Category: Oxygen Art Centre

About the Authors:

Corinna Chong‘s first novel, Belinda’s Rings, was published by NeWest Press in 2013, and her reviews and short fiction have appeared in magazines across Canada. The Whole Animal, a collection of short stories, was published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2023, and includes “Kids in Kindergarten,” which won the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize, and “Love/Cream/Heat,” which was selected for The Best Canadian Stories 2024, published by Biblioasis. Bad Land, her second novel, will be released in Fall 2024 with Arsenal Pulp Press. Corinna lives in Kelowna, BC and teaches English, creative writing, and fine arts at Okanagan College.

Matt Rader is an award-winning author of six volumes of poetry, a collection of stories and a book of nonfiction. His most recent collection is Fine (2024). His previous book of poems, Ghosthawk (2021), was shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. He teaches Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia Okanagan and lives in Kelowna, BC.

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info@oxygenartcentre.org

#3 – 320 Vernon St. Alley Entrance

Nelson, British Columbia , V1L 4E4

Oxygen Art Centre acknowledges with gratitude that we are located on the tum xula7xw/ traditional territory of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx/the Sinixt People. As uninvited guests we honour their ongoing presence on this land. We recognize that the Sylix, Ktuxana, and Yaqan Nukij Lower Kootenay Band peoples are also connected with this land, as are Métis and many diverse Indigenous persons.

29 March 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OXYGEN PRESENTS ONLINE EVENT FEATURING ALICIA ELLIOTT AND BRANDI BIRD

Saturday, April 13, 2024, at 1:00 PM PST (Zoom)
Alicia Elliott + Brandi Bird
+ introducing Morrigan Bonegardener
Free! Register to attend (Zoom)

Oxygen Art Centre is delighted to present the first event of 2024’s Author Reading Series featuring Alicia Elliott and Brandi Bird, and emerging writer Morrigan Bonegardener at an online reading event on Saturday, April 13, 2024, at 1:00 PM PST (Zoom).

To attend, please register in advance. This event is free, everyone welcome!

Elliott is a Mohawk writer joining us from Brantford, Ontario with her second book, And Then She Fell, a novel that was published last fall, was also a national bestseller, and was a Globe and Mail and CBC Best Book of the Year.

Joining Elliott is Bird, an Indigiqueer Saulteaux, Cree and Métis writer from Treaty 1 territory, whose first full-length poetry collection The All + Flesh was published by House of Anansi Press in Fall 2023.

The event also features emerging writer, Morrigan Bonegardener who is a first-year creative writing student at Selkirk College in Castlegar, and a Queer, Transgender Woman whose writing style and voice reflect her lived experience.

The free, online event will feature readings by all three authors, as well as a short question and answer period at the event. Join us on Saturday, April 13, 2024, at 1:00 PM PST via Zoom for a reading event featuring Alicia Elliott, Brandi Bird, and Morrigan Bonegardener. The event will be emceed by Author Reading Series committee member Clayton McCann. Registration is required in advance.

Learn more about this event and upcoming events and workshops in the Author Reading Series by visiting Oxygen’s website.

This program is generously supported by the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance.

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Image Credit: (L) Alicia Elliott, (R) Brandi Bird, Courtesy the Artists, 2023.

Press Contact:

Julia Prudhomme

Executive Director

Oxygen Art Centre

250-551-6329

About the Authors:

Alicia Elliott is a Mohawk writer living in Brantford, Ontario. She has written for The Globe and Mail, CBC, Hazlitt and many others. She’s had essays nominated for National Magazine Awards for three straight years, winning Gold in 2017, and her short fiction was selected for Best American Short Stories 2018, Best Canadian Stories 2018, and Journey Prize Stories 30. She was chosen by Tanya Talaga as the 2018 recipient of the RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award. Her first book, A Mind Spread Out On The Ground, was a #1 national bestseller and was shortlisted for the Writers’ Trust Hilary Weston Prize for Nonfiction. Alicia’s second book, And Then She Fell, a novel that was published last fall, was also a national bestseller, and was a Globe and Mail and CBC Best Book of the Year.

