ON MAIN

The Prop House Documentation Paul Wong/On Main Gallery, 2024 Video with sound, 3:02min Videographer @christianyvesjones Mount Pleasant Furniture (MPF) was a prop house wonderland for the film, television, stage and art communities for decades. MPF was an astounding and diverse collection of over one million antique and vintage objects stored in two multi-level buildings, a labyrinth of 35,000 square feet. It was a family owned business in the Mount Pleasant warehouse district, a neighbourhood that in just a few short years has gentrified into the city’s technology hub. The high cost of real estate forced the closing and selling off MPF. 11 artists were invited to respond to the collection and created a series of installations that were exhibited at Griffin Art Projects, MPF and the Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen in 2024. Curated by Lisa Baldissera and Paul Wong. ARTISTS: Cathy Busby @d.a.shaffer @jaysenetchko @baguabagua @germkoh @lisabaldissera @vickers.charlene @therealpaulwong @parvinpeivandi @vanphotog This film is being exhibited as part of TENXTEN TENXTEN @griffinartprojects North Vancouver, BC May 31–September 7, 2025 10 COLLECTIONS | 10 YEARS Griffin Art Projects marks its 10th anniversary by celebrating the collections and generous collectors who have been part of Griffin's journey over our first decade. In TENXTEN, the presentation of selected acquisitions from 10 collections, featuring over 70 artists, provides a comprehensive exploration of diverse artistic practices. The shared themes transcend temporal, geographical and stylistic boundaries. These unifying elements—cultural identity, social commentary, conceptual art, materiality, human experience, photography and image-making, and abstraction and colour—provide a framework for understanding the interconnectedness of seemingly disparate artistic endeavours. Across collections, the artists reveal the power of visual art to document, question and reimagine our world.

Chinese Cafes: The Five Energies with Black and White Photographs Paul Wong, 1997 Edition of 3. 24” x 44” each Currently on exhibit as part of Varied Editions till June 28, 2025, On Main Gallery, @queerarts This series is based on family and contemporary photographs documenting Chinese Cafe culture in Western Canada. The Taoist system of ' the five energies’: wood, fire, earth, metal , water and its five corresponding colours influenced the aesthetics of this series. This work was commissioned for the national touring exhibition and publication, Them=Us (1998-2000) produced by the Harmony Movement, Toronto. Screen printed at Open Studio, Toronto. Available for sale.

The portal officially opened last night, and y’all made it magical! 🪄🌀 Thank you to everyone who attended the opening of 𝗩𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, from bold prints to bittersweet moments shared in the gallery, it was a night full of heart. The kind that reminds us why we gather, why we create, and why queer art matters. 🌈 We’re in absolute awe of the artists whose work makes this exhibition so unforgettable: Paul Wong, Juneau MacPhee, Tajliya Jamal, Zoë Grace-Anne Laycock, and curators Cheryl Hamilton and Edward Fu-Chen Juan. Our deepest gratitude to our volunteers, staff, and generous sponsors, we couldn’t have opened the portal without you! Varied Editions is free and will be on at On Main Gallery until June 28. See it for yourself and join us for a hands-on zine workshop on June 14 at Malaspina Printmakers! And this is just the beginning, explore the full QAF 2025 lineup at queerartsfestival.com 💖 Photos by Nat Kuan #QueerArtsFestival #Portals2025 #Vancouver #Printmaking #PrideMonth

🦄 Lost on your way to the Queer Arts Festival? Follow me through the magical halls of the Sun Wah Centre and find ALL the queer art your heart desires 💖 📍 268 Keefer Street — wave to security and enter the portal! ⬆️ Take the elevator to 4th Floor for: 🎨 SUM Gallery — Unit 425 (look for the disco ball!) 🖼 On Main Gallery — Unit 427 (just next door!) ⬇️ Head down to 2nd Floor for: 🌈 Centre A — Unit 205 (where the ArtParty lives!) No wrong turns, no confusion — just pure queer joy 🪩✨ Catch it all June 6–28 at the Queer Arts Festival!

