We are delighted to announce that Gillian Dykeman has been chosen as our curator for the 2020-2021 biennale gallery exhibition! Gillian comes to us with a plethora of talent and experience and we are excited to have her take the reigns of our next gallery exhibition.

Message from our curator:

“2020 is the year of craft, and a key moment to showcase the best work of the Atlantic provinces. Engaged and contemporary craft of this region offers more than just the lobsters and lighthouses that so frequently stand in as representative of cultural identity here. Rather, the region is a den of material experimentation, integration of work with one’s environment, and honest confrontation with the challenges of making craft in context. Our heritages vary from settler to Indigenous, and the influence of newcomers also continue to evolve the experience of living and creating in this region. Here, we look to the ocean, the forests, our scrappy cities, legacies of colonial presence and climactic extremes as the raw material for creating works. Craft NB’s biennale, Atlantic Vernacular (working title) will showcase these preoccupations through a high calibre exhibition of the region’s best artists working in contemporary craft.”

Gillian Dykeman is a multi-disciplinary artist, instructor, and arts writer based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. In all of her work, Dykeman seeks to empower her audiences in their own lives through playful and critical engagement with visual culture. Her work spans mediums and disciplines such as performance, video, sound, installation, and art criticism. She has exhibited her artwork in Vienna, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, London, Ontario, and throughout New Brunswick. She has a Masters in Visual Culture from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from NSCAD. Dykeman is an instructor at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design. Dykeman is the producer and host of the ArtSlant podcast “Working it Out”, and has contributed to numerous arts publications and exhibition essays. In 2017, Dykeman was the mentor artist in residence for the White Rabbit Artist Residency in Lower Economy, Nova Scotia. Dykeman served as Executive Director for ArtsLink for three years. Open to experimental venues,  her work has found its way into galleries, exercise studios, a rare book library, and a geodesic dome.

Call for Artist Submissions for Atlantic Vernacular coming soon! Stay tuned.