Deer Lake Artist Residency: Interwoven
Opening reception: October 24, 6:30-8:30 pm.
Deer Lake Artist Residencies and Shadbolt Centre for the Arts are delighted to present “Interwoven,” a group exhibition featuring the works of Brandon Gabriel (@brandongabrielart), Karl Mata Hipol (@karlhipolarts), Juliana Silva (@julianasilva_art), and Xiangmei Su (@suxiang_art), presented as part of the 2025 Deer Lake Artist Residency Program. Through explorations of identity, memory, materiality and cultural hybridity, the four artists open dialogues between personal narratives and collective histories—weaving connections across place, form and experience.
Please join us for the opening reception at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts to celebrate and meet the four talented 2025 DLAR artists and learn more about their work. Exhibition runs until November 16, 2025.
Artist Bios
A member of the Kwantlen First Nation, Brandon’s work bridges contemporary practice with ancestral presence across unceded Coast Salish territories. His recent public art includes steel sculptures at the BC Hydro Ruskin Dam, a 17-foot cedar house pole “The Spirit of Kwikwetlem,” monumental works for the Pattullo Bridge project and designs for Team Canada’s outrigger racing team. His visuals language is deeply woven into Indigenous aesthetics, sovereignty and place.
A Filipino-Canadian multidisciplinary artist and curator based on the unceded territories of the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, Karl holds a BFA from Emily Carr University (2022). His practice is rooted in archival excavation and visual storytelling; his current project traces the overlooked histories of Filipino migration in Canada, drawing on archival materials and the tradition of Abel weaving to articulate connections, erasures and diaspora.
Originally from Colombia and now based in Vancouver, Juliana holds an MFA from Emily Carr University and a BFA from the National University of Colombia. Her project “Dance Forms in the Street” emerged from a curiosity about the healing origins of collective celebrations—festivals in Colombia that acted as expressions of gratitude and resilience. Working across sculpture, installation, photography, painting and animation, her art explores how cultural meaning is embedded in objects and textiles and considers art itself as a meditative, healing practice.
Originally from China and now working in Vancouver, Xiangmei is a multimedia artist whose practice spans painting, photography, video and installation. Her work often uses thread as metaphor—signaling memory, migration and the invisible connections between people and place. Su earned her BA in Visual Arts at UBC and her work has been exhibited in both China and Canada. Her installations “Intangible Thread – Part I & II” (at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden) reflect on diaspora, cultural continuity and community through material storytelling.