotions that show up, sparks may fly!  After all, “If not now then when?” as Tracy Chapman has sung so beautifully.  “If not now then when?”

She invites you to witness. Energy generated and gathered, in the relationship of seeing and being seen, has the power to transform. “Transform what?” you may ask.  Well…a deeper richer compassion for self and others, a greater lived sense of shared humanity, a state of grace.

Join us on March 20th from 6 - 8pm for a triple exhibition reception, as we celebrate alongside Woojae Kim in our Main Gallery and Samantha Wigglesworth in our Project Gallery. RSVP to let us know you’re coming!

Vancouver born artist Kel Taylor lived, worked and studied in five provinces and the UK before settling on the stolen ancestral lands of the Okanagan Syilx Peoples. Her formal art training began with her Occupational Therapy degree and continued through a variety of coursework over the next four decades. Since 2016 she has focused on figurative acrylic and mixed media painting, has been a finalist in the 2025 Salt Spring National Art Prize, shown her work in group curated exhibitions including the Federation of Canadian Artists, Lake Country Art Gallery and Headbones Gallery and was artist in residence in Similkameen.

Check out more of her work on Instagram or her website!

Opening in February 2026 is Whispers of a Peregrina by local artist Patty Leinemann!

Whispers of a Peregrina breathes life into the experience of personal loss, transition, and renewal. It reflects the threads of Patty Leinemann’s life, capturing emotional endurance through intergenerational grief.

This body of work began eighteen years ago, 900 kms through Spain’s Camino de Santiago de Compostela. With each step, she navigated through mental chatter, seeking a new direction. The recollection of this journey now informs her current practice—site-specific installations within her to-be sold family homestead.

Questions of letting go resurface. Careers, relationships, even the echoing ordeals of her parents: the displacement of her mother during WWII, her father’s migration to Canada with only $5 in his pocket, and both their death anniversaries. Leinemann’s father always told her to stop worrying because it wasted energy. But fears continue to ripple in, contradicting her moment of standing strong at the end of the Camino.

Cyanoprints made over a year of every plant from her mother's garden, along with the collaged flowers, are both documentation and ceremony. The cyanotype silhouette captures her hugging the family homestead goodbye, while the sewing needles symbolize both pain and the labour of mending. Her use of wood and cloth is significant because of the symbolism of these materials within her parents’ lives. This entire body of work fits into the family hope chest, ready for departure, ready for moving on.

Leinemann's artwork transforms private loss into a shared human experience. The exhibition is a living legacy—an invitation to begin again. She dedicates this installation to all those who are silently grieving.

Patty Leinemann’s artistic process is exemplified by Socrates’ words: “I know that I know nothing.” She begins with an idea and then ventures through many phases of “I Don’t Know.” Interested in relation to place, she integrates themes of family and memory into site-specific installations using a variety of media, including found and personal items. Leinemann has presented solo shows at the Alternator, Kelowna Community Theatre, Casa Lü Sur in Mexico City, and two exhibitions in the house her father built. She completed her BFA at UBCO in 2018 and continues to exhibit artwork internationally.

Opened on January 16th 2026 was Weather, Window, Echo, Hum by local artist Katherine Pickering!

Weather, Window, Echo, Hum brought together two interconnected bodies of work: Hum, small oil paintings on linen, and Weather Patterns, sewn India ink works on cotton. Through processes of layering, sanding, cutting, and sewing, the work approaches abstraction as a material practice attentive to time, labour, and material process.

In Hum, small geometric abstractions are painted at the kitchen table, then repeatedly sanded and repainted over months, with faint traces of earlier decisions remaining visible. The deliberate slowness of this process becomes central to the work, offering a quiet counterpoint to the speed of contemporary life. The paintings’ small scale fosters intimacy, shaped by the conditions of their making. Lived with, revisited, and left to dry on a windowsill, the works were reconsidered as part of daily routines.

Weather Patterns extends this approach through textile processes. Ink is applied to cotton and dried in hot summer air, preserving the movement of ink. The material is then cut and sewn into geometric compositions that draw on the artist’s mother’s quilt-making practice. Across both series, abstraction emerges as an embodied, iterative process grounded in intimacy, repetition, and attentiveness.

Katherine Pickering is a visual artist based on Syilx territory in Kelowna, British Columbia. Her practice is grounded in material experimentation and abstraction, engaging sculptural and textile processes to expand the language of painting. Her paintings have been presented in solo and group exhibitions across Canada and internationally, and supported through artist residencies in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Pickering holds an MFA from Concordia University (Montréal) and a BFA from UBC Okanagan, where she is a Lecturer in the Department of Creative Studies.

