Mark your calendar and join us for a range of events this September: a master class with visual artist Ed Pien, a performance by multimedia artist Johannes Zits, and a poetry reading by local poets: Megan Fennya Jones, Shauna Paull, Danny Peart, Aislinn Hunter, Ellie Sawatzky, Kate Braid, Tariq Malik, R C Weslowski, and Kevin Spenst.

Portrait of C.E. Gatchalian

Drawn Out: Master class with visual artist Ed Pien

When: Sun, 11 September 2022, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM PDT
Where: Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6P 2N4
Cost: Admission by donation (no one turned away).

How do perception, memory, imagination, and preconceptions fold into the act of drawing? Visual artist Ed Pien will present a workshop that combines drawing and writing as process to disrupt the conventions of observational drawing.

All drawing materials will be provided.

To join on Zoom, email info@kogawahouse.com.

Ed Pien is a Canadian artist based in Toronto. He has been making art for over 30 years. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, he immigrated to Canada with his family at the age of eleven.

Pien has shown extensively, both nationally and internationally, in venues that include the Drawing Centre in New York City; Victoria and Albert Museum in London; Canadian Culture Centre in Paris; Goethe Institute in Berlin; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in Victoria, BC; Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto; Musée des beaux arts in Montreal; Musée d’art contemporain and OBORO in Montreal; Songzhuang Art Centre in Beijing; and National Art Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

Ed Pien is living in residence at Historic Joy Kogawa House from August 15 to September 30 while preparing work for the exhibition Ed Pien: Tracing Water.

Johannes Zits

Working with Water: Performance by multimedia artist Johannes Zits 

When: Sun, September 18, 2022, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM PDT
Where: Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6P 2N4
Cost: $15 or free for members

For his performance Working with Water, multimedia artist Johannes Zits will engage with this most essential of elements: water. Through movement, material, processes, and text, he will celebrate water’s non-human expressive and affective presences, diversity, difference, and creativity, as well as its co-agency.

Since graduating in 1984, Johannes Zits has presented work across Canada and internationally. In 2013, he presented a collection of his videos at FIFA in Montreal and the following year presented the performance “Island” at M:ST Festival, Calgary, as well as venues in Shanghai and Chongqing, China.

His photographic and collage work has been featured in galleries in Vienna, Berlin, Shanghai, Hamburg, Caen, and Mexico City.

From 2011 to 2014, he facilitated the Intensive Performance Art Workshop at Artscape Gibraltar Point and started the curatorial project S.P.A.N.E. From 2015 to 2017, he was also a member of the curatorial team Duration and Dialogue.

In 2019, the Copenhagen Contemporary Museum commissioned him to realize a score for their permanent collection. In 2020, Johannes performed a new piece at the International Biennial of Asuncion, Paraguay, and was the artist-in-residence at Western University’s McIntosh Gallery in London, Ontario, presenting the exhibition Listening to Trees.

Johannes Zits will live and work in residence at Historic Joy Kogawa House with visual artist Ed Pien from August 15 to September 30, 2022.

Poets Return: Annual Poetry Night at Kogawa House

When: Tue, 20 September 2022, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM PDT
Where: Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6P 2N4
Cost: $10 or free for members

Poets return this September with an evening of readings by local poets:

  • Megan Fennya Jones
  • Shauna Paull
  • Danny Peart
  • Aislinn Hunter
  • Ellie Sawatzky
  • Kate Braid
  • Tariq Malik
  • R C Weslowski
  • Kevin Spenst

Many of these poets are launching new collections. Books will be available for sale and signing.

Please join us for this in-person event. Prosecco and chocolates will be served.

Email info@kogawahouse.com in you would like to join on Zoom.