AHVA

The Belkin is pleased to present Elsewhere, Otherwise, an exhibition of work by the 2026 graduates of the University of British Columbia’s two-year Master of Fine Arts program: Yihk Qu Chan, Violet Johnson, Amanda Kachadoorian Jordi, Nevada Lynn, Scott Massey and Golriz Rezvani. This program in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory is limited each year to a small group of five to six artists. Their contributions to this exhibition are the result of intensive feedback and development within an intimate and discursive working environment. During the past two years, these artists have worked closely with their advisory committees, engaged with their fellow MFAs in weekly group critiques and reading groups, artist talks and open studios, and built relationships with their peers and the faculty of the department’s art history and critical and curatorial streams to develop their own aesthetic, theoretical and historically grounded artistic practices. 🔗 https://belkin.ubc.ca/exhibitions/mfa-2026/ 🔗 Elsewhere, Otherwise: UBC Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition is curated by Melanie O’Brian and presented with support from the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at the University of British Columbia. @ahvaubc @golrizrezvani @scottmasseyart @amanda.k.jordi @nevadacreates ultra_violetlight @nat.zip @ubcartsculture

Fabric of Campus Fibre Garden and FLEET Mobile Artist Studios — Open Call for Proposals We invite the UBC community—including students, staff, researchers, departments, residents, partners, and beyond—to submit proposals to engage with the Fabric of Campus Fibre Garden and/or FLEET Mobile Artist Studio. This unique public space is a dynamic research and learning site where textiles, agriculture, traditional land practices, and creative practice intersect. We seek creative and/or community-engaged proposals to activate the space with urban agriculture and land-based activities, slow fashion and sustainable textile practices, public space innovation, knowledge exchange, and interdisciplinary experimentation. The site, part of UBC's Campus as a Living Lab program, is a collaboration between UBC Campus + Community Planning and the Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory, with the FLEET Studio managed by Other Sights for Artists’ Projects. The Fibre Garden and FLEET Mobile Studio will be at UBC’s Point Grey Campus, on unceded, ancestral xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) territory, from May 2026 through at least April 2028. The site is located off the University Blvd. trolley-bus loop, between Gordon B. Shrum and Wesbrook buildings. Projects can begin as early as July 2026. POSSIBLE ACTIVATIONS: Propose a short term or intermittent, seasonal, or longer-term project using any or a combination of the studio, the research plots, and the open green space. ON-SITE INFO SESSIONS: Wednesday, May 27, 11am-1pm Thursday, May 28, 4-6pm DEADLINE: June 15, 2026, noon APPLY AT link in @fibregardenubc bio

Thank you to all who stopped by last night’s opening reception for heart work, curated by MA Critical and Curatorial Studies student Mel Granley! Featuring the work of Cheyenne Rain LeGrande, current MFA Visual Art student Violet Johnson, Kali Spitzer, and Michelle Sound, the exhibition honours Indigenous ways of knowing and being in relation, and considers how we are interlinked and the way in which our well-being is bound up with that of others. The exhibition will be on view at Ceremonial Art until May 30, 2026. Congratulations, Mel! Presented with support from the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies through the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory in collaboration with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at The University of British Columbia. Photos: Andrea Tuele #ahvaubc #curatorialstudies #audainendowment #MelGranley @belkinartgallery @ceremonial____art @melgranley @cheyennerainlegrande @ultra_violetlight @kali_spitzer_photography @michellesound.art

The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery recently opened its annual UBC Master of Fine Arts Graduate exhibition, Elsewhere, Otherwise, featuring work by the 2026 graduates of the university’s two-year MFA program: Yihk Qu Chan, Amanda Kachadoorian Jordi, Nevada Lynn, Scott Massey, Golriz Rezvani and Violet Johnson, recipient of the 2025 Audain Travel Award. Violet Johnson (American, b. 1999) is a mixed Native and Euro-American artist, a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and a Yurok descendant. Johnson's analog photo-sculptural practice directly engages with bodies of water along the Pacific Northwest Coast to trace significant sites and memories from her personal and familial histories, through a critical lens on the ongoing ramifications of settler colonialism. In “Elsewhere, Otherwise,” she presents her latest series of gelatin silver prints, “Eternal tides,” alongside the lightbox work “Eternal tides” (2026). Johnson’s photographic engagement with drips, drains, and the accumulating processes of water is one path among many in “Elesewhere, Otherwise.” “Elsewhere, Otherwise” May 1 - 31, 2026 Belkin Art Gallery @belkinartgallery Works by Violet Johnson: 1.“Eternal tides,” 2026 Gelatin silver prints 2.“Imminent currents,” 2026 Transparency, lightbox and steel Music: “Analog Summer,” by Anton Schyberg from Pixabay. @audainartmuseum @ahvaubc @golrizrezvani @scottmasseyart @amanda.k.jordi @ultra_violetlight @nat.zip @nevadacreates #AudainTravelAwards #VioletJohnson

