Chantal Gibson Writer-Artist-Educator
@ chantalgibsonartist Vancouver BC
un/titled. Portraits Chantal Gibson Sep. 24 -Nov. 26th 2022 WAAP 1129 E. Hastings
In un/titled, Chantal Gibson continues her work with black souvenir spoons, creating a series of portraits that speak to themes of gendered and generational (dis)connection, (dis)placement and re(dis)covery. Playing with size, scale and perspective, Gibson transforms a small, vintage spoon into large photographs, revealing a sailing vessel big enough to wonder who’s inside? Each blackened ornament is a holder of memory, each body a portrait of a time, a place, a transaction.
Nostalgia Interrupted. Doris McCarthy Gallery UofT Scarborough Sep.15 - Dec. 10 2022
Presented as a gallery and online exhibition, Nostalgia Interrupted highlights the reminiscence and perseverance of BIPOC communities through lens-based media, text, and installation. Eschewing whitewashed notions of sanguine sentimentalism as portrayed by a dominant hierarchy, this exhibition explores the aspirations, resistance, and heartbreak of marginalized communities within the context of systemic racism, xenophobia, and oppression.
Nostalgia Interrupted offers space for marginalized communities to share the memories, heritage, and experiences which shape their reality. This is vital not for explanation or debate — for the marginalized need not justify their presence — but for reclamation and resistance.
Works in the DMG by Chantal Gibson, Caroline Monnet, Howardena Pindell, Dima Srouji, and Shellie Zhang
Human Capital Calgary Contemporary 13 October 2022 – 16 April 2023
Curated by Tak Pham, Associate Curator, MacKenzie Art Gallery.
Artists: Nura Ali, Aleesa Cohene, Darija Radakovic, Chantal Gibson, Jeannie Mah, Esmaa Mohamoud, Nurgul Rodriguez, Marigold Santos, Farihah Shah, Florence Yee, Jin-me Yoon and Shellie Zhang.
The exhibition is presented in partnership with the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
Human Capital presents work that offers insight into the impact of Canada’s immigration policies and history: how it treats humans as capital, and the role it plays in shaping the complex and contested formation of a “Canadian identity.”
Canada, like most Western nations, has a long history of immigration campaigns that promise economic prosperity to both the state and immigrants. As a result, Canadian immigration policies have historically focused on maximizing economic contributions while minimizing disruption to the “fundamental character of the Canadian population,” as remarked by Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King in 1947.
Canada’s current, points-based immigration system, in place since 1967, attempts to provide a non-discriminatory framework for assessing individuals and collectives and directing them to strategic economic and geographic sectors. Once inside Canada, new immigrants are expected to boost the country’s economy by producing more for less. The system has little regard for existing marginalized communities, as it continues to reinforce “Canadian values” with an ever-growing intake of immigrants, whose admittance is driven primarily by the economic demands of the country. For all these reasons, the exhibition asks: What else is lost when human potential is measured as units of capital?
un/settled at SFU Downtown Nov. 2020 - Nov. 2021
Written by: Linda Kanyamuna, SFU Student
Since November of 2020, Vancouverites have been consuming the resilience, energy, and beauty of Black womanhood through visual art in the form of a 240 foot photo-poetic art installation un/settled. The piece, which resides at the intersection of West Hastings and Richards Street occupying SFU Belzberg Library’s large windows, embodies Blackness and everything that celebrates Black creativity.
The artwork features stunning poetry written by writer and academic Dr. Otoniya J. Okot Bitek, and portrait imagery of artist-educator Chantal Gibson. On February 10, both Black creatives, along with SFU Belzberg head librarian Ebony Magnus, shared dialogue for upholding Black voices through art in an enticing panel that aimed to unpack the presence of Black bodies in urban public spaces...
Events 2022 -2023
Symposium Keynote Address
Symposium Keynote Address
Symposium Keynote Address
Historical In(ter)ventions
Unsettling the Great White North
University of Toronto
Thursday February 2nd, 10am
Antler Poetry London
Symposium Keynote Address
Symposium Keynote Address
Poetry Reading and Artist Talk
Antler Poetry and Western University
London Ontario
Wednesday October 19th.
Poetry Workshop
The Chorus is Speaking
The Chorus is Speaking
Afterwords Literary Festival
Online Exploring Graphic Poetry Workshop
Saturday October 1st
The Chorus is Speaking
The Chorus is Speaking
The Chorus is Speaking
The Chorus is Speaking
Campbell River Art Gallery
June 4 -August 20, 2022
SFU Keynote
Altered Book Workshop
Poetry Workshop
Designing for Difference
2022 Symposium of Teaching and Learning at SFU: (Re)connecting Through Conversation
Thursday May 19th 10:30am.