Brandi Bird is an Indigiqueer Saulteaux, Cree and Métis writer from Treaty 1 territory. They currently live and learn on the land of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh & Musqueam peoples.
Their chapbook I Am Still Too Much was published by Rahila’s Ghost Press in Spring 2019. Their first full-length poetry collection The All + Flesh was published by House of Anansi Press in Fall 2023. Their work can also be found in Poetry is Dead, Catapult, Hazlitt, Brick Magazine and others.

Morrigan Bonegardener is a first-year creative writing student at Selkirk College in Castlegar, and a Queer, Transgender Woman whose writing style and voice reflect her lived experience. She lives with her husband, two dogs, cat, bird, and fish on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Sinixt Peoples. Two of her poems were recently published in the Black Bear Review and she was recently the recipient of Excellence Awards in Creative Writing and English, among other subjects.–

Julia Prudhomme (she/her)

Executive Director / oxygen art centre

info@oxygenartcentre.org

#3 – 320 Vernon St. Alley Entrance

Nelson, British Columbia , V1L 4E4

Oxygen Art Centre acknowledges with gratitude that we are located on the tum xula7xw/ traditional territory of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx/the Sinixt People. As uninvited guests we honour their ongoing presence on this land. We recognize that the Sylix, Ktuxana, and Yaqan Nukij Lower Kootenay Band peoples are also connected with this land, as are Métis and many diverse Indigenous persons.

18 March 2024

11 February 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OXYGEN PRESENTS EXHIBITION BY NELSON PRINTMAKER MARCUS DENOMME IN O2 WINDOW SPACE

Why?

Marcus Dénommé

9 February – 3 April 2024

O2 window exhibition space (Stanley and Baker St. on Nelson Trading Co. building)

Oxygen Art Centre is excited to present the installation entitled, “Why?” by Nelson printmaker Marcus Dénommé. The third exhibition in their O2 window exhibition space, located along the Stanley St. side of the Nelson Trading Co. building, will be on view from February 9, 2024, to April 3, 2024.

The new artwork by Dénommé is a mixed media silkscreen print/collage on stretched kitakata paper. The artist connects the installation with the colonial genocide in Gaza and is specifically inspired by the organization Unmute Gaza who works to amplify the images and writing by journalists attempting to report on the violence.

Unmute Gaza is working to amplify documentation of what is going on in Gaza by creating artworks from the pictures made by journalists experiencing the violence that began on October 7, 2024. The organization then wheat pastes them across their cities in a small gesture to say “WE DO NOT AGREE, WE ARE NOT COMPLICIT, WE ARE NOT LOOKING AWAY. So we print and paste. Print and paste.”

Alongside the installation, Dénommé shares his own personal wheatpaste recipe:

Mix 3tbsp white flour with 10tbsp water until fully combined. Add 1 cup of boiling water to the mixture, and move to medium heat on the stovetop. Mix vigorously until boiling. Remove from heat and let cool.

**Adding acrylic medium, wood glue, white sugar, and/or vinegar will improve the durability of the wheatpaste.

The O2 installation, “Why?” by Marcus Dénommé, on view from February 9, 2024, to April 3, 2024, draws on the activism by organizations such as Unmute Gaza that stand in solidarity with the Palestinian cause and work to dismantle the ideological and institutional scaffolding of Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid against the Palestinian people.

O2 is a window exhibition space located in downtown Nelson, B.C. It is an extension of Oxygen Art Centre and serves as an alternative exhibition space for regional, emerging artists.

For more information about the artist, the installation, and O2, visit Oxygen’s website www.oxygenartcentre.org.

