Using the materiality of quilt making as a metaphor for how the fabric of the world holds together, this exhibition brings together a group of contemporary artists who use textiles and assemblage as world-building tools. Pulling together the seemingly discarded, quilts are a composition of scraps, held together with the intention of offering warmth and comfort. This process of building something new from what was left behind, offers an orientation for engagement and opens possibilities for what can become. Quilts also occupy a set of social relations, where the making and sharing is often intergenerational and collective. They are meant to be passed down and cherished, appreciating in value through use.

Holding a line in your hand presents the work of five Canadian women painters from different cultural backgrounds, at different stages in their careers, and based at opposite ends of the country. Their work contains divergent methodologies, but also strong affinities. The exhibition includes artwork abundant in colour, line, and texture, embedded with and unencumbered …

Colleen Heslin in “Holding a line in your hand” at Kamloops Art Gallery Read More »

One way or another, it comes to us. Through death, and it’s precarious opposite, our time becomes full and fuller, still; resplendent and it’s abundant opposite. An inheritance is never easy, and the artists whose work is gathered here in conversation attest to how legacies are manifest through their visual practices. From experimental films, unclassifiable …

Colleen Heslin in “An Inheritance” at Victoria Arts Council Read More »

An annual art prize honouring Vancouver Island painter Takao Tanabe has been awarded to Powell River’s Colleen Heslin. Read more

Something More than Nothing brings together a diverse group of artists whose work all deals in some way with notions of hidden or invisible labour: work that is not seen, valued, or adequately paid. Read more

The aim of Open Horizons is to introduce the Greek public to the works of three established Canadian artists—Ron Moppett, Allyson Glenn, and Colleen Heslin. The exhibition is a celebration of the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation (1867–2017) and of the Canadian Embassy’s presence in Greece for the last 75 years. Read more

There’s such an exuberance of colour, texture, and form in Vancouver Special that the overall impression is one of delight. Yes, there may be sombre subthemes swimming beneath the surface of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s ambitious new survey exhibition. And flickering shadows may be cast behind the paintings and sculptures, the installations and assemblages, the …

Vancouver Special: Ambivalent Pleasured including works by Colleen Heslin reviewed in the Georgia Straight Read More »

The Vancouver Art Gallery has announced the 40 participating artists in its new triennial Vancouver Special. The exhibition intends to offer a comprehensive survey of the city’s contemporary art scene and its shifts since the 2010 Winter Olympics. The inaugural edition, “Ambivalent Pleasures,” is co-curated by Daina Augaitis, Vancouver Art Gallery’s chief curator/associate director, and …

Colleen Heslin in Vancouver Special: Ambivalent Pleasures at the Vancouver Art Gallery Read More »