grunt gallery

05/31/2026

Shrines and Rituals.
Arjun Lal.
Curated by Vance Wright.

Opening Thursday, June 18 from 6pm to 8pm.
June 18 to August 1, 2026.

By intersecting themes of contemporary q***r pop culture, Indian iconographies, and Arjun Lal’s own lived experiences and future fantasies, Shrines and Rituals is a speculation on post-colonial world-building through the medium of textiles, sculpture, performance and photography. From the perspective of a second-generation member of Indian Diaspora, Lal reimagines ways of existing through characters, dress and environments. In referencing symbolism and deities from Indian iconographies, such as Kali, the goddess of death and rebirth, Lal opens a portal to dream up what q***rness, kink, culture and spirituality can be; sacred, authentic, and new.

Arjun Lal is an interdisciplinary artist based between Kjipuktuk and Berlin. Through playful and otherworldly explorations of identity, experience, and cultural trajectory, Lal uses sculpture and performance to fuel cultural critique, shifts, and possibilities for new ways of being.

In response to their experiences navigating contemporary q***r culture as a person from Indian ancestry, Lal’s works are confrontational. Driven by an ongoing desire for a q***rer world, his works equip audiences with symbols, colours, shapes, actions, perspective, gestures… fragments of conversations and dreams carefully assembled into social/cultural abstraction. Lal is fascinated by the roles we inhabit—whether inherited, assigned, assumed, or chosen. They explore the choreography of expectation, sensation, and liberation from the unspoken repetitions of role-specific instructions.

Visit the link in bio to read about Lal's inspirations for the exhibition.

05/25/2026

As In a Body closes Saturday, May 30! Join us for a free tour or workshop, immerse yourself in our tactile exhibition materials located at the welcome cart station, or try out our brand new Woojer belt while experiencing Kwiigay iiwaans' audio piece ḵ’eláḵ‘ela, spəlal, isgyaan k’áalts’adaa. The belt is a wearable haptic device that provides vibrations to accompany iiwaans’ audio work. We hope you enjoy this device as much as we do!

Pizza Box Sculpture Workshop with Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun
Tuesday, May 26 | 5:30pm to 7:30pm | Free, RSVP required.

Enjoy a slice of complimentary pizza and transform pizza boxes with artist Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun (he/they) in this sculpture workshop. Email [email protected] to register, space is limited. Cardboard cutters and mats will be provided.

Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun’s three cardboard sculptures in our current exhibition, As In a Body, respond to an archeological dig that took place on Gabriola Island, territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation to which Eliot belongs, and historical Salish art. A critique of appropriation of Indigenous forms and playing with the absurdity of artifacts as a concept, Eliot works with pizza box cardboard as an artifact of his own life.

Blind-led Tour Series | Fridays: May 22, 29 | 4pm | 30 mins with Q&A.

Join Gagan Kaur (she/they) for free blind-led tours of As In a Body at grunt gallery this May!
All are welcome—sighted, low-vision, and blind visitors!
No registration is required.
Questions? Email [email protected]

How is it Done? Behind-the-scenes Tour | Saturday, May 30 | 1pm to 2pm.
English live captions available.

Curious how exhibitions are installed?

Exhibitions and Accessibility Manager, Kay Slater (they/them) leads a behind-the-scenes tour exploring the tools, techniques, and problem-solving particularities for each exhibition at grunt gallery. These informal, question-driven tours open up the often invisible labour of installation, access, and exhibition-making.

Ask questions, learn practical skills, and see how exhibitions come together.

Photos by Dennis Ha, 2026.

05/22/2026

Sharing our transition to charcoal text and signage.
Our spring exhibition, As In a Body, marks grunt gallery’s transition away from using vinyl for indoor exhibition titles, signs and didactics. Going forward, exhibition signage and show titles will be hand-painted using a mixture of rice paste or nori and charcoal.

This method, developed by the Centre for Sustainable Curating, minimizes our reliance on vinyl and allows for a clean, waste-free removal process between exhibitions. We are thrilled to implement this innovative technique.

