Tender Touch

Curated by Mel Granley, AGGV Assistant Curator, Tender Touch delves into Victoria’s unique and proliferating tattoo community. In recent years, the tattoo industry in Victoria has grown considerably, with more and more queer and BIPOC artists beginning their career and opening up their own tattoo shops in town. Alternatives to the traditional western tattoo scene, these spaces are bastions for many seeking to adorn themselves with ink.

Kali Spitzer

Bodies of, Bodies Within

Kali Spitzer’s work embraces the stories of contemporary BIPOC, queer and trans bodies, creating representation that is self-determined, with her collaborative process being informed by the desire to rewrite the visual histories of indigenous bodies beyond a colonial lens.

Unexpected

The Life and Art of Sophie Pemberton, Canadian Artist

Victoria-born and raised, Sophie Pemberton was the middle daughter, her father’s favourite, and a determined personality. Despite episodes of debilitating illnesses and family tragedies, she pursued a serious international artistic career with paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy and Paris Salon. A portraitist by training, she was also a landscape painter of great talent. Through her international connections and friendships forged at art school in England and France with the advantages of birth and position, Pemberton aimed to become a professional artist, a career not readily accomplished by a woman at this time in history.