On Tuesday, Nov 30th at 6:00PM, join Massy Arts and Massy Books for the in-person launch of Mischief Making: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Art, and the Seriousness of Play by Nicola Levell, an illustrated exploration of the art of Indigenous award-winning visual artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas.

At the event, Levell will be joined by Yahgulanaas, and host Emily Dundas Oke in a talk about mischievous tactics in contemporary artistic processes, addressing how art may open up realms in which the disruption of what’s expected allows different ways of experiencing, knowing, and seeing the world.

The book launch will be hosted at the Massy Arts Gallery, at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver. The event is free, and registration is mandatory.

In person events: Due to the latest recommendations from the BC Health Authority, all guests attending in-person events at Massy Arts require double-vaccination and must wear a mask.

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Register for the event

https://www.eventbrite.ca/.../book-launch-mischief-making...

Purchase “Mischief Making” by Nicola Levell from Massy Books

https://storestock.massybooks.com/.../5749O_534SxDkIv6agaUTg

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The book

Expressive and exuberant, comic and imaginative: these characteristics suffuse the work of the internationally recognized creator of Haida manga.

His distinctive style stretches, twists, and flips the formlines of classic Haida art to create imagery that resonates with the graphic vitality of Asian manga.

Mischief Making delineates the evolution of the artist’s visual practice into a uniquely hybrid aesthetic, uncovering its philosophical underpinnings.

Initially focused on paper-based narratives, his work has expanded into painted canvases, mixed-media installations, repurposed automobile parts, large-scale public art projects, and animated forms.

Yet despite its mutability, Yahgulanaas’s art is consistently engaged with contemporary cultural concerns, investigating the intersections of Indigenous and other worldviews, the politics of land, cultural heritage, and global ecological affairs.

Mischief Making reveals the artist’s deep understanding of the seriousness of play. His refiguring of lines and stories opens up a realm in which the disruption of what’s expected allows different ways of experiencing, knowing, and seeing the world to emerge.

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The author

Nicola Levell is a curator and an associate professor of museum and visual anthropology at the University of British Columbia.

She is the author of The Marvellous Real: Art from Mexico, 1926–2011 and editor of Bodies of Enchantment: Puppets from Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, both publications stemming from exhibitions she curated.

She has held curatorial positions at the Horniman Museum in London and the Royal Pavilion Art Gallery and Museums in Brighton.

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Guests

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a visual artist and author. Influenced by both Haida iconography and contemporary Asian visual culture, he is the creator of Haida manga, an artistic genre that crosses cultures and disciplines. His books include RED: A Haida Manga; Flight of the Hummingbird: A Parable for the Environment; A Tale of Two Shamans; and Hachidori. Yahgulanaas has a long history of environmental activism and political engagement.

Emily Dundas Oke is an emerging artist and curator. A 2018 graduate of Philosophy and Visual Art (BA) from Thompson Rivers University, she has been the recipient of numerous awards and is an alumni of the TRU Indigenous Knowledge Makers program. Emily has exhibited nationally and internationally and has been an artist in residence at Nida Art Colony (Lithuania), Ideas Block (Lithuania) and the Kamloops Printmakers Society (Canada). She is a member of Indigenous Brilliance and assistant curator at the Burnaby Art Gallery.