Join us on site at Mount Pleasant Furniture (MPF) for tours of Vancouver’s famous prop house! Three simultaneous group tours will be conducted onsite at Mount Pleasant Furniture on July 21st and August 4th at 1:00, 1:30, or 2:00. Each tour will accommodate eight participants and include introductions and exploration of the space. RSVPs are required, tickets are $20 per person. Please register for the tours through linktree in bio. MPF operates exclusively by appointment. Secreted behind a closed door, this hidden gem is known primarily to film and stage art directors. MPF has been a prop house wonderland for the film, television, stage and art communities for decades. It is a family owned and operated business in the heart of the Mount Pleasant warehouse district, a neighbourhood that in just a few short years has transformed into the city’s technology hub. MPF is an astounding and diverse collection of over one million antique and vintage objects. It is stored in two multi-level buildings, a labyrinth of 35,000 square feet, crammed from floor ceiling with furnishings, objects of art, paintings, textiles, sculpture, figurines. These tours are in conjunction with Griffin Art Projects’ exhibition, The Prop House: A Collection of Over One Million Objects, curated by Lisa Baldissera and Paul Wong. The Prop House offers an opportunity to celebrate and explore this extraordinary collection with the public for the first time. The objects were sourced everywhere, from second hand stores to garage to estate sales deepening in complexity and materiality. This exhibition features a film project by Paul Wong, presented at the Mount Pleasant Community Screen and window installation and window project at Mount Pleasant Furniture. Image 1: Leslie Madsen at MPF, photo Jason Payne Image 2: Paul Wong at MPF, courtesy of Paul Wong Image 3: L and D (2024) D.A Shaffer, installation at MPF Image 4: - 4: Jason Payne/Vancouver Sun The Prop House: A Collection of Over One Million Objects is presented in collaboration with grunt gallery, Mount Pleasant Community Screen, Mount Pleasant Furniture and On Main Gallery. The film is commissioned by grunt gallery for @mpcas.vancouver

Hell Money, The X-Files: An Homage to Graeme Murray, Paul Wong, 2024 multimedia installation in “The Prop House: A Collection of One Million Objects,” exhibition at Griffin Art Projects, May 18 – August 18, 2024. Photos by Byron Dauncey. Paul Wong played the Wiry Man in “Hell Money,” episode 19 of The X-Files’ third season. “Hell Money” is featured in The Prop House with one of Graeme Murray’s Emmy awards and objects from the MPF collection used in this episode. Hell Money, The X-Files (season 3, episode 19) premiered on Fox in the USA on March 29, 1996. Written by Jeffrey Vlaming and directed by Tueker Gates, the episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 9.9, being watched by 14.86 million people in its initial broadcast. In this episode, Mulder and Scully investigate a murder in San Francisco’s Chinatown involving masked intruders. strange Chinese symbols, a lottery, and the clandestine selling of body parts. The premise of the episode was based on a pyramid scheme involving body parts being removed from the destitute in Chinatown. ‘The Wiry Man; was played by Paul Wong. About Graeme Murray: Emmy Award-winning art director Graeme Murray is best known for The X-Files (1993-1996), The Thing (1982) and Elektra (2005). He is also the uncle of Mount Pleasant Furniture owner Leslie Madsen and has played an influential role supporting the evolution of MPF into a major prop house for film and television. Graeme Murray’s career in the world of film and television production spans decades. In the 1990s, he ascended to production designer of X-Files. Along with Gary Allen, Shirley lnget and Greg Loewen, they crafted the visual aesthetics for the series. After an initial nomination in 1996, the team took the stage to accept its first Emmy Award a year later for the touching Season 4 episode “Memento Mori.” A surreal, stylized Season 5 installment titled “The Post-Modern Prometheus” resulted in a second Emmy in 1998. He retired in 2006 and lives in Vancouver.