Heartfelt congratulations to AHVA alum Abbas Akhavan (MFA ’06) for representing Canada at the 61st Venice Biennale! Akhavan’s installation ‘Entre chien et loup’ will be on view from May 9 until November 22, 2026. Akhavan is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice reflects on the relationships between place and history and attends to the geopolitical forces that define spaces. He gave an artist talk “Variations on a Garden” in March 2025 as part of AHVA’s Joan Carlisle-Irving Lecture Series, co-sponsored with Green College and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. — Re-post from @friezeofficial Representing Canada at the 61st Venice Biennale, Abbas Akhavan’s ‘Entre chien et loup’ — a pink-hued and humid greenhouse — is home to Victoria water lillies, referencing the plant’s display at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London’s Crystal Palace. @abbasakhavan @natgallerycan @universityofbc @ubcarts @belkinartgallery @greencollegeubc @labiennale #ubcahva #venicebiennale #inminorkeys #labiennaledivenezia #biennalearte2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us last night for the opening reception of Elsewhere, Otherwise, with this year's MFA graduates Yihk Qu Chan, Violet Johnson, Amanda Kachadoorian Jordi, Nevada Lynn, Scott Massey and Golriz Rezvani! It was a wonderful night to celebrate this amazing cohort of artists! Elsewhere, Otherwise continues through May 30. 🔗 https://belkin.ubc.ca/exhibitions/mfa-2026/ 🔗 Elsewhere, Otherwise: UBC Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition is presented with support from the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at the University of British Columbia and Martyn Golding. @ahvaubc @golrizrezvani @scottmasseyart @amanda.k.jordi @nevadacreates @ultra_violetlight @nat.zip @ubcartsculture

To the involved faculty members, staff, participating artists, and visitors: Thank you for being part of Chrysalis! 🦋 This year’s UBC BFA/BA Graduating Exhibition has come to an end, we are grateful to have shared this chapter with you. #ubcbfa #ubcba #ubc #emergingartists #vancouverart

Save the date! MA Critical and Curatorial Studies student Mel Granley’s graduating exhibition, heart work, opens on Thursday, May 7, 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Ceremonial Art! The exhibition will be on view until May 30, 2026. Featuring the work of artist Violet Johnson, current MFA Visual Art student. Repost from @ceremonial____art 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 Cheyenne Rain LeGrande, Violet Johnson, Kali Spitzer & Michelle Sound Curated by Mel Granley Ceremonial/Art May 7–May 30, 2026 Opening reception Thursday, May 7, 2026 from 4–7pm Ceremonial/Art is thrilled to announce our collaboration with the University of British Columbia’s Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory’s Curatorial Studies Program. @universityofbc Guest curated by Michif and white settler curator, Mel Granley @melgranley , through materially varied photo-based practices, 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 presents varying modes of relations: between peoples, with community and culture, to land and waters, and the relationship to the self. Honouring Indigenous ways of knowing and being in relation, 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 considers how we are interlinked and the way in which our well-being is bound up with that of others. Sustained and supported by our bonds to one another and to the world around us, relationships are central to how we move through our lives. What invisible threads connect us, person to person, and what responsibilities do those connections entail? 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 brings together the works of Cheyenne Rain LeGrande @cheyennerainlegrande , Violet Johnson ultra_violetlight, Kali Spitzer @kali_spitzer_photography , and Michelle Sound @michellesound.art to explore relational embodiments and iterations of intimacy. Presented with support from the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies through the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory in collaboration with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at The University of British Columbia. @belkinartgallery Image: Cheyenne Rain LeGrande ᑭᒥᐘᐣ, ᐅᒉᒣᐤKissing Myself ᐅᒉᒣᐤ, 2025, 33 x 47 in. Inkjet print on Satin, poplar wood, ribbon, metal grommets. #ahvaubc #curatorialstudies #audainendowment #MelGranley

Gabriel’s work is: art as a reason for being. Gabriel Zamora (he/him) is one of the 34 emerging artists featured in Chrysalis, the UBC BFA/BA Visual Art graduating exhibition! 📍NOW OPEN! April 22–29, 12–5 pm daily | Audain Art Centre, UBC Support Chrysalis with a tax-deductible donation at the link in our bio. Gifts of any size help celebrate years of artistic work and support the next step in our artists’ careers! #ubcbfa #ubcba #ubc #emergingartists #vancouverart

Xiaofei’s work is: intuitive, perceptive, and fluid. Xiaofei Dong 董小菲 (she/her) is one of the 34 emerging artists featured in Chrysalis, the UBC BFA/BA Visual Art graduating exhibition! 📍NOW OPEN! April 22–29, 12–5 pm daily | Audain Art Centre, UBC Support Chrysalis with a tax-deductible donation at the link in our bio. Gifts of any size help celebrate years of artistic work and support the next step in our artists’ careers! #ubcbfa #ubcba #ubc #emergingartists #vancouverart

Ainsley’s work is: self-exploration, vulnerability, and an attempt to capture the soul. Ainsley Morrow (she/her) is one of the 34 emerging artists featured in Chrysalis, the UBC BFA/BA Visual Art graduating exhibition! 📍NOW OPEN! April 22–29, 12–5 p.m. daily | Audain Art Centre, UBC Support Chrysalis with a tax-deductible donation at the link in our bio. Gifts of any size help celebrate years of artistic work and support the next step in our artists’ careers! #ubcbfa #ubcba #ubc #emergingartists #vancouverart

Lan-Vi’s work is: childlike, honesty, and self-expression. Lan-Vi (he/him) is one of the 34 emerging artists featured in Chrysalis, the UBC BFA/BA Visual Art graduating exhibition! 📍April 22–29 | Audain Art Centre, UBC 🦋 Opening reception: TODAY! April 21, 4–7 p.m. Support Chrysalis with a tax-deductible donation at the link in our bio. Gifts of any size help celebrate years of artistic work and support the next step in our artists’ careers! #ubcbfa #ubcba #ubc #emergingartists #vancouverart