What: UBC Okanagan Gallery Artist in Residence and Exhibition
Who: Manuel Axel Strain
Residency: June 3 to June 10, 2022
Exhibition: June 11 to June 30, 2022
Where: FINA Gallery, UBC Okanagan Campus
Artist Talk: June 8, 2022
Image from Manuel Axel Strain’s exhibition We go to the Mountains, we go to the Big Water
The Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies is excited to welcome Manuel Axel Strain as UBC Okanagan Gallery’s 2022 Artist in Residence from Friday, June 3 to Friday, June 10, 2022 in the FINA Gallery on campus at UBC Okanagan. This artist residency is part of a larger collaboration with UBC Okanagan’s Indigenous Art Intensive and the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art. As part of the residency Strain will be exhibiting new artworks at the FINA Gallery and the Alternator in addition to hosting an artist talk as part of the Indigenous Art Intensive. Their exhibition We Go To The Mountains, We Go To The Big Water is now on display at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art from May 6 to June 25, 2022.
About Manuel Axel Strain
Manuel Axel Strain is a 2Spirit artist from the lands and waters of the xʷməθkʷəyəm (Musqueam), Simpcw and Syilx peoples, based in the sacred homelands of their q̓ic̓əy̓(Katzie) and qʼʷa:n̓ƛʼən̓ (Kwantlen) relatives. Strains parents are Tracey Strain and Eric Strain, Strain’s grandparents are Harold Eustache (Chu Chua), Marie Louis (nk̓maplqs), Helen Point (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) and John Strain (irish). Strains Great Grandparents Are Tina Cole (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh) and Tony Point (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), Rose and Ben Louis (nk̓maplqs) and Manuel and Christine Eustache (Chu Chua). Although they attended Emily Carr University of Art + Design they prioritize Indigenous epistemologies through the embodied knowledge of their mother, father, siblings, cousins, aunties, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents and ancestors.
Creating artwork in collaboration with and reference to their relatives, their shared experiences become a source of agency that resonates through their work with performance, land, painting, sculpture, photography, video, sound and installation. Their artworks often envelop subjects in relation with ancestral and community ties, Indigeneity, labour, resource extraction, gender, Indigenous medicines and life forces. Strain often perceives their work to confront and undermine the imposed realities of colonialism. Proposing a new space beyond its oppressive systems of power. They have contributed work to the Capture Photography Festival through Richmond Art Gallery, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, and more distant places across Turtle Island.
This project is supported by BC Arts Council.