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Image Credit: Marcus Dénommé, Headshot, Photo credit Julia Pepler, 2023; Courtesy the Artist

Press Contact:

Julia Prudhomme

Executive Director

Oxygen Art Centre

250-551-6329

Artist Bio:

Marcus Dénommé was born and raised on Algonquin Temiskaming first nations territory in ontario, canada. At a young age they began to explore street art and artistic interventions on public and private property. Throughout the years, they grew a deep passion for the intersection of art and activism such as civil disobedience, direct action, community level organisation, etc. Dénommé honed their craft as communications designer at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, where they discovered traditional printmaking and bookmaking practices. Although their practice includes a variety of disciplines including painting, sculpture, perhaps their favourite activity is tabling at artist book fairs. Dénommé is the editor of the Veins & Arterys publications,and now calls home to unceded Sinixt territory.

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Julia Prudhomme (she/her)

Executive Director / oxygen art centre

info@oxygenartcentre.org

#3 – 320 Vernon St. Alley Entrance

Nelson, British Columbia , V1L 4E4

Tel: 250 551 6329

Oxygen Art Centre acknowledges with gratitude that we are located on the tum xula7xw/ traditional territory of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx/the Sinixt People. As uninvited guests we honour their ongoing presence on this land. We recognize that the Sylix, Ktuxana, and Yaqan Nukij Lower Kootenay Band peoples are also connected with this land, as are Métis and many diverse Indigenous persons.

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11 February 2024

Oxygen Art Centre
info@oxygenartcentre.org
#3- 320 Vernon St. (alley entrance) Nelson, B.C. V1L 4E4 Canada
250-551-6329
Facility access information

Hours of Operation: Wednesdays – Saturdays, 1:00 – 5:00pm (during exhibition run)
Admission by donation

Oxygen Art Centre acknowledges with gratitude that we are located on the tum xula7xw/ traditional territory of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx/the Sinixt People. As uninvited guests we honour their ongoing presence on this land. We recognize that the Sylix, Ktuxana, and Yaqan Nukij Lower Kootenay Band peoples are also connected with this land, as are Métis and many diverse Indigenous persons.

We are grateful for the financial support we receive from Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, BC Gaming, Province of BC, Government of Canada, Vancouver Foundation, Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, Columbia Basin Trust, United Way, Osprey Community Foundation, Nelson Lions Club, and Nelson and District Credit Union.

We offer thanks to Elephant Mountain Literary Festival and other key partners including Hall Printing, Speedpro Signs, and Selkirk College for their support.

We especially thank all of our volunteers, donors, and members.

Oxygen Art Centre is committed to ensuring all exhibitions, programs, and events are accessible to visitors. Our facilities are wheelchair accessible and equipped with an all-genders washroom. Please contact Oxygen if you have any questions or concerns about your visit.

11 February 2024

Register via Google form.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: REGISTER FOR OXYGEN’S SPRING BREAK WORKSHOP SERIES WITH VISITING ARTISTS ALEXIS HOGAN AND CHRIS DUFOUR

Between Futility and Future with Alexis Hogan and Chris Dufour

IN PERSON @ OXYGEN ART CENTRE
4 Classes: March 26 – 29, 2024
Tuesday to Thursday: 6:30pm – 8:30pm + Friday: 3:00pm – 5:00pm

TOTAL FEE: $30 for all four workshops

OR

FEE PER WORKSHOP: $10 – $20 ea.

Sliding scale available with an option to pay it forward for other folks to attend.

Oxygen Art Centre is delighted to offer the workshop series entitled “Between Futility and Future” with visiting B.C.-based artists Alexis Hogan and Chris Dufour. The series entangles ecologically-centered practices of ink making, dyeing, and plant-based film developing alongside the use of the body.

Comprised of four workshops in total over spring break, workshops take place in the evenings from March 26, 2024, to March 28, 2024, from 6:30 – 8:30 PM, and in the afternoon on Friday, March 29, 2024 from 3:00 – 5:00 PM. The series builds off the duo’s social practice, which includes working with invasive species, making charcoal, community-led sciences, permaculture and studying the places where queerness and ecology meet.

This series of workshops invites participants into studio-based explorations where the artists are encouraging the tangling of different elements of their creative and physical disciplines. The goal of this commingling is to create a new vernacular with which to carry the ongoing dialogue on grief, futility, anxiety, movement, and rupture that lives in the roots of their collaborative practice.