The Prop House Film Paul Wong (2024) 3:30min, film, no sound Director Paul Wong Cinematographer & Editor @christianyvesjones Commissioned by @mpcas.vancouver / @gruntgallery Using drone and Steadicam cinematography the filmmaker takes us into the magic wonderland of Mount Pleasant Furniture (MPF) two warehouses, a labyrinth of 35,000sqf crammed with furnishings, objects of art, paintings, textiles, sculpture, figurines. MPF is a family owned business that has served the Vancouver film and television industry over the past 40 years. The Prop House Film offers an opportunity to celebrate and explore this extraordinary collection of one million objects with the public for the first time. Secreted behind a closed door, this hidden gem is known only to film directors, production designers and artists. The film opens with a drone view of downtown Vancouver and the Mountains. The camera drops down to reveal a group of people sitting on the rooftop garden of the MPF building. The film cuts to interior views of a massive space filled with office furniture, courtrooms and religious relics from different eras. The camera sweeps past grand chandeliers, we dissolve into a room of classical landscape paintings, ornate lamps, and objects d’ art. We climb stairs lined with early 20th century black and white photographic portraits and then enter into area of telecommunications equipment, hundreds of dialup telephones, vintage radios, television sets, typewriters etc. A small selection of 250 titles from the thousands of film, television, and artists projects that have used MPF appear as a scrolling Star Wars style graphic throughout the film. The Prop House Film gives us a peek into a local business that will soon move on out of Mount Pleasant. Gentrification of the area has made it unaffordable to remain operating in this urban core. The Prop House Film will be shown on the Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen May 17, 2024 to May 18, 2025, located at the southwest corner of Kingsway and Broadway. This film is also being featured as part of the art exhibition The Prop House: Collection of One Million Objects at @griffinartprojects in North Vancouver May 17 - Aug 18 2024

Curated by Lisa Baldissera and Paul Wong, The Prop House: A Collection of One Million Objects celebrates Mount Pleasant Furniture (MPF), a prop house wonderland for film, television, stage and art communities. The Prop House presents the work of Vancouver artists: Cathy Busby, Germaine Koh, Jason Payne, Jay Senetchko, Charlene Vickers, Parvin Peivandi, Paul Wong, Lisa Baldissera and Bagua Artist Association. The Prop House also consists of an offsite project by Paul Wong located at grunt gallery’s Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen @mpcas.vancouver and at MPF (38 W 4th Ave), viewers will discover a window installation by D.A Shaffer. Co-produced by @on.main and @griffinartprojects in collaboration with @gruntgallery and Mount Pleasant Furniture. Video by @christianyvesjones Artists @baguabagua @vanphotog @jaysenetchko @parvinpeivandi @germkoh @vickers.charlene @lisabaldissera @therealpaulwong @d.a.shaffer Cathy Busby

The Prop House: A Collection of One Million Objects Griffin Art Projects
 1174 Welch St, North Vancouver, BC May 18 - August 18, 2024 Curated by Lisa Baldissera and Paul Wong A family-owned and operated business in the heart of the Mount Pleasant warehouse district, MPF is a diverse collection of over one million antique and vintage objects stored in two multi-level buildings–a labyrinth of 35,000 square feet, crammed from floor ceiling with furnishings, objects of art, paintings, textiles, sculpture, figurines. The collection has been accumulated by three generations of the Madsen family and has been used in set designs in the Vancouver film industry over the past 40 years. Leslie Madsen continues to live in the 1911 building that she owns and has raised her family in, and her son now manages the day-to-day operations. 
 MPF will soon close and disperse its collection as the warehouse it has leased for 30 years has been sold. By revealing MPF, The Prop House highlights the impacts of development and gentrification on the city of Vancouver and its arts and culture sectors. The Prop House exhibition presents the work of seven Vancouver-based artists: Cathy Busby, Germaine Koh, Jay Senetchko, Charlene Vickers, Parvin Peivandi and Bagua Artist Association as well as photographer Jason Payne. Along with the exhibition’s curators, the artists will re-situate selected collection objects at Griffin Art Projects on one last journey of imagination. The MPF team is creating a site-specific window installation at MPF. A robust public program series accompanies the exhibition: · Sunday, July 7th at 1 - 2:30 PM - Conversations on Collecting with Leslie Madsen · Sunday, July 21th at 1 - 4 PM - Mount Pleasant Furniture Tours (in-person at Mount Pleasant Furniture, 38 E 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC) · Sunday, August 4th at 1 - 4 PM - Mount Pleasant Furniture Tours (in-person at Mount Pleasant Furniture, 38 E 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC) · Sunday, August 18th at 1 - 2 PM - The Prop House: A Collection of One Million Objects Exhibition Tour in Farsi (in-person) See link in bio for for tickets to Mount Pleasant Furniture Tours. 
 Photos of Mount Pleasant Furniture by Jason Payne

