Michael Drebert, Edgar Heap of Birds... Make It Strange

Michael Drebert, Edgar Heap of Birds, Vanessa Kwan, Michael Morris, Vincent Trasov & Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun

Malaspina Printmakers is pleased to present Make It Strange, an exhibition of works that
de-familiarize our conventional relationship to print media. Through the fabrication or manipulation of signs, posters, official legal documents, rubber stamps and altered printed ephemera, the works in the exhibition disrupt our conventional perception of, and relation to these modes of communication. Each of the pieces exhibited alludes to ways in which print mediates our relationship to place and offers alternative ways of connecting to and experiencing the city, the nation or the distances between us. Make It Strange is intended to raise questions about how we perceive and relate to print in our daily lives, the power it has to structure our experience and at the same time present propositions for interaction with the medium.

Michael Drebert is currently completing an MFA at the University of Victoria. His work has been included in exhibitions at Artspeak, Contemporary Art Gallery, Ministry of Casual Living, Helen Pitt Gallery, the Western Front, Lobby Gallery and Blanket Gallery among others.

Edgar Heap of Birds’ exhibition record includes The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, The National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institute, The National Gallery of Canada, Documenta 8, and the Venice Biennale. He was awarded an Honorary PhD in Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Vanessa Kwan has exhibited at the Or Gallery, Art Gallery of the South Okanagan, Access Gallery, Helen Pitt Gallery and Richmond Art Gallery. She has also produced work in public spaces including the Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program and is a founding member of the Norma arts collective.

Together, Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov founded Image Bank in 1969 as a conceptual vehicle for mail art projects, which featured collaborations with Eric Metcalfe, Gary Lee Nova, Ray Johnson, General Idea, Robert Filliou and many others. They co-founded the Western Front Society in 1973 and their works, both collaborative and individual are included in numerous important national and international exhibitions and collections. Morris was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities by Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Trasov was selected by the Vancouver Sun as one of the top one hundred British Columbians who shaped the province over the past century.

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s work has been included in numerous international exhibitions, such as INDIGENA: Contemporary Native Perspectives, and at the National Gallery of Canada, the Smithsonian Institute, grunt gallery, the Western Front and the Vancouver Art Gallery. He was the recipient of the Vancouver Institute for the Visual Arts (VIVA) award in 1998.

Malaspina Printmakers would like to thank all the artists and lending institutions that made this exhibition possible: the Morris/Trasov Archive at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, grunt gallery, Michael Bjornson and the Charles H. Scott Gallery. Additionally, we are grateful for continued support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Province of British Columbia via the BC Arts Council and Gaming Branch, the City of Vancouver, our members, volunteers and supporters.