Poetry Workshop
Altered Book Workshop
Poetry Workshop
BC Writers Summit
Online Exploring Graphic Poetry Workshop
Tuesday May 17th at 7pm.
Altered Book Workshop
Altered Book Workshop
Altered Book Workshop
Kid's Take Over
Youth altered book workshop
Vancouver Art Gallery
Thursday May 5th at 4pm.
Vancouver Art Gallery
Vancouver Art Gallery
Vancouver Art Gallery
Kid's Take Over
Group Exhibition
Vancouver Art Gallery
April 15 to September 11, 2022
Open Space Victoria
Vancouver Art Gallery
Vancouver Art Gallery
Chantal Gibson discusses "The Art of with/holding" from her latest poetry collection with/holding.
Saturday April 30 at 7:00pm.
Poetry Workshop
Vancouver Art Gallery
Poetry Workshop
Planet Earth Poetry Victoria
Graphic Poetry Workshop
Saturday April 30 10:30am.
Poetry Reading
In/Verse Vancouver
In/Verse Vancouver
Planet Earth Poetry Victoria
Poetry Reading & Open Mic
Friday April 29 at 7pm.
In/Verse Vancouver
In/Verse Vancouver
In/Verse Vancouver
Online Poetry Reading and conversation.
Sunday March 12 at 2pm.
MOA Artist Talk
In/Verse Vancouver
MOA Artist Talk
Award-winning Vancouver poet Chantal Gibson joins Chase Keetley to discuss her latest poetry collection with/holding.
Saturday January 22 at 1:00pm.
Vancouver Writers Festival
Vancouver Writers Festival
Vancouver Writers Festival
In Conversation, 2021 Massey Lecturer Esi Edugyan speaks about her latest non-fiction work with artist, poet and author Chantal Gibson.
Tuesday October 19th at 7:30pm.
Vancouver Writers Festival
Vancouver Writers Festival
Vancouver Writers Festival
Poetry Bash. Hosted by poet and award-winning author Aislinn Hunter, the lineup includes some of the most talked-about poets in Canada today.
Friday October 22nd at 8pm.
Vancouver Writers Festival
Vancouver Writers Festival
Vancouver Writers Festival
Award-winning Vancouver poet Chantal Gibson joins Lawrence Hill to discuss her latest poetry collection with/holding.
Saturday October 23 at 10:30am.
CBC Spark Interview
Poetry Reading: ECUAD
Poetry Reading: ECUAD
Social media platforms benefit from the intersection of race and capitalism.
Conversation and poetry reading
CBC Radio · Posted: Oct 01, 2021
Poetry Reading: ECUAD
Poetry Reading: ECUAD
Poetry Reading: ECUAD
Online Reading from with/holding
On Edge Reading Series for FALL 2021.
Tuesday, OCT 26, 2021 at 6PM PT
Thresholds: Map20
Poetry Reading: ECUAD
Thresholds: Map20
20th Anniversary of Dionne Brand's
A Map to the Door of No Return
Digital gathering November 3-6, 2021
un/settled SFU Downtown
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
un/settled Photography and poetry installation with Otoniya J. Okot Bitek & Ebony Magnus. SFU Belzberg Library Nov. 2020 - Nov. 2021
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
TYRANNY brings together a group of contemporary artists who in unique ways confront dominant cultural narratives in the work they make.
July 15, 2021 - ongoing
Vancouver Art Gallery
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Senate of Canada, Ottawa
Where do we go from here?
Group exhibition Vancouver Art Gallery
Dec, 2020 - June 2021
Senate of Canada, Ottawa
MacKenzie Gallery, Regina
Senate of Canada, Ottawa
Stolen Identities, by Winnipeg painter Yisa Akinbolaji, and Who’s Who in Canada 1927 by Chantal Gibson
Sept 2020 - June 2021
MacKenzie Gallery, Regina
MacKenzie Gallery, Regina
MacKenzie Gallery, Regina
Human Capital... offers insight into the impact of Canada’s immigration policies and history: how it treats humans as capital, and the role it plays in shaping the complex and contested formation of a “Canadian identity.”
Grammar of Loss, Victoria
MacKenzie Gallery, Regina
MacKenzie Gallery, Regina
Grammar of Loss, Studies in Erasure Solo exhibition at Open Space, Victoria January 2020.
2020 Online Exhibition
Canadian Art June 2020
Thoughts on Liberation, CanadianArt June 17, 2020.
Black scholars, activists and artists respond to the present moment—Christina Battle, Dionne Brand, Denise Ferreira da Silva, El Jones, Robyn Maynard, Charmaine Nelson and Christina Sharpe. Redacted Text, 2019 in Canadian Art.