Unthought Known, a haunting new installation of art and text by Seema Shah, opens at The Beaumont Studios’ B1 Gallery in Vancouver, BC on April 21, 2023.

Exhibition Dates: April 21 – May 12, 2023


Gallery Location: 2109 Alberta St., Vancouver, BC
Opening Reception: Friday, April 21, 6-10 pm at B1 Gallery.
Free & open to the public. There will be a brief reading by the artist during the reception.

ARTIST BIO

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Seema Shah is a self-taught collage artist and writer. She was a recipient of The Beaumont Studio’s 2022 Artist To Watch Award and a highly commended artist in the 2022 Contemporary Collage Magazine Awards. Working intuitively, Seema pieces together narratives that are dark and questioning.

“Seema Shah’s artwork takes time to absorb and digest the small and intricate details. She has a great ability to balance the use of vintage materials, collage, paint, and text to draw the viewer in to her dark and contemplative spaces.” – Yuri Arajs, Gallery Director and Curator, Outsiders and Others

Seema’s creative process is one of self-discovery, a process guided by the subconscious that helps give form to the ‘unthought known’. A term coined by psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas, ‘unthought known’ refers to experiences that reside within us, and that we in some way “know,” but which we have never “thought” or been able to put into words.

“Seema’s art conveys a sense of struggle, even a wrestling with forces that are familiar yet often unexamined.” – Betsy Warland, author & founder of The Writers’ Studio at SFU

Hinting at something deeper, meaning is expressed obliquely in Seema’s work through the use of metaphor – and, at times, even humour – creating distance and allowing the viewer to find their own connection to it.

Unthought Known will include collages on surfaces such as vintage book covers and matchboxes. It will also feature several text-based works, including collages with cut-up poetry and an excerpt from a book Seema is currently working on that combines her writing with collage drawings. Opportunities to interact with “invented objects” will offer a more intimate viewer experience. Though dark and intense, the exhibition is also surprisingly playful at times.

Seema’s writing has been published in literary journals and anthologies, and shortlisted in writing contests. Since 2017, her art has been exhibited in galleries in Canada, the US, and the UK. She works out of her home studio in Vancouver, BC.

ABOUT THE ARTIST TO WATCH AWARDS

The Artist to Watch Awards were established in 2022 with the goal of providing support to emerging artists living in the Greater Vancouver area, including the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

A panel of judges carefully selected five applicants to receive the inaugural 2022 award, which includes both financial backing and exhibition space at The Beaumont Studios. Each award recipient will have a three-week show and opening reception at the studios.

More information about these upcoming shows can be found on the The Beaumont Studios website at www.thebeaumontstudios.com/atw-award-shows. Stay tuned for further updates and details.

ABOUT THE BEAUMONT STUDIOS

The vision of The Beaumont Studios is to inspire and engage artists, designers, and creative small business owners with space, events and opportunities to work together, play together, share, learn, create and produce art and artistic projects and engage with the community around it. It is a place for the public to engage with art, learn from our artist community and appreciate creativity for what it brings to our lives.

The Beaumont was established in 2004 by artist Jude Kusnierz, as an open and supportive environment for a wide variety of creative professionals. Being a full-time professional artist for over a decade, Jude’s goal was to create a unique environment where artists, like herself, could work in a beautiful, safe, reasonably priced, positive and upbeat environment, a place that would offer opportunity for growth, mentoring and cross-pollination of ideas and business.