Jessica Fletcher, our archives assistant, introduced us to this process after seeing it presented at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, where she also serves as the Exhibitions and Collections Assistant. We did a test run of different methods during the winter before deciding to start with the new lettering technique as of As In a Body, April 2026. We will also be experimenting using Beam Paints when wall text calls for a splash of colour.

Jessica hand-painted the lettering for all the internal exhibition signage for As In a Body, resulting in a unique, slightly raised texture once the solution dried.

For additional resources regarding sustainable installation and curation, please visit https://sustainablecurating.ca/. Throughout the year, we look forward to sharing further insights into these techniques via our social media channels and during our Behind-the-Scenes tours. These free tours, led by our Exhibitions and Accessibility manager, Kay Slater, take place at the conclusion of every exhibition. Please join us on May 30th at 1pm for our next tour, which coincides with the final day of As In a Body.

Slide 3 photo by Dennis Ha, 2026.

05/20/2026

Pizza Box Sculpture Workshop with Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun.
Tuesday, May 26 | 5:30pm to 7:30pm | Free, RSVP required.
At grunt gallery

Come have a slice of pizza on us and join artist Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun for a workshop on making sculptures out of pizza boxes! Email [email protected] to register, space is limited. Cardboard cutters and mats will be provided.

Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun’s three cardboard sculptures in our current exhibition, As In a Body, respond to an archeological dig that took place on Gabriola Island, territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation to which Eliot belongs, and historical Salish art. A critique of appropriation of Indigenous forms and playing with the absurdity of artifacts as a concept, Eliot worked with pizza box cardboard as an artifact of his own life.

Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun (he/they) is a Coast Salish and Nuu Chah Nulth artist and storyteller from the Snuneymuxw First Nation. His family has roots in Penelakut, Hupacasath and further abroad up and down the Northwest Coast. His interdisciplinary art practice is rooted in honouring and celebrating the teachings and stories passed down by his family, community, and culture. His practices include digital art, painting, sculpture, creative writing, public installation, and curation. He currently resides on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ peoples. Eliot loves Hawaiian pizza from Domino’s!

Photo: Ancestors’ Hands, Stqe:ye’ (Wolf)/Meatlover, Beetle, 2021 by Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun. Photographed by Dennis Ha, 2026

05/16/2026

Sitting Saturdays – get to know Hedy Wood.

Curious about Saturdays at grunt? Hedy Wood provides some insight into the odd and banal during her many weekends gallery sitting at grunt. From potato chip enthusiast squirrels to gaseous happenings, we hope you enjoy Hedy’s musings as much as we do…

As long as I've been working at grunt, Hedy has been working at grunt. We became fast friends and often talk cats together. She's certainly seen some wild times over the years, but eventually settled into a chill role minding the gallery on Saturdays, and the occasional writing project showcasing her sharp wit and penchant for noticing the droll of the everyday. It comes as no surprise that she would have a few stories from her afternoons at grunt and we are pleased to share them in her ongoing series Sitting Saturdays.

-Dan Pon, Archives Manager

Hedy Wood is a Vancouver writer. She has been involved with artist run centers since the 1980s, including Pitt Gallery and grunt. Hedy lived on Gabriola Island for 6 years where she independently produced craft fairs and farmers markets. For the past 13 years she has been gallery attendant on Saturdays at grunt. Hedy's work at grunt also includes two writing projects, Pet Peeves, 2018-19, and Fridge Magnates, 2006. She currently lives in an artists' co-op on the east side with her cat Audrey.

🔗Check out Hedy’s Sitting Saturdays through the link in bio!

Photo credit: Hedy Wood by Edward Wood, 1962

05/07/2026

Join Gagan Kaur (she/they) for free blind-led tours of As In a Body at grunt gallery this May!
Fridays: May 15, 22, 29.

Tours start at 4 PM.
30 minutes + Q&A
grunt gallery ( # 116-350 E 2nd Ave)

All are welcome—sighted, low-vision, and blind visitors!
No registration is required.
Questions? Email [email protected]

05/07/2026

04/21/2026

Screening: Bouchra | with Q&A
DOXA Festival
Thursday, May 7, 8:30 PM
At The Cinematheque / 1131 Howe St, Vancouver | For ages 18+
Purchase your ticket through the link in bio!

