Shore Time on Fogo Island

By Shannon Webb-Campbell The biannual gathering Shore Time on Fogo Island from September 26 to 29, 2024, was more than a coming together off an island in the North Atlantic, it was an invitation to the otherworldly. Organized by Fogo Island Arts, part of the longstanding Shorefast and international residency, Shore Time brings together artists,...

Read More
detail of a a mural, titled Respect the Architechts

Cultural and Community Resilience in Still Tho: Aesthetic Survival in Hip Hop’s Visual Art

As a newcomer committed to uplifting Black artistic production, I long to connect with people whose experiences help situate my presence on this land. Instead, I often feel isolated in my desire to see more diverse audiences—until the opening of Still Tho: Aesthetic Survival in Hip Hop’s Visual Art at Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery on September 21, 2024, in Halifax. At the opening, the gallery’s warmth struck me immediately: the sound of laughter and the beat of DJ DTS’s set created a palpable sense of belonging. For the first time since moving to Halifax from Toronto over a year and a half ago, I found myself surrounded by my community, which transformed the event into a celebration of presence and belonging in a space so rarely welcoming of Black people. 

Read More

Visual Arts News is seeking a new Editor

We are seeking an Editor for Visual Arts News. This is a freelance contract position to start September 8, 2025. The first print issue under the new Editor will be Spring/Summer 2026. The Editor should have knowledge of the communities of artists, galleries and institutions in the Atlantic region, and a curiosity to learn more. The ideal candidate will enjoy working as part of a collaborative team. They will share an excitement and enthusiasm for telling stories that shine light on the art and artists who live and work in this part of the world.

Read More

Graeme Patterson’s Strange Birds 

The highlight of Strange Birds was the virtual reality room. Set up in the media gallery, VR “Island” transported visitors into the world of the starlings and the heron, which enabled a more interpersonal relationship with the protagonists. I feared that the virtual reality component would detract from the narrative’s ethos, as this sort of technology has proven distractingly theatrical and forced in my past experiences. But with the already introduced and pre-existing world of Strange Birds, Patterson’s use of VR channels the spirit of the exhibition and facilitates an immersive yet appropriate viewing experience. The artist also considered accessibility; if guests were not comfortable with virtual reality or were eagerly waiting to try it out, a clever inclusion of a montage containing key aspects of VR “Island” was projected in the adjacent room. VR “Island” also brought viewers back to the gallery’s entrance, where they could revisit the pivotal Strange Birds short film. 

Read More
Embed, Embody and Adorn (2019)

Socially Engaged Art: On Making with Others

There are many ways people are brought into the process of making art. Through my own art practice and experience with producing and participating in socially engaged art projects, I understand that collaboration, participation, and social engagement have the capacity to create transformative experiences and dynamic artwork.  Yet, I have felt the edges of collaboration...

Read More

Alan Syliboy’s The Journey So Far

Mi’kmaw artist Alan Syliboy’s retrospective The Journey So Far, curated by Pamela Edmonds at the Dalhousie Art Gallery (May 9 to August 11, 2024), spanned more than fifty years of work. The exhibition included paintings, collage, photography, music, print, mixed media, video, drums, and guitars and even a commissioned wall mural featuring a great horned...

Read More
Eastern Edge Moose Sign (designed by Ray Mackie

Eastern Edge: 40 Years of Art and Dancing on the Edge of the North Atlantic 

This summer marked the fortieth anniversary of Eastern Edge Gallery, Newfoundland’s only artist-run centre and the site of some of the wildest and most boldly political art exhibited in Newfoundland since the early 1980s. In preparation for celebrations, which took place in St. John’s in August, the gallery staff dug into their archives, hosted story-sharing...

Read More
Installation view of the exhibition Daze Jefferies: stay here stay now stay (2024). Courtesy of The Rooms.

Daze Jefferies’s stay here stay how stay 

Curator Emily Critch notes that the exhibition “presents a visually poetic archipelago of transfeminine and sex worker belonging in Newfoundland and Labrador. Responding to contemporary discourse about trans and sex worker experiences, with hope and histories held by water, an entangled narrative of care, intimacy, and resistance emerges from the coastlines” (2024). Collaboratively, Critch and Jefferies have questioned how we might hold and be held within this archipelago. 

Read More

Lifting As We Rise

Multiple works on gallery walls As We Rise at the Dalhousie University Art Gallery

Read More

Open Call for Fall 2024 Issue

We’re eager to hear from writers, artists, and critics to expand and deepen conversations inspired by the artistic vision of emerging and established artists who are pushing the boundaries of art and culture in the Atlantic. For this open call, we are seeking pitches for features, profiles, and exhibition reviews. We prioritize work that pushes...

Read More