Interested participants are encouraged to attend all four workshops, but attendance at all sessions is not required. The workshop is open to emerging and professional artists, and those interested in social practice, plants and the environment, and experimentation with materials and movement.

All sessions take place at the Oxygen Art Centre facility, located at #3-320 Vernon Street, Nelson, B.C. via alleyway entrance. Accessibility notes can be found on the artist-run centre’s website.

Registrants will receive additional information about locations, how to prepare, and materials to bring, at least one-week before the workshop series begins.

To register to attend any or all workshop sessions, and to learn more information about the workshop and the artists, please visit Oxygen’s website. Registration fees are based on a sliding scale from $10 to $20 per workshop or $30 for all four workshops with an option to pay it forward for another person to attend.

“Between Futility and Future” is a contemporary art workshop series facilitated by visiting artists Alexis Hogan and Chris Dufour at Oxygen Art Centre from March 26, 2024, to March 29, 2024. More information available via Oxygen’s website and social media. The deadline to register is March 18, 2024, by 12:00 PM Midnight via Google form.

This program is generously supported by the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance.

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Image Credit: (L) Alexis Hogan, (R) Chris Dufour, Courtesy the Artists, 2023.

Press Contact:

Julia Prudhomme

Executive Director

Oxygen Art Centre

250-551-6329

Artist Bio:

As a duo, Hogan and Dufour have collaborated since 2019 via social & studio practices that are driven by community collaboration, political & queer ecologies, and material practice as a site for both co-regulation and inquiry. In 2022, thoughtful integration of two multi-year projects, Dufour’s 6,000 sq foot permaculture partnership with Artemis Secondary School, and Hogan’s lichen programming space, culminated in the pair’s first exhibition, ‘with busy hands’, supported by Canada Council for the Arts.

Alexis Hogan (she/her) is a queer white settler with Indigenous heritage (Irish & Quebecois on her mom’s side and Irish and Anishinaabe from Sharbot Lake, Ontario on her dad’s). Alexis was born in Indonesia, grew up in Saudi Arabia and has lived as an uninvited guest, on T’Souke, Scia’new, Lkwungen, and W̱SÁNEĆ territories off and on for the past 24 years. She holds a BFA in Visual Arts (2015) from Emily Carr University of Art and Design with a focus in printmaking, sculpture and critical, cultural theory.
Alexis currently works through the project lichen, which seeks to model its namesake in its capacity for transformation and collaboration; it is a mobile programming and gathering space that is designed to be responsive to place-based and ecologically-centred art practices and communities. Her practice with and through lichen is driven by collaborative partnership, and tends to focus on site-specific projects, social practice, sculpture and print media.

Chris Dufour is an interdisciplinary social practice artist working between Kanien’kehá:ka and Lekwungen territory. Their work seeks to intersperse explorations of ecology, (non)belonging, and relation within queerness, gender, and climate apocalypse and survival. Chris’ work focuses on social and community engaged practices that have incorporated collaborative projects in ecological stewardship, encounters for relation, and broader community building. Chris uses mediums of plants, gardening, ecological wandering, textiles, installation, darkroom manipulation, leather tanning, and sculpture to process questions of how do we cultivate a sense of belonging within and among systemic power dynamics? How do we push against empire while cultivating resilient communities and cultures of care? What practices of living can we recuperate, develop, and employ within contemporary cultures of crisis?

Of Irish and Quebecois heritage, Chris grew up outside of Kjipuktuk (so called Halifax, Nova Scotia) and has spent the last 8 years working and living across many territories on Turtle Island. After attending the Yukon School of Visual Arts, Chris took on a practice of grassroots learning that brought them to social practice, permaculture, and accessible community-based education. Throughout, Chris values projects which seek to utilize material practices as a facilitator, to process connections and relationships to ecologies, modalities of care, alternative futures, and ruminations about world building.–

Julia Prudhomme (she/her)

Executive Director / oxygen art centre

info@oxygenartcentre.org