Western Front

01/07/2025

On Jan 18, 2025, between 11:00 a.m. — 4:00 p.m. we'll be hosting a performance workshop "Generated Choreographies" with our current artist-in-resident Nina Davies. The workshop is designed for artists with an existing dance or movement practices, who are interested in exploring movement in relation to generated videos, deep fakes, and AI interrupted memes. The workshop has a maximum capacity of 12 participants. Register via the link below.

A performance workshop by Nina Davies, which explores movement in relation to generated videos, deep fakes, and AI interrupted memes.

01/07/2025

Thanks to Stir Vancouver for the feature on our upcoming exhibition "Wishing on My Falsies", opening this Saturday, January 11, 2025. Read more below.

Exhibition brings together works by Vancouver-based artist Katayoon Yousefbigloo and Portuguese collective A Maior

01/02/2025

Join us on Saturday, Jan 11, 2025, 5 - 7 p.m. for the opening reception of "Wishing on My Falsies", an exhibition of the collective A Maior and the multidisciplinary artist Katayoon Yousefbigloo that explores the mythmaking potential of playing dress-up. A live performance by Katayoon Yousefbigloo will take place at the opening reception.

Western Front is a non-profit multidisciplinary artist-run centre located in Vancouver.

12/28/2024

We're excited to share our latest exhibition "Wishing on My Falsies" with you on Jan 11, 2025. In the meantime, read more about it Stir Vancouver.

Works by collective A Maior and multidisciplinary artist Katayoon Yousefbigloo draw inspiration from the myth-making potential of playing dress-up

12/18/2024

What a year to remember!

In 2024, Western Front presented three major exhibitions and over thirty concerts, performances, readings, screenings, talks, and workshops. We also hosted eight artist-in-residence projects providing critical support to local, national, and international artists to develop and present major new work. Through our annual fundraiser Toque Craft Fair, we also profiled over fifty BC-based artists, craftspeople, and designers, drawing record crowds in support of artist-run culture.

None of this would have been possible without our participating artists, audiences, staff, volunteers, partners, and donors. Thank you for making it such a memorable year filled with learning, inspiration, and joy.

If you’ve enjoyed events at Western Front this year, please consider making a donation this giving season. Your support today will ensure the sustainability and impact of our artistic program in the year to come. All donations will receive a charitable tax receipt and recognition on our support page. Make a gift here: https://give-can.keela.co/donate-to-western-front

We look forward to seeing you in 2025!

12/17/2024

In mid-July this year, James Albers interviewed our artist-in-resident Bhenji Ra about her new work "Biraddali Dancing on the Horizon" (2024), co-commissioned by Western Front with Auto Italia, London. Read the full interview in the latest issue of CMagazine below.

James Albers speaks to artist Bhenji Ra about her moving image commission _Biraddali Dancing on the Horizon_ (2024). Ra makes connections between horizons, q***r and trans liberation, and collaborating with spirit using the medium of physical film.

11/19/2024

Annual holiday market to feature textile, ceramic, jewellery, print, apothecary, and homeware goods, plus food and drink vendors

11/19/2024

It's the last week to see our current exhibition "Lovers' Wind" by Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, and Ryan Ferko.

Pass by this Wednesday to Saturday during our regular 1 - 6 p.m. gallery hours or up until 9 p.m. on Thursday, Nov 21 during our extended opening hours for our upcoming event "Archives Access: Jayce Salloum."

"Lovers’ Wind" was commissioned by Mercer Union, a centre for contemporary art, Toronto, 2024, and originally curated by Aamna Muzaffar.

11/08/2024

Read more about Chipo Chipaziwa's upcoming performance "Slipping Into Slipping Away" in an interview with the artist in

Artist-in-residence stages a performance that plays with power dynamics to mark the launch of her new book My Mother My Home

10/30/2024

On Nov 14, 15 & 16, 2024 at 7:30 p.m., we are pleased to present a new performance by Chipo Chipaziwa that marks the launch of her artist book "My Mother My Home."

