Medicine Prints, Whale Dreams, and Dancing Coyotes
Medicine Prints, Whale Dreams, and Dancing Coyotes: New Works from the Public Art Collection showcases new donations and acquisitions to UBC Okanagan’s Public Art Collection over the past year and focuses on contemporary Indigenous printmaking and lens-based practices, that explore the relationship of photography to land and culture, by Indigenous Women. Through printmaking, photography, carving, and video, the exhibition brings together Indigenous artists who use their work to challenge social issues and pass on ancestral stories and knowledge.
Medicine Prints, Whale Dreams, and Dancing Coyotes
January 5 to 27, 2026, FINA Gallery
Opening Reception: Friday, Jan. 16, 4-6 pm
The exhibition is curated by Tania Willard, director of the UBC Okanagan and Belkin Gallery and co-curated by curatorial assistant Ryan Trafananko with support from programming assistant Kelly Yuste. The exhibit includes new acquisitions of lens- based work from Michelle Sound, Taylor Baptiste, Krista Belle Stewart, and Nadya Kwandibens, and contemporary printmaking featuring Chief Henry Speck, Jim Johnny, Lyle Wilson, Robert Davidson, Roy Henry Vickers, Trevor Angus, and Rupert and Barry Scow. These prints from artists of different west coast nations were donated to the Public Art Collection last spring by Milton and Della McClaren.
Taylor Baptiste and Tania Willard at the exhibition reception, January 16
Installation view
Artists left to right: Robert Davidson, Jim Johnny, Michelle Sound, Lyle Wilson
Installation view
Artists left to right: Nadya Kwandibens, Trevor Angus, Chief Henry Speck, Rupert and Barry Scow
Right: Krista Belle Stewart, Potato Gardens Band, 2018, Video (23 min)
Installation view
Rupert and Barry Scow, Sisiutl Dance Board, 1995, Wood carving with acrylic paint
Michelle Sound, Theresa Sound, Age 12, 2023, Medicine Prints Series
Taylor Baptiste, Day School Dancing, Photo Series (1-6), 2024, Digital print on paper
Installation view
Artist Talk
Featured artists Michelle Sound gave a virtual artist talk on Monday, January 19 as part of the FCCS Visiting Artist Series, moderated by Dr. Stacey Koosel.
Michelle Sound is a Cree and Métis artist, educator and mother. She is a member of Wapsewsipi/Swan River First Nation in Northern Alberta; her maternal side is Cree and her paternal side is Métis from central Alberta. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and a Master of Applied Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Sound is a 2021 Salt Spring National Art Award Finalist and has had recent exhibitions at Daphne Art Centre in Montréal, Neutral Ground ARC in Regina and grunt gallery in Vancouver.
View the talk below.