DOXA Documentary Film Festival is coming up, and we’re excited to be partnered for the screening of Bouchra on May 7th! In Bouchra, directed by Orian Barki & Meriem Bennani, a q***r Moroccan filmmaker in New York is paralyzed by the fear of the blank page. A phone call with her mother in Casablanca will have memories resurfacing. Their tender yet complex exchange sparks a creative breakthrough, opening a journey through family bonds, daughterhood, and the thrill of love. This film is in Arabic, French, English with English subtitles. The screening will include a Q&A.

Bouchra is part of the paraDOXA program, the festival’s experimental program highlighting films that push the boundaries of documentary form. With a focus on community, each screening is followed by an in-depth discussion, offering audiences a deeper understanding into the creative and political dimensions of each work. This year’s selection interrogates the fissures between history and mythology, materiality and memory, exposing how power is inscribed into landscapes, and how communities navigate these contested spaces.

04/15/2026

Join us in celebrating our Accessible Engagement Projects’
2026 Non-Verbal Co-Learning Engagement Artists,
Ann K. Chou and Rabbit Richards!

Ann K. Chou (she/her) is a d/Deaf and neurodivergent artist, a diasporic Cantonese settler working on Coast Salish territories. She transforms discarded plastics, paper, fabric, and organic debris into lantern sculptures and shadow-based environments that explore light, silence, and non-verbal narrative. Her lantern works have been presented in community festivals and public art contexts across the Pacific Northwest.

Informed by her lived experience as a d/Deaf autistic creator and 20 years working across medical science and health IT, Chou approaches materials and systems as experiments—testing how light, texture, movement, and data can communicate meaning where speech cannot reach. Her ongoing project Eco-Illuminescence explores reverse captioning and experimental access methodologies, translating sensory and embodied experience into shared narrative.

Rabbit Richards (they/them) was born on occupied Lenni Lenape territory in Brooklyn, NY. Their people have never rooted for more than one generation anywhere for as long as their history can trace. Their father’s family claims Kyiv and Minsk; their mother’s family remembers St Thomas and St Croix, islands of the Carib, Arawak, and Ciboney.

Rabbit is learning how to exist on stolen land in a marginalized body. Relentlessly compassionate with fierce integrity, Rabbit is passionate about anti-oppression and accessibility work and is deeply invested in the conversations that are provoked by their art. Their work is grounded in the interdependence of the natural world and accepts the complexity of our relationships. Currently they make their home in Coast Salish territory in east Van, where they cultivate food and medicine gardening, fibre arts, and voicework as healing and creative expression.

Curious about our Accessible Engagement Project's initiatives? Visit our website to learn more:
https://grunt.ca/aep/

04/03/2026

Call for Applications: Eco-Process Artist Residency,
In mentorship with Morgan Sears-Williams.
At the Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency.
Priority: LGBTQ+ 2S emerging artists, with some experience in photo/lens-based practices.

Application Deadline: May 1, 2026
Notification: mid-May, 2026
Residency period: August, 2026

Applications are now open for a one-month summer residency, open to emerging artists in Metro Vancouver and Indigenous territories/reserves in or connected to this area. The selected artist will have access to the Blue Cabin studio, adjoining deckhouse accommodations, staff support, and will receive a residency fee plus public program fee (totalling $3500), as well as funds for materials.

Mentorship will include up to 3 sessions working with interdisciplinary artist Morgan Sears-Williams to explore and develop skills in eco-processing and alternative photography techniques, such as phytogram, lumen printing, cyanotype or other sustainable photographic processes.

Over the course of the residency, the artist-in-residence is invited to consider the unique site of the Blue Cabin on the waters of Vancouver, shared by the Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), Squamish (Skwxwú7mesh) and Tsleil-Waututh (səlilwətaɬ) Nations since time immemorial. What can this environment and its cycles teach us about sustainable practices? About fluidity and flux? About decay, transformation or regeneration? About creating in relationship with what was and what might be? The Blue Cabin offers a vantage point from which to consider this region — its layered histories and speculative future — differently.

This residency is produced by grunt gallery in collaboration with the Blue Cabin Cooperative.

Visit the link in bio to apply!