In "My Mother My Home," Chipaziwa remediates her past performances by proposing alternative methodologies of archiving performance art without any photographic depictions of the body. While in residence, Chipaziwa furthered this line of inquiry by examining the representation of Black performance artists in Western Front’s archive. "Slipping Into Slipping Away" explores these intersections in Chipaziwa’s research—remixing content from the publication with reflections on memory, legibility, archives, liminal encounters, psychoanalysis, and the work of Adrian Piper.

Taking place on the ground floor of Western Front, Chipaziwa’s performance will play with the power dynamic between the art worker and the visiting public, the archivist and the archived, as a vehicle to trouble traditional audience-performer relations.

Western Front is a non-profit multidisciplinary artist-run centre located in Vancouver.

10/25/2024

Join us on Thursday, Nov 7, 2024, at 7:30 p.m. for the next event in Western Front and The Capilano Review's monthly reading series "Dear Friends &." The evening will feature poetry by Cody Caetano, Dorothy Trujillo Lusk, and Fred Wah, and is hosted by Deanna Fong.

Western Front is a non-profit multidisciplinary artist-run centre located in Vancouver.

10/19/2024

If you missed out on tickets to tonight's concert with Phew and Piu, join us virtually via our free livestream. The concert starts at 8:00 p.m.

Western Front is pleased to present a performance by Phew as part of her Canadian tour. Phew’s distinctive voice and spoken-word-like singing style have resounded…

10/15/2024

Don't miss out on tickets to our upcoming concert with Phew and Piu on Saturday, Oct 19, 2024, at 8:00 p.m. Tickets by donation via link below.

Phew’s distinctive voice and spoken-word-like singing style have resounded in international underground music scenes over the last four decades. Starting from fronting the legendary punk band Aunt Sally in Osaka, she steadily released a series of solo albums with prominent collaborators such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, the former Can members Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit. After the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster in Japan, she opened a new chapter by channeling the power of analogue synthesized sounds and the human voice.

Vancouver Island-based Piu's expansive soundscapes combine hard-hitting synth riffs, raga-inspired vocals, and global rhythms. A lifelong student of Indian classical music, Piu draws from the emotive forces of minimalism and the frontiers of modern electronic sounds. Her work blends genres, cultures, and identities—a reflection of how she moves in the world.

Join us for performances by Phew and Piu

09/02/2024

Join us on Saturday, Sep 14, 2024, between 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. for the opening reception of our upcoming exhibition "Lovers' Wind".

"Lovers' Wind" is a multi-channel video installation by the Toronto-based artists Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, and Ryan Ferko whose collaborative filmmaking practice engages speculation, historical fiction, and documentation to excavate existing narratives, and uncover the power relations and subjectivities shaped by them.

Developed over three years of archival and community research, the exhibition circles around the story of the French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse and his last film, "Bād-e Sabā" (The Lovers’ Wind) (1978). Commissioned by the Imperial State of Iran to document the country’s history and modernization, Lamorisse’s film was largely shot from a helicopter to produce sweeping views of Iran’s natural and built environments, and narrated by a voiceover personifying its winds. Unhappy with the original edit, the monarch Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi requested Lamorisse return to film additional sequences emphasizing the industrialization of Iran, which ultimately led to the filmmaker's death in 1970 when his helicopter crashed at Karaj Dam near Tehran during production.

Created a half-century later, Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, and Ryan Ferko’s exhibition both continues and deconstructs Lamorisse’s project.

"Lovers’ Wind" was commissioned by Mercer Union, a centre for contemporary art, Toronto, 2024, and originally curated by Aamna Muzaffar.

Western Front is a non-profit multidisciplinary artist-run centre located in Vancouver.

08/25/2024

Join us this Thursday, Sep 5, 2024, at 7:30 p.m. for the next event in Western Front and The Capilano Review's monthly reading series Dear Friends &. The evening will feature poetry by Tina Do, Rhoda Rosenfeld, and Gerry Shikatani and is hosted by Deanna Fong.

Western Front is a non-profit multidisciplinary artist-run centre located in Vancouver.