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Downtown Nanaimo art gallery spotlights women’s experiences in activism

Garden Studio on Nicol Street hosts art show May 4-5
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Fairuz by Dema Maksod, top left, Hearts with Stories to Tell by Donna Birkinshaw, Greta by Frances Deverell and Remembrance Day at CFMETR by Dyane Brown and more works will be part of the Women’s Art as Activism art show at the Garden Studio on Nicol Street, running Saturday-Sunday, May 4-5. (Submitted images)

An art gallery in downtown Nanaimo will showcase the spirit of activism this weekend.

The exhibit, Women’s Art as Activism, which depicts environmental events and calls for peace or justice as they have been witnessed by women, will incorporate the work of oil, acrylic and mixed-media paintings as well as fabric art and installation.

A release for the show described participating artist Frances Deverell’s portrait of Greta Thunberg, which also showed people and animals fleeing from fires, as evocative.

It noted that Dyane Brown’s painting was inspired by the clarity and passion of young people in Nanoose Bay on Remembrance Day.

Donna Birkinshaw’s work, Hearts With Stories to Tell, was created for a display in downtown Nanaimo that paid tribute to the Indigenous children subjected to the residential school system.

And Dema Maksod painted a portrait of celebrated singer Fairuz “who has inspired thousands of women with her songs about freedom, peace and truth,” noted the release.

The exhibit will also include work by Jan Pullinger, Karen Birch and Patricia Robison.

Women’s Art as Activism will run at the Garden Studio below Arbutus Books on Nicol Street on Saturday and Sunday, May 4-5, during operating hours.

READ MORE: ‘Art is Back,’ proclaim artists planning show and sale at Nanaimo studio