It Takes Time is a body of work that explores the intersections of material, memory, and identity through large scale patchwork spray paintings. Constructed from found textiles such as denim, cotton from worn clothing, and other fabrics, these works showcase collage-like compositions to evoke personal familiarity and texture. The materials used reference urban environments that have shaped the artist’s visual language, carrying traces of use, labour, and live experience. It is through processes of layering, spraying, and stitching these materials that they transform into visual records of memory and influence. Each composition functions as an accumulation of fragments, mirroring how identity is continuously formed through experience, place, and time. This body of work creates an immersive and intentionally disruptive presence with its scale, density and visual noise that contrasts sharply with a clean space, echoing the layered rhythms of the street within this setting. This tension invites viewers to navigate moments of noiseness and empty space, prompting contemplation on belonging, nostalgia, and anticipation. Ultimately It Takes Time, questions how culture, memory and environment coexist, shaping both the artist’s evolving sense of self as well as the viewer’s.

Join us on January 16th from 6 - 8pm for a triple opening reception, as we celebrate alongside Katherine Pickering in our Main Gallery and Chantal New in our Project Gallery. Let us know you’re coming!

Jian Suniga’s practice reflects the influences that have shaped his journey as an artist. Originally growing up in Los Angeles, he was immersed in graffiti, automotive design, fashion, and the communities that surrounded them. These environments continue to inform his visual language and creative identity. Suniga seeks to merge street art, streetwear, and vintage aesthetics through layered form and texture. A recurring theme in his work is that he wants to invoke is the concept of time balancing nostalgia with anticipation. Through deconstruction and reconstruction, he wants to translate chaos into rhythm, exploring identity, memory, and transformation.

Opening in January 2026 is Count is Correct by Chantal New.

Count is Correct critically examines the mechanisms of exclusion and control inherent in institutional frameworks. Through drawing, photography, and sculptural installation, Chantal New investigates how power operates through order and routine, revealing the quiet violence embedded in everyday systems of governance, labour, and punishment. 

Often used in procedural or administrative settings, the phrase ‘count is correct’ refers to an inventory being confirmed or accounted for. This statement is heard over the intercom at the prison where New teaches each time the count of inmates is verified. The exhibition title draws from this bureaucratic language, illustrating the reduction of humans to inventory and the rigid control exerted over bodies and time within a capitalist framework. 

Incorporating materials such as concrete and copy paper, the work references institutional environments—whether office, church, or prison. Detailed drawings and photographs of these spaces are combined with bureaucratic and taxonomic text to explore time and language as instruments of control. The images are characterized by gaps and deliberate omissions, communicating through what is hidden, rather than through what is depicted. Through strategies of fragmenting and combining, cropping and concealing, the viewer’s attention is directed, emphasizing that what is not seen is often more powerful than what is. 

At the core of the project is a sculptural work made by filling fluorescent light tubes with concrete and removing their glass exteriors. This gesture transforms a ubiquitous institutional object into something opaque and oppressive. Light, often used to make seeing possible, is also used in practices of surveillance, hypervisibility, and regulation. The manipulation of this object draws attention to this dual function and the ways visibility is utilized to sustain institutional power. 

By being attentive to the invisible and ignored, Count is Correct exposes the systems that structure daily life and transforms the act of looking into a powerful gesture of care and resistance.

Join us on January 16th from 6 - 8pm for a triple opening reception, as we celebrate alongside Katherine Pickering in our Main Gallery and Jian Suniga in our Members’ Gallery. Let us know you’re coming!

Chantal New is a conceptual artist based on traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples, colonially known as Victoria, BC. Her work combines drawing, photography and sculptural installation to explore themes of connection, separation, and power. Chantal holds an MFA from West Dean College of Art in Chichester, UK and is a partnering artist of the Art Justice Program, an art-based initiative supporting the well-being and dignity of people incarcerated at William Head Institution.

Opening December 5th in our Members’ Gallery is Requiem for Gentileschi by Rena Warren.

This work was borne out of response to regressive shifts in gender politics and suppression of women’s rights; in the wake of #MeToo, the overturning of Roe v. Wade and war on DEI south of our border; and in response to an increase in racial tensions, a growing political divide, and ever-expanding chasm between the disenfranchised and emboldened elite. It also follows two recent works titled Cognitive Dissonance; Social Media Post #1 and #2; works that superimpose a benignly floral veneer over images of war, questioning a collective social gag order and state where a well-behaved citizen pays taxes, earn Likes, posts selfies and cats or the latest DIY; and where influencers lull us to sleep with self-care du jour; all amid horrific abuses of power and shocking global injustices. This work seeks to address the paralytic state of social discourse, where a call for empathy and humanity can earn one’s place on the institutional chopping block. Requiem for Gentileschi is a battle cry dedicated to the occupied and oppressed.

Requiem for Gentileschi will be available for viewing in our Members Gallery from December 5th to January 10th 2026!

Rena Warren is an artist, art educator, mother, gardener, cat lover and settler currently residing on the unceded and traditional territory of the Syilx Okanagan people (Kelowna). She moved to the Okanagan in 1991 to attend Okanagan University College where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts. As a young mother, she went on to earn a post-degree in Education at University of Victoria. Since then, she has grown as an art educator, facilitating programs for a variety of arts groups and institutions including Cool Arts Society, the Kelowna Art Gallery, Lake Country Art Gallery and Okanagan College. In an evolving art practice, Rena works in large-scale oil portraiture inspired by gender identity and politics, international travels, and the microcosm of her home garden, often fusing her subjects with archetypal and mythological references.

Opening November 7th in our Project Gallery is What Seems Simple by Nasim Pirhadi.

In this work, Nasim stages ordinary gestures — reading a book, brushing her hair, tying a shoelace, biting an apple, taking measurements — within the suspension of an underwater world. These gestures reflect the ways life continues, even when its flow is altered by circumstance. 

Underwater, the page cannot be turned without resistance, the lace floats and twists — fingers struggling to hold a knot in suspension, a breath escapes in fragile bubbles. What might be effortless elsewhere is transformed into a struggle here. And yet, the body persists. These acts are carried out with calm insistence until difficulty itself becomes routine. 

The work proposes a meditation on relativity. A single act can be seamless in one world and heavy in another. This is not about the futility of action but about the familiarity of endurance. It is about how hardship, when lived with daily, becomes normalized — how what should have been easy is instead performed under pressure, and how life continues.

Join us for an Opening Reception for Nasim’s exhibition in the Project Gallery on November 7 2025, 6-8pm.

Nasim Pirhadi is a multidisciplinary artist living and working on the unceded, traditional territory of the syilx Okanagan Nation in Kelowna, BC.

Her work incorporates video, sound, olfactory elements, performance, and sculpture to create multisensory experiences where each component is interconnected. She investigates questions of female identity, subjectivity, and feminist perspectives within historical and contemporary frameworks. She has exhibited her work internationally in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, Iran, Germany, Austria, England, France, Sri Lanka, and the United States. Her work has been recognized with awards, including the Selected Award at the Third Contemporary Drawing Festival in Iran (2011) and being named one of eight finalists for the Behnam Bakhtiar Award in Monaco (2017). In 2022, she received the Audain Travel Award to support a research trip to New York.

Opened on November 7th in our Main Gallery was All That Time Has Woven, All It Has Unraveled, by Ibrahim Shuaib.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about time, time spent, time lost, time passed, time held. After an experience that reminded me of the fragility of my own existence.

That has really shaped my approach to life in the past couple of months and in turn showing up in my works.

Time as a protector, time as the destroyer. Day in day out, the moon shines and time reduces it to a fraction of itself a “crescent “ and the cycle continues.

It’s believed the moon is the light of the spirit world by the mystics.

Do we use time or does time use us?

Is time really all that exists, do we exist through time or does time decay us as it does everything?

Is time a wheel that started itself only to come to an end and begin again.

Beautiful innocence of a seed that turns into a leaf, into a plant, then to a tree, only to wilt and return it all.

Songs of a bird reduced to dust returned back to time.

This is my thought process as I myself pass through time or as it eventually passes through me.

All That Time Has Woven, All It Has Unraveled, was an ongoing series rooted in self discovery where culture, spirituality, and the passage of time intersect. It's a narrative that reflects the dual nature of Ibrahim Shuaib’s journey, capturing the innocence of youth and the complexity of adulthood. Central to this series is his use of traditional rugs as a canvas, a deliberate choice rooted in the rich symbolism these objects hold within his Islamic heritage. These are silent companions to our daily rituals, ever-present witnesses to moments of prayer, family gatherings, and quiet reflection.

The rug represents an untold story, each pattern a chapter in the book of Shuaib’s life, each memory a splatter, where moments of joy, sorrow, triumph, and tribulation are interwoven. Each artistic stroke represents a distinct era, manifested memories and subtle impressions, woven into a textured and evolving tapestry that honours both personal and collective heritage.

Ibrahim Shuaib is a multidisciplinary visual artist Born in Nigeria, currently based on Treaty 1 Territory, Winnipeg. His work draws inspiration from the interplay of chaos and tranquility, using art to explore existential questions and interpret life’s complex journeys.

Through painting, installation, and multimedia forms, he investigates themes of identity, spirituality, cultural heritage, and the nuanced experience of double consciousness. His process is intuitive and experimental, consistently pushing the boundaries of his chosen materials.

By engaging these topics, Ibrahim creates spaces for reflection while employing strategies of direction and misdirection, inviting viewers to navigate layers of meaning and connect deeply with the work. Rather than offering answers, his practice opens a path of constructive questioning, providing a contemplative solace for the viewer.