Yesterday was the third annual @reelasian Fire Horse Award Luncheon, celebrating this year’s recipient @therealpaulwong ! Thank you to everyone who came to honour Paul’s incredible and steadfast contributions to the media arts community. Reel Asian would like to thank their donors, sponsors, jury members, nominators, event host and the Fire Horse Award committee for their support in making this event a success! View more moments over on Reel Asian Flickr, linked in bio @reelasian 
 Photos by @miketjioe #FireHorse2024
#AsianHeritageMonth

The Prop House Film Paul Wong (2024) 3:30min, film, no sound Director Paul Wong Cinematographer & Editor @christianyvesjones Commissioned by @mpcas.vancouver / @gruntgallery Using drone and Steadicam cinematography the filmmaker takes us into the magic wonderland of Mount Pleasant Furniture (MPF) two warehouses, a labyrinth of 35,000sqf crammed with furnishings, objects of art, paintings, textiles, sculpture, figurines. MPF is a family owned business that has served the Vancouver film and television industry over the past 40 years. The Prop House Film offers an opportunity to celebrate and explore this extraordinary collection of one million objects with the public for the first time. Secreted behind a closed door, this hidden gem is known only to film directors, production designers and artists. The film opens with a drone view of downtown Vancouver and the Mountains. The camera drops down to reveal a group of people sitting on the rooftop garden of the MPF building. The film cuts to interior views of a massive space filled with office furniture, courtrooms and religious relics from different eras. The camera sweeps past grand chandeliers, we dissolve into a room of classical landscape paintings, ornate lamps, and objects d’ art. We climb stairs lined with early 20th century black and white photographic portraits and then enter into area of telecommunications equipment, hundreds of dialup telephones, vintage radios, television sets, typewriters etc. A small selection of 250 titles from the thousands of film, television, and artists projects that have used MPF appear as a scrolling Star Wars style graphic throughout the film. The Prop House Film gives us a peek into a local business that will soon move on out of Mount Pleasant. Gentrification of the area has made it unaffordable to remain operating in this urban core. The Prop House Film will be shown on the Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen May 17, 2024 to May 18, 2025, located at the southwest corner of Kingsway and Broadway. This film is also being featured as part of the art exhibition The Prop House: Collection of One Million Objects at @griffinartprojects in North Vancouver May 17 - Aug 18 2024

Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama Part of the DOXA Documentary Film Festival 2024 May 5,  4:15pm (SOLD OUT), the Cinematheque  May 9th, 12:30 PM, SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema Whether capturing the white-hot intensity of the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s or chronicling decades of Japanese-Canadian cultural identity at Vancouver’s Powell Street Festival, Tamio Wakayama’s camera immortalized simple acts of courage and indomitable spirits. His photographs humanized headlines, imbuing them with a “purposeful sense of joy” (as a former colleague eloquently describes them in this uplifting film). Director Cindy Mochizuki weaves together lively interviews, Wakayama's evocative imagery, and her own whimsical animation to unveil not just the artistry of a Vancouver photographer, but also a shared quest for cultural self-awareness and validation. Against the backdrop of Canada's complex history, Between Pictures celebrates the resilience and victories of marginalized Asian communities.