Where the Light Meets My Shoulder is a solo exhibition of recent work by interdisciplinary artist Rebecca Bair. While primarily working with photography, Bair uses a multitude of mediums to expand the possibilities of representation. Over the past five years, the artist has developed a style that reflects her experience as a Black woman living on Turtle Island. Her work upends how Blackness is often (mis)represented and honours the complex, varying experiences of people of African descent. Bair tenderly gathers symbols of Blackness that are specific to her as an individual and that embody a deep love and care for herself, her community and her heritage. Using recurring imagery of her coily hair, the sun, shadows and circles, Bair plays with abstraction to negotiate what can be seen and what is withheld. 

REBECCA BAIR is an interdisciplinary artist working across installation, video, drawing and photography. Raised in Ottawa, Bair is based in Vancouver on the traditional and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish peoples. She has exhibited widely across the Lower Mainland, including group exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery and Surrey Art Gallery and a solo exhibition at West Vancouver Art Museum. Her work continues to gain national recognition and has been featured in Canadian Art and NUVO Magazine. As an educator and facilitator, Bair centres mentorship in her work, as she uplifts Black, Indigenous and racialized youth through teaching at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, where she also received her Master of Fine Arts in 2020. She also works across many not-for-profits around the Lower Mainland. Bair is a founding director of the Black Arts Centre, a Black owned and operated artist-run centre and community space in Surrey.  

The artist would like to acknowledge the BC Arts Council with support from the Province of British Columbia.  

Shaheer Zazai’s striking digital carpets transform imagery from ancient Afghan tribal carpet weaving using familiar digital software: Microsoft Word. Zazai has reconfigured SForEtoE (2021) especially for the Evergreen Cultural Centre lobby windows to incorporate the unique architectural features of this building into the digital carpet’s design.  

Shaheer Zazai is an Afghan Canadian artist with a studio practice in both painting and digital media. His works focus on exploring the development of cultural identity in the present geopolitical climate and in the Afghan diaspora.  

Zazai received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from OCAD University, Toronto, in 2011. He is a recipient of Ontario Arts Council grants and was a finalist for EQ Bank’s Emerging Digital Artists Award in 2018. Zazai has had several solo and group exhibitions, including a solo exhibition at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto; a group exhibition at Doris McCarthy Gallery, Scarborough, Ontario; and a solo exhibition at Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, New Brunswick. He will participate in an upcoming summer exhibition (2023) at the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto.